Although blockchain technology was first introduced in 2008 and materialised in 2009, the early usage of blockchain were mainly limited to financial technologies, particularly cryptocurrencies. Later, blockchain became a widespread emerging technology, utilised in multifaceted sectors and applications. In fact, various new and innovative application of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are still continuously being researched and explored. On the other hand, smart-contracts were first introduced in 1990s, however, it did not gain enough popularity until being integrated with blockchain technologies lately. The duo lately been seen as the key to many innovations in various industries and sectors. So, we took data from 1445 blockchain-related patent documents and tried to map out the historical and current trends in patenting activities in the blockchain field. This helps us get a better grasp of how blockchain technologies are evolving and being tracked. In addition to serving as an indicator of science and technology growth, patents are also used to judge the research potential and development of a particular technology.

翻译：尽管区块链技术于2008年首次提出，并在2009年实现落地，但其早期应用主要局限于金融技术领域，尤其是加密货币。此后，区块链逐渐发展为一项广泛应用的新兴技术，被用于多领域、多场景。事实上，区块链及分布式账本技术的各类新颖创新应用仍在持续研究与探索中。另一方面，智能合约概念虽早在20世纪90年代便被提出，但直到近年来与区块链技术融合后才获得广泛关注。这对"组合"如今被视为推动诸多行业与产业创新的关键。为此，我们收集了1445份与区块链相关的专利文献，试图梳理区块链领域专利活动的历史与当前趋势。这有助于我们更清晰地把握区块链技术的演进脉络与追踪路径。专利不仅可作为科技发展的指标，还能用于评判特定技术的研究潜力与发展态势。