Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology based on decentration, and can realize business activity data's privacy protection, secure storage, and non repudiation proof. Since it was produced in 2009, the blockchain technology has been gradually accepted by people and received attention from almost every industry. In the paper we summarize the characteristics and technology of blockchain, and classify blockchain by application, development stage, and entrepreneurial team. We discuss the relation between blockchain and cloud computing. Moreover, we review the application research status on blockchain in the world and in different industry sectors, and summarize the current blockchain's academic research progress. It is indicated that blockchain has got extensive exploration in different application areas while it is still not mature or a popularized product, Although the current academic research results mainly focus on characteristics and value analysis, some scholars have developed concrete area's test status blockchain products. We believe blockchain will subvert the traditional database system and business interaction system and will become the technology system guarantee for the Internet plus era's credit construction.

blockchain  /  application research  /  cloud computing