Dynamic Role Binding in Blockchain-Based Collaborative Business Processes

Abstract

Blockchain technology enables the execution of collaborative business processes involving mutually untrusted parties. Existing platforms allow such processes to be modeled using high-level notations and compiled into smart contracts that can be deployed on blockchain platforms. However, these platforms brush aside the question of who is allowed to execute which tasks in the process, either by deferring the question altogether or by adopting a static approach where all actors are bound to roles upon process instantiation. Yet, a key advantage of blockchains is their ability to support dynamic sets of actors. This paper presents a model for dynamic binding of actors to roles in collaborative processes and an associated binding policy specification language. The proposed language is endowed with a Petri net semantics, thus enabling policy consistency verification. The paper also outlines an approach to compile policy specifications into smart contracts for enforcement. An experimental evaluation shows that the cost of policy enforcement increases linearly with the number of roles and constraints.

Blockchain-based Cross-Organizational Execution Framework for Dynamic Integration of Process Collaborations

“…Building on this is a BPMS on the Blockchain that handles collaborations between organizations [24]. In addition, the authors developed a model for the dynamic role assignment of participants in collaborative processes, and the associated Binding Policy Specification Language (BPSL) [25]. The Lorikeet tool was developed to implement business processes on the Blockchain, for the purpose of managing assets.…”

A Subscription Service for Automated Communication and Fair Cost Distribution in Collaborative Blockchainbased Business Processes

“…Approaches range from process verification with the Bitcoin Blockchain [15] to monitoring and execution of processes based on Ethereum. Latest efforts either use standard BPMN notation [3], extend the BPMN standard [5,16,17], use other declarative workflow models [18], or rely on new modeling languages [19,20]. The most widespread concept is based on Ethereum and works with (some form of) BPMN.…”

Interpreted Execution of Business Process Models on Blockchain

“…Process-Aware Layer The DATA & SCRIPTS component serves as the entry point for external actors to access data and execute tasks. Nevertheless, the access would be restricted by a set of smart contracts in the component RESOURCE ACCESS CONTROL derived from binding policies as presented in [12]. Such policies support dynamic bindings of actors into roles, i.e., the process participants reach consensus on who performs which task during the process execution based on binding policies and operations for the nomination, release, and voting.…”

“…(catchIDataAddr).getIFlowNode(); 8 pState = IData(iDataAddr).getSubProcessState(); 9 subPInd = IData(iDataAddr).getIndexInParent(); 10 subPInfo = IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getTypeInfo(subPInd); 11 if(isCompleted(IData(iDataAddr).getSubProcessState()))12 IData(catchIDataAddr).decreaseInstCount(subPInd);13 subPCount = IData(catchIDataAddr).getCountInst(subPInd); 14 if(subPCount == 0) 15 removeSubProcess(catchIDataAddr, subPInd); 16 postC = IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getPostC(subPInd); 17 addTokens(catchIDataAddr, postC); 18 else if(SEQ_MULTI_INST in subPInfo) 19 this.createInstance(catchIDataAddr, subPInd); 20 if(! (MESSAGE or DEFAULT or TERMINATE) in typeInfo) in IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getEventList()) 29 if(IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getEvtCode(ev) == evtCode) 30 evInfo = IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getTypeInfo(ev); 31 attchTo = IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getAttachedTo(ev); 32 if(EVENT_SUB_PROCESS_START in evInfo) 33 if(INTERRUPTING in evInfo) (catchIFlowAddr).getPostC(ev); 45 addTokens(pState, posC); 46 IData(catchIDataAddr).updateProcessState(pState); 47 next = IFlow(catchIFlowAddr).getOutElement(ev); 48 this.executeElements(catchIDataAddr, next); (catchIDataAddr, evtCode, typeInfo) Listing 5.…”