A governance framework with permissioned blockchain for the transparency in e-tendering process

Abstract

Integrity and transparency are vital ingredients in both private and public sectors, especially in the matter of the tendering process. Government agencies and private organizations are continuously working to bring fairness in this process. The e-Tendering process brings efficiency and convenience in the overall practices which come out in the seen recently. With the emergence of blockchain technology, researchers identified beneficial features for ensuring transparency in the tendering process. Combining with smart contracts it paved the way for a secure, immutable and auditable e-Tendering processes yet maintaining strong veracity. In this paper, the drawbacks of the Ethereum-based blockchain e-Tendering process is identified and a framework with the permissioned blockchain was proposed to overcome the drawbacks. The overall tendering scheme is modulated in the framework such a way that confidentiality, integrity, and transparency are ensured in the process. The framework can mitigate most of the present technical and procedural limitations in Ethereum based e-Tendering. It has added new features and may enhance the security also.