Blockchain-Based Accountability: A Systematic Literature Review

The Blockchain algorithm has advanced the accountability and transparency of modern digital infrastructures. Enforcing responsible behavior and data integrity across distributed environments involves several key components, such as smart contracts, access control models, cryptographic techniques, and a decentralized identity framework. Because the blockchain ledger is immutable and transparent, once a transaction is recorded, it cannot be altered without detection, making fraudulent actions easily traceable and thereby ensuring accountability. However, the need for hybrid approaches that combine on-chain and off-chain solutions for an efficient reliability system introduces challenges, including privacy preservation, scalability, and regulatory compliance. This paper analyzes the effective features that enhance blockchain accountability, such as immutability, traceability, auditability, and decentralized control. We propose research gap directions for the research community. To improve the reliability of blockchain systems across various domains, based on a systematic analysis and integration of recent developments and real-world demands. Consequently, we have distinguished 33 relevant research studies from a total of 358 publications covering the period between 2020 and 2025 by employing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) framework. We identified three major themes addressed by the papers in the reviewed studies: further investigations into the ML role in enhancing accountability are required, especially using lightweight ML algorithms such as BNN and Tseltin machine, examining the limitations of blockchain’s auditability for real-time applications and decision-making efficiency, and a practical study of mechanism scalability in trade-off cost-efficiency.