WHITE PAPER

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

Bridge to

Blockchain

A Platform for Orchestrating
Multi Enterprise Business Networks
Blockchains are enabling multiple parties to engage in trusted supply
chain transactions and data relationships that were difficult or nearimpossible with enterprise-centric, “walled garden” and EDI approachesof the past 15 years. In this paper, we explain why multi-party businessnetwork technology is an essential part of the solution for global
businesses.

By Geoffrey Annseley

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

WHITE PAPER

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

INTRODUCTION
By now most forward-looking corporate business leaders, IT
leaders and business consulting companies realize that the
3rd generation of blockchain networks fundamentally works,
and sooner or later is going to impact every market andcorporation in one or more important dimensions. Scaling
issues are quickly disappearing and transaction costs on many
networks are plummeting.
The time for experiments to validate capability is coming
to an end. More and more companies are making boldstatements around their vision for utilizing block chains,
many large iconic cloud companies are in stealth modebuying Blockchain companies and pouring money into theirown Blockchain research. Some are motivated by fear of
disruption while others see new business opportunities anda once in a lifetime chance to get an edge on the competitionor move into previously impenetrable markets. Yet others
are struggling with the basics of how Blockchain can help
their business or just flat out ignoring the technology hopingthat it will not impact their business for years to come. Manyorganizations are still completely unaware of Blockchain
based organizations already targeting their business models
directly armed with advanced well-funded Blockchain
platforms. Many decentralized Blockchain based organizations
aim to completely disrupt brittle, complex B2B and B2Cprocesses in both technical and economic dimensions.

The problem is ERP, Planning, and B2B systems were notdesigned to operate in the Blockchain-based multi-party
network world.
One of the core ideas behind the vast majority of Blockchain
networks and projects is to bypass the “middleman”,
including many “enterprise and cloud services”, combinedwith enabling parties at any location in a business network
to transact directly with each other and simplify businessprocesses. But the applications that populate today’s
corporate IT landscape were designed around servicing one
centralized single corporation at a time. It is no surprisethen that the value of moving enterprise applications andsingle company business processes that involve one party
to a Blockchain network is small or negative. Processes thatinvolve two or more parties with N-way shared objects
and applications will benefit from underlying Blockchain
technology. To realize value and create applications thatcan function in a multi-party network requires significant
investment and innovative thinking.
Corporations cannot easily abandon current IT investments
and jump into or easily integrate to the blockchain world.
Without some type of well thought out platform approach
supporting the two completely different worlds of traditional
company-centric enterprise applications and multi-party
network based blockchain applications, companies will
struggle to take advantage of Blockchain’s promise. Instead, abridge or “hybrid” approach will prove valuable and pragmaticfor many corporations as they embrace Blockchain while
continuing to extract value from current IT investments.

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

FIGURE 1 ORCHESTRATION ACROSS LEGACY SYSTEMS AND MULTI PARTY BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS

A BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN
One Network Enterprises (ONE) has designed a multi-party
business network platform that operates across and multiple
Blockchain networks.
The platform is designed to support a combination of:
1. Private network communities on private blockchains
restricted to trusted verified parties
2. Private network communities on public blockchains
restricted to trusted verified parties
3. Public network communities on public blockchains withor without permissions controls
4. Integration and interoperability across private ERP and IT
systems across N-Organizations
5. Network of Network capabilities embrace 3rd party Cloud
services
Combining these capabilities with battle-hardened networkaware autonomous AI agents, machine learning agents, anda modular adaptive development platform is enabling ONE todeliver innovative solutions that solve long standing businessproblems where traditional enterprise solutions have failed.
© One Network Enterprises. All rights reserved.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEGACY SYSTEMS(THE TYPICAL CURRENT IT LANDSCAPE)• Exponential explosion of point-to-point EDI connections• Data replication = having no single version of truth (SVOT)
drives constant reconciliation and lack of trust• Data latency = inconsistent state of understanding• Silo MDMs = Master Data Model mismatches which
drives up complexity• Explosion of system-to-system cross references• Huge learning curve and massive amounts of DApp code
• No business multi-party network-aware services because
legacy apps were designed to be used by one company
not N• No standard blockchain across organizations – defeats
the purpose of using blockchains• No blockchain proof-of-service standards• After huge IT investments, supply chains and otherbusiness networks perform poorly

3BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

CHARACTERISTICS OF MULTI PARTYBLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS• Significant reduction of EDI. In fact, for pure blockchain(no legacy systems) there is no EDI• Shared objects, a shared ledger, and a single version of
the truth• Real time – no data latency• Multi-party & Community Master Data - reduces errors
and synchronizes changes• Reduced number of cross references for legacy systems• Fast development of network & blockchain applications –DApps• Rich set of business network-aware services and multiparty applications• Cross blockchain orchestration and chaining – standard
open proof-of-service• Unparalleled business agility, performance, security andreduced time to market for new solutions

TRADITIONAL CENTRALIZED ENTERPRISE VS
DECENTRALIZED NETWORK SYSTEMS AND
PROCESSES
The traditional legacy approach to business networks andrelated business processes has been single company-centricwith bolt on B2B EDI and one way “web portal” technologies.
Today each company has its own funky mix of private systems,
custom point solutions, single company planning processes,
single company system of record, no single source of truth
between companies, centralized cloud service providers
providing one company applications on the cloud, point-topoint B2B EDI, one way WEB Portals, single company MDM
systems, all mixed in with manual Excel and ad hoc email
collaboration.
After the trillions of dollars invested in corporate IT services
and B2B applications, companies struggle with trust thatrevolves around multi-party relationships and transactions.
This might sound familiar:• “We don’t trust our channel partners forecast”• “No, we won’t share our data (POS, Forecasts, Test
Results) due to security, replication, control issues”• “Yes, we trust our suppliers but need to verify they are
doing what they say they are doing”• “We don’t trust your production schedule so we areordering ahead and buffering more inventory”• “On the last NPI ramp we found out about supply issues
way too late”• “We have contaminated or damaged products and it
takes weeks to sort out root cause”• “We can’t tell our customer exactly where the materials
are from nor can we guarantee we don’t use child or
slave labor. Actually, we can’t even understand thisourselves!”• “The construction team showed up but the equipment
wasn’t delivered – we wasted another day!”• “We don’t trust our 3PL’s ETA estimates so we hedge alot”
This results in cumbersome reconciliation processes:• “3-way and 4-way purchase order-service-invoice matchprocesses”• “Freight audit and pay”
• “Inventory reconciliation”• “Just pay the charge if it is within 5% of expectedamounts”
Accountability issues:• “Who’s responsible for lost, stolen or damaged goods?”• “Who’s responsible for the delay and resulting expedite
charges?”• “Who’s responsible for storage or demurrage charges”• “Confusion around shared inventory write-offs andassociated charges”• “Who pays the non-compliance penalties”
This landscape forces a proliferation of manual fill-in-the-gap
processes between systems and companies. This “mess” hasspawned entire consulting industries and esoteric complex
point software solutions. It is also one of the drivers behind
many “data lake + analytics” and experimental blockchain
projects by companies struggling to become more efficientand agile.
Companies that have taken the time to understand Blockchain
realize that the majority of this waste can be nullified byintelligent use of multi-party networks and Blockchain
technology. But without solving the root problems caused byisolated processes and one company systems significant value
likely will never be harvested from “cool” single company
Blockchain IT projects or by high end analytics solutions.
ERP and planning systems (both Cloud and on premise)
were designed for use by 1 company. Legacy collaboration
systems have been designed for collaboration between 2
companies. These traditional models are and will continue toexist. However, companies want and need to move forward to
support advanced multiparty processes.

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

4

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

FIGURE 2 ONE NETWORK PROVIDES NETWORK ORCHESTRATION - OPEN & PERMISSION ENABLED SYSTEMS OF ENGAGEMENT

SIRENS OF THE BLOCKCHAIN ERA BLOCKCHAIN AS A SERVICEA PLATFORM FOR BRIDGING LEGACY ITSYSTEMS WITH BLOCKCHAIN NETWORKS

We are seeing the emergence of “Blockchain as a Service”(BaaS) from well-known cloud service and traditional ERP
providers that are eager to get into the game or avoid being
disrupted. These new BaaS services are going to disappoint
many. The problem with these BaaS services is that they lackthe key elements of multi-party business services required
to make even basic network applications useful. Many IT
organization comfortable with these brand names will engage
with these services only to find out that they have to develop
massive amounts of complex code to make anything remotely
valuable. Many will abandon their blockchain projects
and claim that the technology isn’t ready for enterpriseapplications and play the waiting game. This is going to leadto the classic new technology “disillusionment” phase for
many.

