Perspectives | Re-analysis of Private Chain and Alliance Chain Concepts

Blockchain is generally divided into public chain, alliance chain and private chain according to the use object and application scenario.

The public chain is a non-permissive chain and is open to everyone. All nodes can join and exit the network freely. Any node can also read data, send transactions, and transactions can be effectively confirmed. There is no centralized server node in the public chain network.

There is basically no doubt about the definition of the public chain, at most it may differ slightly in terms of specific text. But the concepts of alliance chains and private chains are somewhat ambiguous.

"The alliance chain refers to a blockchain that is jointly managed by multiple organizations. Each organization or organization manages one or more nodes, and its data only allows different institutions in the system to read, write and send. Each node of the alliance chain is usually Corresponding entities and organizations can only join and withdraw after authorization. Each organization and organization forms a relevant alliance to jointly maintain the healthy operation of the blockchain. "

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"Private chain, also known as proprietary chain. It is a non-public 'chain'. Normally, authorization is required to join a node. Moreover, the write permissions of each node in the private chain are strictly controlled, and the read permissions are visible. The requirements are selectively open to the outside world. Generally, private chains are suitable for internal applications of enterprises, and financial scenarios such as internal data management and auditing of specific institutions. Especially in some cases, some rules on private chains, It can be modified by institutions, such as services such as restoring transaction processes. "

The above definitions of alliance chain and private chain are the definitions we searched through the Internet. Other definitions of alliance chains and private chains are basically similar.

Carefully sort out the analysis and summary of the definition of the alliance chain and the private chain. It seems that the difference is only that the private chain is suitable for enterprises or institutions, and the alliance chain is suitable for organizations. This definition has inherent inconsistencies. Especially in today's world, what is inside the enterprise and what is between the organizations is not an easy thing to say clearly.

For example, JPMorgan Chase is itself a multinational organization, and there are different companies within the group, and different companies are separate entities. If JPMorgan Chase builds a chain for use by companies within the organization, is this chain a private chain or an alliance chain?

If we define the private chain as a blockchain system oriented to a single business scenario, and the alliance chain as a blockchain system oriented to multiple business entities and associated with multiple business scenario applications, many inconsistencies can be resolved. A blockchain system facing a single business scenario may face a single subject customer or multiple business subject customers. For example, despite the large number of people, the voting chain of the leader is elected by voting. However, everyone's identity in this system is an elector and is a single subject. The blockchain system used for community device management is loaded on all devices. Device status sensor, and directly write device status data to the blockchain system, then this system is targeted at multiple business entities, including both device users, device managers and device maintainers, but this system is a single business scenario , That is, device management.

Therefore, similar to the digital currency JPMCoin to be issued by JPMorgan Chase is a private chain system, not an alliance chain system, Facebook's system for issuing Libra is also a private chain system, not an alliance chain system. Because although there are multiple business entities inside, it is facing a single business scenario.

From this, we can go one step further, is it possible to build an alliance chain from a private chain? We believe that this idea is not only feasible, but also the only way for the development and implementation of future blockchain systems, that is, from a private chain or expansion or combination into an alliance chain system, from a single scenario or connection or expansion to a multi-business scenario , Extended or connected to multiple business entities by a single business entity.

Therefore, in the alliance chain system, there may be multiple private chain systems. Each private chain system participates in the operation and management of the alliance chain system as a single node or several nodes, and each private chain system implements data sharing. Of course, it is also possible that the alliance chain system directly faces multiple individual business nodes. The nodes forming the alliance chain may be either a single node or a private chain system. The alliance chain system is at a higher level than the private chain, and realizes the data sharing of the alliance chain within the nodes directly associated with the alliance chain. Another possibility is that there may be recursion of business scenarios, and private chains nest private chains, but this does not negate the existence of alliance chains.

Constructing a private chain by a private chain, building an alliance chain by a private chain, and sharing data at different levels and in different levels, this is likely to be a system architecture where the blockchain will really land in the future.

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