Now that the “blockchain everything” hype has passed, it’s down to organisations like Hyperledger to unify enterprise IT and delimit what actually belongs within blockchain’s borders. Marta Piekarska, Hyperledger’s director of ecosystem, traces the development of blockchain technology and the progress made so far

About 10 years ago, Satoshi Nakamoto proved that Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), could be used in the space of cryptocurrencies if combined with a strong consensus mechanism and public availability.

However, as time passed, more and more enterprises– from supply chain to humanitarian aid– have expressed interest in applying this concept to their fields. In these instances, it became clear having an entirely open system wasn’t entirely necessary.

If we consider solutions in healthcare, for instance, only a doctor should be allowed to enter new data on patients health, and only that person and their doctors should be permitted to view said information. However, it is still beneficial to have a system that is not relying on a trusted third party, is immutable and that provides a unified view to all participants.

This is why various new “levels” have been developed under the blockchain umbrella. The two main differentiators come from the permissioning model and the visibility of data.

We have permissionless: public solutions where anyone can join the network, submit information and view what is happening on it. Then, we have the middle ground: permissioned public systems where only certain parties can submit information, but where anyone can view it.