Businesses need a bridge between legacy IT systems andBlockchain networks to enable business and IT to transition
to Blockchain when and where it makes sense. This strategy
is practical, lowers risk and avoids lock in to one Blockchain
network while leveraging your existing IT investments. While
blockchain networks like Ethereum are well-established,
it is still early to bet on one Blockchain network and likelythat corporations will want and need to leverage multiple
networks. Some IT organizations will choose a best-of-breed
approach using networks that specialize in various dimensionsof capability such as distributed storage, high frequency
payments, smart contracts, supercomputing access, identity
management, social networks, and news networks, whileothers will prefer to leverage a single blockchain network suchas that described by Telegram/TON, and other similar broad
scope Blockchain networks.

Providing single company centric cloud APIs andtemplates on top of Blockchain networks like Ethereumand Hyperledger will prevent the development andrealization of applications that businesses need to
optimize their operations, create new business models
and optimize multi party business processes.
© One Network Enterprises. All rights reserved.

To get value out of Blockchain there are layers of functionality
beyond simple DApps or simple smart contracts required todeliver real world solutions. Very few companies are familiar
with what is required to build and support multi party
applications with N-way network technology.
5

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN
A platform designed to enable efficient business networks
must be built on the ideas of shared systems, sharedapplications, single version of the truth, common orcommunity master data, N-way multi-party workflows, anddecentralized (economic, logical and physical) computing.

MULTI-PARTY NETWORK SERVICES AREREQUIRED IN THE BLOCKCHAIN WORLDOne Network has pioneered an approach that provides abridge between enterprise-centric IT systems and associatedbusiness processes and multi-party business networks thatleverage multiple types of Blockchain networks. One Network
was built on the concept of multi-party networks, multi-party
processes, optimizing trading partner networks, eliminating
the middle man, and enabling companies at any level in abusiness network to transact directly with each other. In partdue to being designed with “business network” principles
One Network has been able to quickly and easily incorporate
Blockchain technology and networks to provide practicaland valuable services that are out of the lab in working
production driving value for many companies. In addition,
One Network provides a global multi-party network that acts
as a transaction and synchronization platform functioning
across N corporate IT systems and N corporations at the sametime. ONE provides a gateway to both a private Blockchainthat runs on a global federated network as well as public
Blockchain networks including Ethereum and Hyperledger.
Key capabilities provided by ONE and required to enableefficient development and delivery of multi-party Blockchain
applications include:
1. Multi-Party Permissions Framework
2. Multi-Party and Community Master Data Management
3. Multi-Party Workflows
4. Multi-Party Transaction Backbone
5. Multi-Party Transactional Business Objects such as Sales
Orders, Purchase Orders, and Transport Orders
6. Proof-of-Service Frameworks to enable Smart Contracts
7. Network-based decision and execution agent frameworks
8. On chain and Off chain transaction processing and data
storage
9. On chain and Off chain asset tracking
10. Development tools and public APIs

These are the basic layers required to create useful businessapplications and services on Blockchain networks. To create
innovative applications and services requires several morelayers including:
1. Business Network AI Frameworks
2. Business Network Machine Learning Framework
3. Business Network Planning and Automated Decision
Execution Frameworks
4. Interfaces to allow humans to collaborate efficiently with
AI decision making agents
One Network provides all of the above capabilities as
the foundation behind their multi-party solutions andapplications. IT and 3rd party developers have access tothe same services and APIs to create and tailor applications
unique to an industry or particular business network or
individual company.

BUT WHAT ABOUT MY ERP AND OTHER
INTERNAL SYSTEMS?
One Network is designed to communicate to any number of
ERP and other single company-centric systems. This requiresa multi-layer integration and sequencing capability thattraverses master data, transactions, events, plans, projects,
sites, business functions and decisions. At the system
integration level, ONE performs the following functions:
1. Updating internal IT and ERP systems with networktransactions translated into single company traditionaltransactions
2. Updating of shared network objects and connected
Blockchain networks with the semantics of internallygenerated transactions that are relevant to multi-party
processes.
3. Synchronization of master data across N entities
4. Network community master data management
5. Permissions constrained access to past and predicted
or recommended decisions, alerts, KPIs to all concerned
network participants

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

6

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

ORCHESTRATION ACROSS BLOCKCHAIN
NETWORKS
Betting on one Blockchain network is a fool’s game at thispoint in time. There will be many different Blockchain
networks required to meet any one corporation’s or trading
partner network’s needs. While Ethereum and Hyperledger
have strong smart contract capabilities, other networks
provide valuable functionality that corporations will want toleverage, for example:• Smart Contracts: Ethereum, Hyperledger, NEO• Data Storage and Distributed Blockchain Storage: STORJ,FILEIO, TON• Access to Off Chain High Performance Computing
Services: RLC, ADA• High Transaction Volume Payments: NANO, XRP, Stellar• IoT: IOTA
• Identity Services: TheKey, BlockAuth• Credit Check Services: BLOOMOne Network’s platform links to multiple Blockchain networks
to access specialized services. This strategy will provide
flexibility, scalability and reduced risk as the winners in the
Blockchain race change over time.

