Private (Permissioned) Blockchain
Definition
A network where participation is restricted to known, approved nodes. Used by banks and supply chains for transaction settlement. Records are not public but are obtainable through legal process directed at the operator.
- Access
- Restricted to known, approved nodes
- Typical users
- Banks and supply chains
- Record visibility
- Not public
- Investigative access
- Obtainable through legal process against the operator
- Contrast
- Public blockchains are open to anyone
Common questions
Why is a private blockchain easier to investigate than a public one?+
Because a known operator controls and maintains the network, investigators can direct a subpoena or court order at that operator to obtain transaction records and node identity information, unlike a public blockchain where no single party holds that data.
Does permissioned access make the ledger data itself more trustworthy as evidence?+
Restricted access controls who can write to the ledger, but the records still need to be authenticated in the same way as any other business record, including showing how the system was operated and that entries were not altered outside the normal process.
Related terms
- Account Model
- Ethereum's approach, where each address holds a running balance incremented or decremented by transactions. Simpler to reason about but less transparent about...
- Block Confirmation
- The count of blocks added to the chain after the block containing a specific transaction. Higher confirmation counts mean greater computational cost...
- Distributed Ledger
- A transaction record replicated across many independent nodes. Each node holds a full or partial copy and validates new entries against the...
- Public Blockchain
- A permissionless network where anyone can read the ledger, submit transactions, or run a node. Bitcoin and Ethereum are public. The ledger...
- UTXO (Unspent Transaction Output)
- The fundamental accounting unit of the Bitcoin protocol. Each transaction consumes previous UTXOs as inputs and creates new UTXOs as outputs. The...