Ledger, a peer-reviewed academic journal focused on digital currencies and blockchain technology, has recently published its inaugural issue.

The issue comprises of ten peer-reviewed papers including The Bitcoin Mining Game, A Probabilistic Analysis of the Nxt Forging Algorithm, Gaming Self-Contained Provably Fair Smart Contract Casinos, Governance in Blockchain Technologies & Social Contract Theories, to name a few.

Launched in 2015, Ledger seeks to address the growing need for a traditional academic journal dedicated to cryptocurrency research. It aims to encourage greater participation by academics in cryptocurrency and promote a culture of rigorous analysis and peer-review within the Bitcoin community.

With the release of the first volume, the editorial staff is hopeful to release full publications twice a year along with additional articles throughout, CoinDesk reported.

"There is growing interest and activity from researchers at Princeton, Stanford, MIT, Duke, Cornell, and a long list of other universities in doing cryptocurrency research”, Christopher Wilmer, co-managing editor and the University of Pittsburgh's principal investigator, told CoinDesk.

The journal is funded by Coin Center, a US-based non-profit research and advocacy organization, and published by the University Library System.

According to CoinDesk, the publication accepts submissions in four categories, with research articles no longer than 4,000 words and reviews aggregating relevant research no longer than 6,000 words. Before an article is published, the journal staff embeds a hash of the final manuscript within the bitcoin blockchain, and encourages authors to sign it with their own public key.

Andrew Miller, Ledger editor and Zcash advisor, told CoinDesk that the process to apply is open to any member of the public. He expects this to start discussions in the community, adding that they are trying to bring the benefits of the peer review process to a broader audience and set of participants.