SMART CONTRACTS - YOUR TRADINGPARTNERS NEED TO BE ON THE NETWORK
A community of one on a Blockchain network is of no value.
One of the problems individual companies face as they move
to Blockchain is that most of their trading partners are notusing Blockchain yet. One Network has built out a robust
multi-party business network consisting of over 90,000
companies and 17,000 transportation carriers. This network is
now on-demand Blockchain-enabled through One Network’s
platform. ONE has published open source code on GitHub toallow 3rd parties to build their own nodes and transaction
directly on Blockchain with the ONE’s business network.
Any company joining One Network has immediate access toconnect and transact with partners already on the network.
ONE, for example, provides smart contract capabilities on
the One Network “Backchain”. This supports the writing of
any One Network multi-party transaction to the Blockchain
by self-intersecting all permutations of the multi-party
transaction using the read-permissions-calculated slices,
cryptographically hashing all these permutations, merkelizing
a set of these and then anchoring the result into theBlockchain using a specialized Backchain smart contract.
© One Network Enterprises. All rights reserved.

This algorithm is patent pending. As companies move fromsingle user Blockchain applications to more sophisticatednetwork applications they will require more sophisticatedplatform services to enable efficient application development.
ONE provides advanced multi-party network-aware
applications and services to enable companies to rapidly
adopt Blockchain, reduce risk and transform their businesswhile preserving their IT investment.

SMART CONTRACTS AND PROOF OFSERVICE“Smart contracts” may be the most transformative blockchain
applications. These automate payments and the transfer ofcurrency or other assets as negotiated conditions are met. For
example, a smart contract might send a payment to a supplieras soon as a shipment is delivered. A firm could signal via
blockchain that a particular good has been received—or
the product could have GPS functionality, which would
automatically log a location update that, in turn, triggers apayment. One Network has, for many years, provided thesesmart contract services to network member corporationsin the form of shared purchase orders, transport orders,
contracts, and single version of the truth-based collaboration,
tracking, proof of delivery, and payment automation. It
is a natural step to enable these services on Blockchain
and provide easier open access to these services for morecompanies.
ONE has developed protocols that are used to validate
contract terms (purchase order contracts for example). Thisis referred to as “Proof-of-service”. “Proof-of-service” cantake many forms but will typically be described by one ormore transactions posted by the service provider(s) against
a smart contract. The smart contract will validate eachtransaction and trigger proof-of-service validation markers.
Proof-of-service may require many transactions in a particularsequence to be executed before the contract is fulfilled andpayment can be released. Easy no code modeling of meta
contracts, contract conditions, terms, and formulas will be key
capabilities required to create fully functional contracts forcomplex business processes. Along with contract modeling,
flexible proof-of-service protocols must be configurable per
trading partner network and industry to gain wide adoption.
Proof-of-service protocols defined by One Network or the
One Network community will be open sourced to allow 3rdparties to transact with community members.
7

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

FIGURE 3 EXTEND EXISTING SERVICES OR BUILD YOUR OWNSERVICES AND PLATFORM CAPABILITIESREQUIRED TO DEPLOY OR DEVELOP MULTIPARTY APPLICATIONSONE has developed an innovative platform for developing
general platform services, industry tailored services andsophisticated multi party network applications. IT and other3rd party developers can develop at any layer in the platformstack using over 900 public APIs. Any language that runson the JVM platform can be used (Java, Renjin, Jython, andmore). Any transaction on ONE can be blockchain-enabled,
providing companies with future options as well as a practical
path to leveraging blockchain networks now.

CONTROL TOWERS ON BLOCKCHAIN
Blockchains and networks provide a grand opportunity
for realizing the vision of control towers. The ability toorchestrate entire trading partner networks and optimize
the consumer and customer experience across all parties
is becoming vital for companies to remain competitive
and adopt new business models. Blockchains are enabling
multiple parties to engage in trusted transactions and data
relationships that were difficult or near impossible with the“walled garden” and EDI approach companies have been
investing in for the past 15 years.

LOCAL PRIVATE MULTI PARTY NETWORKS &PUBLIC OPEN NETWORKS
Many companies will need both private multi-party
networks combined with the ability to participate in public
open Blockchain networks. ONE provides multiple types ofBlockchain enabled multi-party networks. Private Blockchain
networks restrict membership to certain companies to connect
and transaction for certain business processes. ONE also
provides increased privacy on public blockchains by applying
its tested multi-party permissions and encryption model toinformation stored in each block.

