user74357: I'm looking for a research project for my master thesis in software engineering and computer science and i'm willing to research the blockchain technology. What are the current open issues and/or hot topics regard blockchains?
EDIT: I can see my question is way too generic, i just wanted to specify i read about 20 papers on the topic and i'm more concerned about the dencentralization aspect of it.

user77257: I think it's scalability. The cost to generate a block is getting more and more expensive. Couple months ago, CryptoKitties caused Ethereum network congestion due to the surge of transactions. For real world application, I think blockchain must be able to handle high volume of transaction. This can be achieved by reducing the cost to generate a block. AFAIK, some blockchains are developing proof-of-stake algorithms replace the old proof-of-work one.
You may interested in Ouroboros proof-of-stake algorithm, which is implemented by Cardano. Ethereum is also working on their own implementation - Casper

user4525: You could have a look at this long list of Bitcoin's weaknesses. Since your question is aimed at blockchains in general, why not also take a look at Ethereum's list of problems.

74357: <p>I'm looking for a research project for my master thesis in software engineering and computer science and i'm willing to research the blockchain technology. What are the current open issues and/or hot topics regard blockchains?</p>

<p>EDIT: I can see my question is way too generic, i just wanted to specify i read about 20 papers on the topic and i'm more concerned about the dencentralization aspect of it.</p>
 77257: <p>I think it's scalability. The cost to generate a block is getting more and more expensive. Couple months ago, CryptoKitties caused Ethereum network congestion due to the surge of transactions. For real world application, I think blockchain must be able to handle high volume of transaction. This can be achieved by reducing the cost to generate a block. AFAIK, some blockchains are developing <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_Stake" rel="nofollow noreferrer">proof-of-stake algorithms</a> replace the old proof-of-work one.</p>

<p>You may interested in <a href="http://cardanohub.org/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ouroboros proof-of-stake algorithm</a>, which is implemented by Cardano. Ethereum is also working on their own implementation - Casper</p>
 4525: <p>You could have a look at this <a href="https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Weaknesses" rel="nofollow noreferrer">long list of Bitcoin's weaknesses</a>. Since your question is aimed at blockchains in general, why not also take a look at <a href="https://github.com/ethereum/wiki/wiki/Problems" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Ethereum's list of problems</a>.</p>
