Blockchain-based Application Security versus Central- ized and Distributed Data management Systems – A comparative study Subhadeep Mandal 1 , Arpan Kumar Kar 1 and Shivam Gupta 2 1 Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi- 110016, India 2 Department of Information Systems, Supply Chain Management & Decision Support, NEOMA Business School, 59 Rue Pierre Taittinger, 51100 Reims, France subhadeep.mandal@dms.iitd.ac.in, arpankar@iitd.ac.in, shivam.gupta@neoma-bs.fr Abstract. The current research aims to extend the existing literature on the dif- ferentiation of Blockchain Technology (BCT) from Distributed Ledger Tech- nology (DLT) and traditional database management systems (DBMS) on grounds of providing additional security to user applications. Through a qualita- tive hierarchy methodology, it identifies prominent factors contributing to the same. 31 working professionals across a range of industry types were subjected to a semi-structured interview and the interview transcripts were analysed through NVivo and Rstudio. The findings suggested that the use of BCT in var- ious daily use applications will drastically enhance security over traditional DBMS on grounds of traceability, immutability, transparency, accountability and non-hackability of data. The implementation of BCT over DLT in applica- tions pointed towards enhancement of security too, but considering the areas only when the technical novelty of BCT is needed over the already robust DLT. While some industries would benefit straightaway, some need to strategically set their requirements on grounds of application security and think mindfully before implementing BCT considering the enhanced technical novelty of the same for visibly reaping its benefits. . Keywords: Blockchain, distributed ledger technology, database management systems, application security. 1 Introduction The participants in a business process are often connected to each other through dis- tributed networks of complex communication mechanisms. The front-end of such mechanisms are often a website, a web portal or a desktop/mobile application which is accessed by the employees of the firm to conduct regular business processes or customers to access the firm’s services. This interaction of the customers and the firm employees with the operational procedures, leads to the generation of information, which gets stored in various kinds of storage mechanisms. Majority of firms globally still use the conventional centralized databases for storing information which are dan- gerously prone to malpractices such as data theft, intended or unintended data loss,