Abstract
Several studies have proposed the application of blockchains in Inter-organizational Business Processes (IOBPs), primarily citing the technology’s immutability, trust, and transparency as motivating factors. However, there is a notable lack of detailed comparisons between traditional, non-blockchain-based architectures and those incorporating this new technology. Such a comparison is critical for practitioners like software architects to fully comprehend blockchain-based solutions’ strengths and their potential trade-offs and suitable scenarios for alternative technologies. This paper endeavors to bridge this knowledge gap by contrasting the attributes of public and private blockchains with those of Trusted Third Parties (TTPs) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) – the latter being a widespread method for automated data exchange between organizations. We underscore less explored advantages of blockchains, such as the ability to provide non-equivocation. Conversely, we identify that TTPs offers lower complexity levels and superior flexibility.
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Notes
- 1.
Blockchains are a particular type of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). For the sake of simplicity, we will only use the term ’blockchain’.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
This is usually solved by making use of PKI, but also other approaches such as Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) exist.
- 5.
This property is only supported by second-generation blockchains such as Ethereum.
- 6.
In a double spending attack, a malicious actor attempts to spend owned tokens twice, e.g., by enforcing the re-ordering of already finished blocks.
- 7.
An example for an RTGS is T2 of the European Central Bank (ECB): https://www.ecb.europa.eu/paym/target/.
- 8.
At this point, we neglect the concern of privacy, which is discussed in Sect. 4.5.
- 9.
Aside from the risk of inducing higher transaction costs if the application requires a substantial part of these resources.
- 10.
It is essential to note that privacy based on zero knowledge should not be confused with zero knowledge rollups, which usually do not provide privacy, even if they are based on the same group of technologies.
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Acknowledgements
This research has been partially supported and funded by the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG) for the research project “DiCYCLE – Reconsidering digital deconstruction, reuse and recycle processes using BIM and Blockchain” under the contract number 886960.
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Kjäer, M., Preindl, T., Kastner, W. (2023). Towards an Understanding of Trade-Offs Between Blockchain and Alternative Technologies for Inter-organizational Business Process Enactment. In: Köpke, J., et al. Business Process Management: Blockchain, Robotic Process Automation and Educators Forum. BPM 2023. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 491. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-43433-4_3
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