Public Blockchain

There are three types of blockchain networks - public blockchains, private blockchains and consortium blockchains.

Public blockchains

A public blockchain has absolutely no access restrictions. Anyone with an internet connection can connect and download all the transactions.

• Anyone can download the chain, start running on their local node, validate the transactions in the network and thus participate in the consensus process.

• Anyone can send transactions through the network and it can be included in the blockchain after validation

• Anyone can read transactions on the public blockchain ledger.

Some of the known public blockchains are Bitcoin, Ethereum and Adhichain.

Private blockchains

A private blockchain is permissioned, nodes or participants are invited by the network administrators. Participant and validator access is restricted.

This type of blockchains can be considered a middle-ground for companies that are interested in the blockchain technology in general but are not comfortable with a level of control offered by public networks. Typically, they seek to incorporate blockchain into their accounting and record-keeping procedures without sacrificing autonomy and running the risk of exposing sensitive data to the public internet.

Consortium blockchains

A consortium blockchain is often said to be semi-decentralized. It, too, is permissioned but instead of a single organization controlling it, a number of companies might each operate a node on such a network. The administrators of a consortium chain restrict users' reading rights as they see fit and only allow a limited set of trusted nodes to execute a consensus protocol.