Exploring Preliminary Challenges and Emerging Best Practices in the Use of Enterprise Blockchains Applications

Abstract

Enterprise blockchain applications can allow trading partners to transact directly without relying on trusted third parties and promise to: eliminate the need for reconciliations, instantly track and trace assets through a supply chain, provide unbeatable data provenance, settle transactions quickly and cheaply, and enable an information security model that is fault tolerant, resilient, and available. Many of these promised benefits seemingly address the challenges of non-blockchain based inter-organizational systems. However, this research indicates that blockchain based inter-organizational applications pose significant challenges of their own. Based on interview and participant observation data, we identified five challenges: (1) competing blockchain standards, (2) adjusting to different shared governance models, (3) intellectual property concerns (4) industrial espionage risks, and (5) regulatory uncertainty. We also identified emerging practices stakeholders are using to address those challenges when considering enterprise blockchain applications.