Towards an Understanding of Trade-Offs Between Blockchain and Alternative Technologies for Inter-organizational Business Process Enactment

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.