ONCE WE START TRANSACTING ON
NETWORKS WHAT ABOUT PLANNING,
PREDICTING AND MACHINE LEARNING?
Once companies start transacting across networks, the valueof the historical information stored in the network becomes
tremendously valuable for five key processes.
1. Auditability
2. Traceability
3. Master Data Model Tuning
4. Planning and Prediction
5. Machine Learning

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

8

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

FIGURE 4 CONTROL TOWERS ON BLOCKCHAIN NETWORK - A RADICAL SHIFT FOR SUPPLY CHAINSTo enable these functions requires algorithms and applications that are designed from the start to be network and multi-party
aware. The naïve approach to getting higher order value from this data will likely be for IT groups to pull network data into alegacy database (or data lake), try to normalize it and then run legacy planning and analytics engines in batch mode. That’s
similar to what companies do today. But this path is fraught with pitfalls and very few will get any value from this approach,
other than IT groups that get to work on a fun project for a couple of years. The litany of issues starts with data latency
between execution and planning, planning systems connectivity and other network relationships.

© One Network Enterprises. All rights reserved.

9

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN

Instead, a design that applies algorithms that run directlyon the networks and are designed to be network-aware will
win the day. AI-based intelligent agents that are aware ofcorporate boundaries, N-way permissions models, many-tomany links between blocks directly stored in the network andconnectivity between blocks in different networks will drive
superior plans, projections, predictive alerting, predictive
analytics and lead to better trained neural networks. Indeed,
the massive amount of data that is already available onprivate and public networks is providing innovative companies
with the data needed to train the next generation of AI for
business. Those companies with access to the largest amountof data dimensions that are correlated in some meaningful
way are in the pole position to lead the AI race.

IN CONCLUSION
Blockchain platforms vary widely in terms capability,
disclosure, confidentiality, anonymity, cost to use, and speed.
Companies will need to leverage more than one blockchain
network to realize the benefits of game-changing businessmodels. These Blockchains are enabling multiple parties
to engage in trusted supply chain transactions and data
relationships that were difficult or near impossible with theenterprise-centric and EDI-based approaches of the past 15
years. One Network Enterprises provides a platform thatprovides a practical, no-compromise path to realizing value
from blockchain networks now, along with future flexibility as
the blockchain landscape matures. This multi-party businessnetwork technology is an essential part of the solution for
global businesses, and we encourage you to contact us tolearn more.

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAIN | ONE NETWORK ENTERPRISES | WWW.ONENETWORK.COM

10

BRIDGE TO BLOCKCHAINABOUT ONE NETWORKOne Network is the intelligent business platform for autonomous supply chain management. Powered by NEO, One Network’s
machine learning and intelligent agent technology, this multi-party digital platform delivers rapid results at a fraction of
the cost of legacy solutions. The platform includes modular, adaptable industry solutions for multi-party business that
help companies lower costs, improve service levels and run more efficiently, with less waste. This SaaS and aPaaS platform
enables leading global organizations to achieve dramatic supply chain network benefits and efficiencies across theirecosystem of business partners. One Network offers developer tools that allow organizations to design, build and run
multi-party applications. Leading global organizations have joined One Network, helping to transform industries like Retail,Food Service, Consumer Goods, Automotive, Healthcare, Public Sector, Defense and Logistics. To date, more than 75,000
companies have joined One Network’s Real Time Value Network™ (RTVN™). Headquartered in Dallas, One Network also has
offices in Japan, Europe, and India. For more information, please visit www.onenetwork.com.

US Corporate Headquarters
4055 Valley View Ln, Suite 1000
Dallas, TX 75244
 +1 866 302 1936 (toll free) +1 972 385 8630
inquiries@onenetwork.com

 www.onenetwork.com© One Network Enterprises. All rights reserved.

One Network Europe

One Network India Pvt Ltd

16 Great Queen Street
London, United Kingdom
WC2B 5AH

Westend Centre III, Survey No. 169/1,
Second Floor, South Wing, Sector 2
Aundh, Pune 411007, Maharashtra, India

 +44 (0) 203 28 66 901
 europe@onenetwork.com

 +91 20 49111800
 indiasales@onenetwork.com

One Network Australia/Asia-Pacific +61 401 990 435
 cedwards@onenetwork.com

One Network Japan utsu@onenetwork.com

11