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The adoption of permissioned blockchain networks in enterprise settings has seen an increase in growth over the past few years. While encouraging, this is leading to the emergence of new data, asset and process silos limiting the potential value these networks bring to the broader ecosystem. Mechanisms for enabling network interoperability help preserve the benefits of independent sovereign networks, while allowing for the transfer or sharing of data, assets and processes across network boundaries. However, a naive approach to interoperability based on traditional point-to-point integration is insufficient for preserving the underlying trust decentralized networks provide. In this paper, we lay the foundation for an approach to interoperability based on a communication protocol that derives trust from the underlying network consensus protocol. We present an architecture and a set of building blocks that can be adapted for use in a range of network implementations and demonstrate a proof-of-concept for trusted data-sharing between two independent trade finance and supply-chain networks, each running on Hyperledger Fabric. We show how existing blockchain deployments can be adapted for interoperation and discuss the security and extensibility of our architecture and mechanisms.
Abebe et al. (Wed,) studied this question.