Company Data in the Blockchain: A Juxtaposition of Technological Drivers and Potential Applications
David Holtkemper, Simon Wieninger · 2018
The potential of Blockchain technology has long been recognized outside the financial sector. Wherever data need to be stored and kept decentralized, tamper-resistant, and realtime-capable without involving a trusted intermediary, applications based on Blockchain technology promise to create opportunities for innovations of cross-company processes. In the presented paper, the technical possibilities of Blockchains are analyzed and classified according to their suitability to address specific challenges. This makes it possible to identify those technological drivers that are particularly promising for applicability in a corporate context. This includes, for example, tamper-resistance and security from forgery, which can be achieved without intermediaries with the help of data encryption methods using hash functions. Another technological capability of Blockchains is to provide a high degree of data security, which can be realized using public-key cryptography. The technological drivers will be juxtaposed with data as typically generated in manufacturing companies (orders and order confirmations, production data, quality-related data, etc.). Subsequently, the prerequisites that these data must meet with regard to storage capacity and transferability will be identified. By linking the results to the identified technological drivers and functions it becomes possible to determine what types of company data have the potential to be successfully stored and managed in a Blockchain.