This disclosure describes techniques for implementing a blockchain to manage license compatibility. The techniques include parsing a code segment in a version of source code based on one or more parsing parameters, wherein the code segment is associated with a transaction and distributed under a license. Thereafter, one or more blocks are inserted onto a blockchain distributed ledger recording the transaction. Upon receiving an updated version of the source code comprising a change to at least one code segment associated with a new transaction, additional blocks are inserted onto the ledger recording the new transaction. Based at least on the transaction recorded in the blocks, the license associated with the version of the source code is identified. Additionally, a flag may indicate license incompatibility with the license if the change to at least one code segment associated with the new transaction violates a license restriction of the identified license.