Technical and legal barriers to the international harmonization of authentication protocols in smart contracts: A systematic review
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Blockchain technology has driven the development of smart contracts as instruments capable of automating the execution of contractual obligations in digital environments, especially in cross-border transactions. However, the lack of harmonized technical and legal frameworks for authenticating contractual intent has generated uncertainty surrounding their validity and international recognition, affecting legal certainty and limiting their global adoption. In this context, the objective of this article was to identify the technical and legal barriers that impede the international harmonization of authentication protocols for smart contracts, analyzing in an integrated manner the technological, regulatory, and institutional obstacles described in the scientific literature. To this end, a systematic review article was developed, following the PRISMA protocol guidelines, through a structured search in the Scopus database and the selection of peer-reviewed studies published between 2021 and 2026, in English and Spanish. The results showed that the main barriers are concentrated in the lack of interoperability and technical standardization, regulatory fragmentation between jurisdictions, and deficits in governance and regulatory coordination at the international level. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that the international harmonization of authentication protocols in smart contracts requires comprehensive approaches that integrate technological innovation, uniform legal recognition, and multi-level governance mechanisms, constituting a central challenge for the secure and effective development of automated digital commerce
Downloads
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
El contenido de los artículos es responsabilidad exclusiva de los autores.
Debe cumplir con los siguientes aspectos de la licencia CC BY NC ND :
- Atribución: debe otorgar el crédito correspondiente, proporcionar un enlace a la licencia e indicar si se realizó algún cambio. Puede hacerlo de cualquier manera razonable, pero no de ninguna manera que sugiera que el licenciante lo respalda a usted o su uso.
- No comercial: el material no se puede utilizar con fines comerciales.
- Sin derivados: si remezcla, transforma o construye sobre el material, no puede distribuir el material modificado.
- Sin restricciones adicionales: No se pueden aplicar términos legales o medidas tecnológicas que restrinjan legalmente a otros de hacer cualquier cosa que permita la licencia.
References
H. (2025). The legal nature of smart contracts in a perspective of Jordanian civil legislation. International Journal of Law and Information Technology, 33(1), 1–18. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.37394/23209.2025.22.5
Althabhawi, N. M. (2025). Mutual consent in the age of smart contracts: A mixed-methods analysis of legal challenges. Computer Law & Security Review, 52, Article 105948. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2025.3619202
Boranbay, S. (2025). Legal regulation of smart contracts in China and the United States: A comparative legal analysis. Bulletin of the Karaganda University. Law Series, 30(4), 122–128. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.31489/2025l4/122-128
Boranbay, S., & Ilyassova, G. (2025). Legal regulation of smart contracts in Switzerland and the United Kingdom: A comparative legal analysis. Bulletin of the Karaganda University. Law Series, 30(2), 155–163. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.31489/2025l2/155-163
Bukhtiar, A., Saleem, H., Iqbal, A., Younas, M., & Hassan, A. (2025). Blockchain and cryptocurrency: Legal challenges in implementing smart contracts. Research Journal of Social Sciences, 3(1), 704–712. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.59075/rjs.v3i1.101
Pérez Campillo, L. P. (2025). Implementación de blockchain en el sistema judicial público y en los métodos alternativos de resolución de conflictos. Revista de Derecho y Tecnología, 9(1), 45–68. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.7238/idp.v0i42.429135
Donn, T. (2023). Smart contracts and international trade: European legal strategies for managing challenges. Journal of Digital Technologies and Law, 1(4), 1042–1057. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.21202/jdtl.2023.45
Etemadi, N., Van Gelder, P., & Strozzi, F. (2021). An ISM modeling of barriers for blockchain/distributed ledger technology adoption in supply chains towards cybersecurity. Sustainability, 13(9), Article 4672. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094672
Evangeline, S., Suganthi, M., & Rajesh, S. (2023). Blockchain system for secure and efficient UAV-to-vehicle communication in smart cities. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 14(9), 11863–11879. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.24425/ijet.2023.144342
