Abstract
In the past few years, the implementation of blockchain technology for various applications has been widely discussed in the research community and the industry. There are sufficient number of articles that discuss the possibility of applying blockchain technology in various areas, such as, healthcare, IoT, and business. However, in this article, we present a comparative analysis of core blockchain architecture, its fundamental concepts, and its applications in three major areas: the Internet-of-Things (IoT), healthcare, business and vehicular industry. For each area, we discuss in detail, challenges and solutions that have been proposed from the research community and industry. This research studies also presented the complete ecosystem of blockchain of all the papers we reviewed and summarized. Moreover, analysis is performed of various blockchain platforms, their consensus models, and applications. Finally, we discuss key aspects that are required for the widespread future adoption of blockchain technology in these major areas.