Enterprise blockchain architecture

A typical enterprise blockchain architecture contains several elements. We saw a generic blockchain architecture in Chapter 1, Blockchain 101, and we can expand and modify that a little bit to transform it into an enterprise blockchain architecture that highlights the core requirements of an enterprise blockchain. These requirements are mostly driven by enterprise needs and use cases:

Figure 20.1: Enterprise blockchain layered architecture

We'll discuss each of these layers as follows.

Network layer

The network layer is responsible for implementing network protocols such as peer-to-peer (P2P) protocols used for information dissemination.

Protocol layer

This is the actual ledger layer, or blockchain layer, where the core consensus, transaction management, and storage elements are implemented.

Privacy layer

This layer is responsible for providing one of the core features of enterprise blockchain: privacy. There...