Falazi, G., Breitenbücher, U., Leymann, F., & Schulte, S. (2024). Cross-chain smart contract invocations: A systematic multivocal literature review. ACM Computing Surveys, 56(6), Article 38. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1145/3638045
Gong, J. (2025). Research on the compliance path of cross-border data flow under EU law. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences, 181(1), 65–74. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.54254/2754-1169/2025.22954
Hewa, T., Ylianttila, M., & Liyanage, M. (2021). Survey on blockchain-based smart contracts: Applications, opportunities and challenges. Journal of Network and Computer Applications, 177, Article 102857. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2020.102857
Jiang, R., Li, Y., Pu, X., Wang, X., Niu, W., & Song, Z. (2024). A fair multi-party contract signing scheme based on off-chain protocols and on-chain smart contracts. Scientific Reports, 14, Article 5096939. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-5096939/v1
Jin, G., Xu, L., Zhou, Z., Shi, Q., Li, Z., Xu, H., & Liu, Y. (2024). BeHarmony: Blockchain-enabled trustworthy communication and legitimate decision making in multi-party Internet of Vehicles systems. Electronics, 13, Article 3219. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics13163219
Khan, I., Ali, Q. E., Hadi, H. J., Ahmad, N., Ali, G., Cao, Y., & Alshara, M. A. (2024). Securing blockchain-based supply chain management: Textual data encryption and access control. Technologies, 12, Article 110. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3390/technologies12070110
Khuan, H., Wulandari, Y., & Sothy, C. (2025). Smart contracts and their implications for conventional contract law. Rechtsnormen: Journal of Law, 3(1), 22–32. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.70177/rjl.v3i1.2067
Kumar, A. H., Venkatram, C. P., N. S., Daniel, D., & Joe, I. R. P. (2025). Decentralized digital health ecosystems: A unified architecture for AI-enhanced medical record management. Frontiers in Digital Health, 7, Article 1685628. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3389/fdgth.2025.1685628
Nurgazina, J., Pakdeetrakulwong, U., Moser, T., & Reiner, G. (2021). Distributed ledger technology applications in food supply chains: A review of challenges and future research directions. Sustainability, 13(8), Article 4206. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084206
Ou, H., Pan, C., Tseng, Y., & Lin, I. (2024). Decentralized identity authentication mechanism: Integrating FIDO and blockchain for enhanced security. Applied Sciences, 14(9), Article 3551. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3390/app14093551
Qin, X. (2025). The application and challenges of blockchain technology in cross-border payment systems. Advances in Economics, Management and Political Sciences, 203(1), 50–56. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.54254/2754-1169/2025.cau25655
Rahman, S. (2025). Standardizing smart contracts for regulatory compliance in cross-border payments. International Journal of Law and Social Horizons, 2(3), 295–306. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.70193/ijlsh.v2i3.260
Singh, J., Bharany, S., Rani, S., Rehman, A. U., Taye, B. M., Pant, R., & Kaur, U. (2025). A systematic review of blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud integration for secure digital ecosystems. International Journal of Networked and Distributed Computing, 13, Article 28. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1007/s44227-025-00072-1
Torres-Bernal, C., & Varela-Vielma, M. N. (2024). Retos de los contratos inteligentes en la gobernanza de las organizaciones autónomas descentralizadas en LATAM. Revista Politécnica, 20(39), 171–182. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.33571/rpolitec.v20n39a12
Vasiu, I., & Vasiu, L. (2023). Framework for effective smart contracting. Bratislava Law Review, 7(2), 107–122. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.46282/blr.2023.7.2.511
Yavaprabhas, K., Pournader, M., & Seuring, S. (2022). Blockchain as the “trust-building machine” for supply chain management. Annals of Operations Research, 327(1), 49–88. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-022-04868-0
Younis, M., Al-Harthi, H., & Al-Shammari, M. (2021). Blockchain-enabled and data-driven smart healthcare solution for secure and privacy-preserving data access. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, 25(12), 4625–4636. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.1109/JSYST.2021.3092519
Zhang, Y., Ma, Z., & Meng, J. (2025). Auditing in the blockchain: A literature review. Frontiers in Blockchain, 8, Article 1549729. Documento en línea. Disponible https://doi.org/10.3389/fbloc.2025.1549729