Enterprise blockchain
An enterprise blockchain is a shared digital ledger used by a known group of organizations to record transactions and apply common business rules. Access is usually restricted to approved participants, with controls for who can read data or submit changes. The organizations agree how the network is governed and who is responsible for maintaining its shared records.
The practical purpose is to reduce mismatches between records held by firms that do business together. In finance, shared ledgers can support payments, collateral transfers and tokenized securities, which represent securities through digital records. A useful network also needs privacy controls, clear responsibilities and connections to existing systems.
Permissioned, public or hybrid
Idealogic defines an enterprise blockchain as a permissioned, shared ledger that a known group uses so that no single party owns the master copy. Idealogic's advice is to start permissioned or hybrid; many hybrid designs keep the business logic among known parties and use a public chain for settlement.
One base is Hyperledger Besu. The LF Decentralized Trust describes it as an Ethereum client under the Apache 2.0 license, with permissioning at node and account level and the consensus protocols IBFT2 and QBFT; it names tokenization, settlement, CBDCs and trade finance as financial uses. Canton, built on the Daml language, gives each participant its own ledger and synchronizes only the parts of a transaction both sides need, as the page on Canton Network explains.
Payments and settlement between banks
In finance, enterprise ledgers move money and collateral. J.P. Morgan's Kinexys ran its deposit token JPM Coin on a private ledger before moving JPMD to the public network Base, a form of tokenized deposits. Canton reports more than 300 billion dollars in daily US Treasury repo trades, and DTCC partnered with Digital Asset and Canton Network to tokenize part of the US Treasuries it holds.
In Germany, Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, DZ Bank, UniCredit and Helaba piloted a shared Commercial Bank Money Token for corporate payments. The cash leg for tokenized securities is the subject of the Eurosystem's Pontes work, covered on the page on wholesale CBDC.
Why consortium projects stop
An enterprise ledger is only as useful as the number of parties that write to it. Idealogic names two failures: the trade platform TradeLens was shut down in 2023 and we.trade became insolvent in 2022, both because too few independent organizations committed their data. Idealogic's rule is to secure the consortium before choosing a platform.
For a bank the questions are who runs the validator nodes, who may read which data, and how the ledger connects to payment systems and to public chains. Oracle networks such as Chainlink connect ledgers to outside data and to each other; Chainlink runs a super validator on Canton.
Upcoming blockchain and digital money events in Germany
Enterprise blockchain at events with Finance Loop
The infrastructure large institutions need was the subject of Tokenization & On-Chain Capital Markets, a Point Zero Forum side event in Zurich with speakers from 21X, Franklin Templeton, DFNS, AMINA and Chainlink. At the Frankfurt Forum on Digital Assets & Applications, DekaBank, 360X, 21X and Seturion discussed design choices for DLT market infrastructure.
Payments & Digital Money
Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty
What is an enterprise blockchain?
An enterprise blockchain is a shared ledger that a known group of organizations runs to keep one set of records, with access limited to approved participants and rules set by the group.
Which enterprise blockchains do banks use?
Canton Network, private networks built on Hyperledger Besu, and bank-run ledgers such as J.P. Morgan's Kinexys. Several banks also issue on public chains such as Polygon and Ethereum.
Is an enterprise blockchain the same as a private blockchain?
Mostly. An enterprise blockchain is usually permissioned, but hybrid setups keep business data among known parties and use a public chain for settlement.
Enterprise blockchain and Finance Loop
Finance Loop covers enterprise ledgers for payments and settlement in its Payments & Digital Money track and their technology in its Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty track. Finance Loop runs events on tokenization and digital money in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg.
Finance Loop is a professional network supporting the institutional use of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, digital payments, cloud and blockchain solutions. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.