Upgradeability Concept for Collaborative Blockchain-Based Business Process Execution Framework

Abstract

Inter-organizational business processes involve different independent participants to interact with each other to run a collaborative business process. To date, central, trusted third parties mediate between non-trusting participants adding additional process complexity as well as administrative and run costs. Recent research showed that Blockchain and Smart Contracts can replace the role of a central trusted authority in collaborative execution of processes. Smart Contracts, that represent business process logic, cannot be altered due to immutability constraints of Blockchain systems. Yet, with the help of advanced technical upgradeability concepts, upgrading contracts, therefore enabling versioning of processes on a Blockchain is possible. This paper analyzes and implements three different upgradeability concepts. The implemented patterns are evaluated with regard to an existing blockchain-based execution framework for inter-organizational business processes. Our findings suggest the Unstructured Storage Proxy pattern to be the most promising for practical use, especially regarding cost-effectiveness and minimal added complexity. The findings are derived from simulations on a real-world use case stemming from a large German electronics manufacturing company.