MEST Journal DOI 10.12709/mest.10.10.02.02 14 │ MESTE Published: July 2022 BLOCKCHAIN AND THE APPLICATION OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY Zoran Cekerevac Faculty of Business and Law, MB University, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2972-2472 Petar Cekerevac Independent researcher, Belgrade, Serbia https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6100-5938 ©MESTE JEL Category: E41, E51, L86, O33 Abstract Thanks to cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology has recently become the focus of interest of both scientists and the public. The paper presents the principles on which blockchain is based and analyzes the possibilities of the application of blockchain technology in more detail. In a part of the analysis, some of the most common cryptocurrencies were considered, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, USD Coin, Ripple, and ADA. Blockchains' applicability in supply chains, finance, real estate, health care, voting, and smart cities the authors discussed in the chapter about the application of blockchain technology. A separate chapter discusses the limitations of blockchain technology. Based on the analysis, at the end of the paper, the authors conclude that blockchain technology has great potential in automating and optimizing business processes and protecting the information and privacy of users. Given the demonstrated interest of companies in blockchain technology, investments, and demand for staff who understand it and can create applications, the authors concluded that the time of blockchain is yet to come. Keywords: blockchain, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, voting, smart city. 1 INTRODUCTION - BLOCKCHAIN The blockchain and the principles on which it is formed are still little known not only to the general public but also to the most blockchain technology users, although more than 30 years have passed since the emergence of the blockchain as a research project (1991) and more than a decade since its first mass use (Bitcoin - 2009). Many have heard of the blockchain, and even the definition that it is a "distributed ledger that facilitates the process of recording transactions and tracking assets in the business network" (Gupta, 2017), but what the blockchain is and how it works is unknown to the vast majority. Therefore, we note here that a blockchain is a distributed database shared among the nodes of a computer network. The main difference between a classic database and a blockchain is how data is structured. Classic databases collect data and store it in tables, but blockchains collect information in blocks. A filled block closes, compiles, and links to the previously filled block. All future new information will also be compiled into blocks and added to the previous blocks. In Address of the corresponding author: Petar Čekerevac  petar@cekerevac.eu