IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/infosf/v22y2020i2d10.1007_s10796-018-9876-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Quantifying the Cost of Distrust: Comparing Blockchain and Cloud Services for Business Process Execution

Author

Listed:
  • Paul Rimba

    (CSIRO)

  • An Binh Tran

    (CSIRO)

  • Ingo Weber

    (CSIRO
    UNSW)

  • Mark Staples

    (CSIRO
    UNSW)

  • Alexander Ponomarev

    (CSIRO)

  • Xiwei Xu

    (CSIRO
    UNSW)

Abstract

Blockchain is of rising importance as a technology for engineering applications in cross-organizational settings, avoiding reliance on central trusted third-parties. The use of blockchain, instead of traditional databases or services, is an architectural choice in the development of a software system. Architecture impacts the non-functional qualities of systems, creating design trade-offs between these qualities. The costs of execution and storage are important non-functional qualities, but as yet little is known about them for blockchain-based systems. How expensive is it to use blockchains compared to conventional execution and storage infrastructure? We investigate this question using business process execution as a lens. Specifically, we compare the cost for computation and storage of business process execution on blockchain vs. a popular cloud service. Besides monetary cost, blockchains like Ethereum limit the complexity of new blocks by capping costs through network-defined limits. For applications using such blockchains, the limit per block, thus, translates into an upper bound on throughput scalability. First, we implement and measure the cost of business process execution on blockchain and cloud services for a business process model from a large-scale industrial dataset and an example from literature. We observe two orders of magnitude difference in this cost. Second, we illustrate how cost models can be used to project the impact of different workload assumptions. Finally, we discuss throughput scalability limits as well as trade-offs between cost and other non-functional qualities in the design of blockchain-based systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Paul Rimba & An Binh Tran & Ingo Weber & Mark Staples & Alexander Ponomarev & Xiwei Xu, 2020. "Quantifying the Cost of Distrust: Comparing Blockchain and Cloud Services for Business Process Execution," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 489-507, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:22:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10796-018-9876-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10796-018-9876-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10796-018-9876-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10796-018-9876-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jiexun Li & Harry Jiannan Wang & Xue Bai, 2015. "An intelligent approach to data extraction and task identification for process mining," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 1195-1208, December.
    2. Mainelli, Michael & Smith, Mike, 2015. "Sharing ledgers for sharing economies: an exploration of mutual distributed ledgers (aka blockchain technology)," Journal of Financial Perspectives, EY Global FS Institute, vol. 3(3), pages 38-58.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Hanisch, Marvin & Goldsby, Curtis M. & Fabian, Nicolai E. & Oehmichen, Jana, 2023. "Digital governance: A conceptual framework and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Vineet Paliwal & Shalini Chandra & Suneel Sharma, 2020. "Blockchain Technology for Sustainable Supply Chain Management: A Systematic Literature Review and a Classification Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-39, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jiang, Rong & Kang, Yuanjie & Liu, Yongsong & Liang, Zhihong & Duan, Yunlong & Sun, Yani & Liu, Jialan, 2022. "A trust transitivity model of small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises under blockchain-based supply chain finance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    2. Karl R. Lang & Vojislav B. Misic & Leon J. Zhao, 2015. "Special section on business process analytics," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 17(6), pages 1191-1194, December.
    3. Monika Mačiulienė & Aelita Skaržauskienė, 2021. "Conceptualizing blockchain‐based value co‐creation: A service science perspective," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 330-341, May.
    4. Mohamed Nofel & Mahmoud Marzouk & Hany Elbardan & Reda Saleh & Aly Mogahed, 2024. "Integrating Blockchain, IoT, and XBRL in Accounting Information Systems: A Systematic Literature Review," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 17(8), pages 1-32, August.
    5. Wallbach, Sören & Lehner, Roland & Röthke, Konstantin & Elbert, Ralf & Benlian, Alexander, 2020. "Trust-Building Effects of Blockchain Features – An Empirical Analysis of Immutability, Traceability and Anonymity," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 120705, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    6. Akter, Mohsina & Kummer, Tyge-F. & Yigitbasioglu, Ogan, 2024. "Looking beyond the hype: The challenges of blockchain adoption in accounting," International Journal of Accounting Information Systems, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    7. Chagas, B.T. & Jesus, D. & Palma-dos-Reis, A., 2024. "Blockchain's value proposition for online gambling: The operators' perspective," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    8. Isabela Neto Piccirillo & Daniel Capaldo Amaral & Maicon Gouvêa De Oliveira, 2022. "A Research Agenda for Collaborative Roadmapping Supported by Blockchain Technology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-16, October.
    9. Ibrahim Bassam Zubaidi & Adam Abdullah, 2017. "Developing a Digital Currency from an Islamic Perspective: Case of Blockchain Technology," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(11), pages 79-87, November.
    10. Min Xu & Xingtong Chen & Gang Kou, 2019. "A systematic review of blockchain," Financial Innovation, Springer;Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, vol. 5(1), pages 1-14, December.
    11. de Reuver, Mark & Sørensen, Carsten & Basole, Rahul C., 2018. "The digital platform: a research agenda," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 80669, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    12. Asef Pourmasoumi & Mohsen Kahani & Ebrahim Bagheri, 2017. "Mining variable fragments from process event logs," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(6), pages 1423-1443, December.
    13. Junhyung Moon & Gyuyoung Park & Minyeol Yang & Jongpil Jeong, 2022. "Design and Verification of Process Discovery Based on NLP Approach and Visualization for Manufacturing Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-27, January.
    14. Centobelli, Piera & Cerchione, Roberto & Esposito, Emilio & Oropallo, Eugenio, 2021. "Surfing blockchain wave, or drowning? Shaping the future of distributed ledgers and decentralized technologies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 165(C).
    15. Marten Risius & Kai Spohrer, 2017. "A Blockchain Research Framework," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 59(6), pages 385-409, December.
    16. Mengelkamp, Esther & Gärttner, Johannes & Rock, Kerstin & Kessler, Scott & Orsini, Lawrence & Weinhardt, Christof, 2018. "Designing microgrid energy markets," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C), pages 870-880.
    17. Lehner, Roland, 2023. "Cross-Supply Chain Collaboration Platform for Pallet Management," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 138753, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    18. Wallbach, Sören, 2020. "Assimilation and Diffusion of Multi-Sided Platforms in Dynamic B2B Networks: Inhibiting Factors and Their Consequences," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 123277, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    19. Min, Hokey, 2019. "Blockchain technology for enhancing supply chain resilience," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 35-45.
    20. Victor Chang, 2020. "Presenting Cloud Business Performance for Manufacturing Organizations," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 59-75, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:infosf:v:22:y:2020:i:2:d:10.1007_s10796-018-9876-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.