Blockchain Technology for Transparent Business Operations and Digital Trust Management

Abstract

Organizations need records, but the majority of these records are held in separate systems, with a central management system that other organizations are unable to use to verify. Another alternative is the use of blockchain and other distributed ledger technologies: Transactions are checked by the community, and a public record of the transactions cannot be modified. This paper aims to investigate the feasibility of such a system to provide transparent business operations and digital trust management. It introduces the theoretical background of distributed trust, introduces a four-layer architecture for transparent operations, provides an overview of representative deployment examples of enterprises and the evaluation measures. It also discusses governance issues, privacy and security concerns that are holding back uptake. The analysis shows that it isn't the blockchain technology that is valuable; it's the design of blockchain governance, interoperability, and permissioning that governs its value.