Zhuk, Alesia2025-01-232025-01-232025Zhuk A. Beyond the blockchain hype: addressing legal and regulatory challenges. SN Social Sciences. 2025;5:11. DOI: 10.1007/s43545-024-01044-y2662-9283http://hdl.handle.net/10230/69254Blockchain technology has gained widespread attention and adoption in various industries. However, despite its potential benefits, there are still numerous challenges and issues that need to be addressed. This paper provides an overview of the legal, regulatory, and technical challenges related to the use of blockchain technology. It explores the challenges associated with privacy, data protection, and data security, and analyses the regulatory challenges and implications. Additionally, it identifies future challenges and issues that may arise in the field of blockchain technology, including the integration with emerging technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data. The paper concludes by discussing the need for collaboration among stakeholders and the development of comprehensive legal and regulatory frameworks to address the challenges and ensure the successful implementation of blockchain technology in various sectors.application/pdfengThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.info:eu-repo/semantics/articlehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s43545-024-01044-yCryptocurrencyDistributed ledger technologySmart contractsData privacyCybersecurityDigital identityinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess