Alberto García García-Castro

In the late 2010s, consortial Blockchain networks emerged as a new solution to the problems faced by public blockchains, especially in privacy, scalability, and governance issues. Networks such as the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) (2018) or LACChain (2018) have been instrumental in launching new technology initiatives for both businesses and government entities. These public-permissioned networks have driven projects in areas such as digital identity, financial inclusion and transparency in public and private services. These consortial environments were born as an alternative to traditional public networks, with the aim of fostering a more formal and structured collaboration between corporations and public and private institutions. However, despite their advantages, they also raise questions about key issues such as internal governance, data protection and service continuity. En este artículo exploraremos estas cuestiones y presentaremos soluciones para asegurar que una red consorciada funcione de manera eficiente, cumpliendo con los estándares operativos, de seguridad y de conformidad legal. Governance: the key to trust Governance ensures that all decisions in the consortium network are made in a fair and collaborative manner. Unlike traditional digital services managed by a single large company, where a single entity has full control of the platform, in consortium networks, decentralization allows each consortium member to have its share of influence, depending on its role and contribution to the network. This model avoids the concentration of power in a few hands, prevents censorship, promotes collaboration and ensures that decisions reflect the interests of all participants. Decentralized consortium networks foster collaboration and ensure that decisions reflect the interests of all participants. The need to establish clear conflict resolution mechanisms that ensure that any disagreements among members are handled fairly, without compromising the functioning of the network, must also be taken into account. Otherwise, the absence of these procedures could generate tensions that would not only slow down decision-making, but also jeopardize the stability of the network and its ability to operate efficiently. On the other hand, the conditions under which new entities may join the network must also be established, ensuring that they meet the necessary technical and regulatory criteria. It is also important to define in a transparent manner how a member can leave the consortium without jeopardizing the integrity of the systems. All participants must have clear access to the rules, procedures, and decision-making processes to reinforce confidence in the system and allow the network to be operated efficiently and fairly. ✅ It is not only a question of allowing or denying the participation of new partners at the administrative level, but at the technical level, new entities must be actively integrated into the network, without interrupting the service or interfering with previously established levels of care and quality. This ensures that the incorporation of new players does not adversely affect the performance and stability of the network. Privacy and security: the foundations of a trustworthy network Data protection and privacy underpin trust in a consortium Blockchain environment. Nodes that validate and record transactions must follow rigorous security practices, such as protecting against unauthorized access, encrypting information and using firewalls to prevent external threats. It is important that these networks use security standards, such as ISO 27001 or the National Security Scheme (ENS) in Spain. Following these frameworks ensure that data is handled securely, especially when exchanged with other networks. It is essential from the initial design of the infrastructure to plan how to protect sensitive information, always ensuring confidentiality and compliance with data protection laws. In terms of identity management, it is crucial to verify and authenticate that all users interacting with the network, whether through digital wallets or external services, have the necessary authorization to access the information stored on the blockchain. In order to achieve this, robust digital identity systems must be implemented to ensure not only the privacy of users, but also their anonymity when necessary. Tools such as multifactor authentication or decentralized identity solutions are key to reinforcing security in this environment. ✅ Ongoing audits also play a crucial role. They make it possible to detect vulnerabilities, verify compliance with security policies and ensure that data exchanges between different networks comply with the regulations in force, always protecting the information. Resilience and service continuity: a key pillar Resilience and service continuity are two of the most important elements to take into account when managing consortium blockchain networks, especially when companies and institutions depend on them for critical operations. In general terms, resilience is nothing more than the network's ability to remain operational even if some of its nodes fail. This can be achieved by incorporating mechanisms from the initial design of the network to ensure that the entire system continues to function without interruption. Think of it like emergency generators in a hospital: if the power fails within a reasonable period of time, the hospital can continue its daily operations as normal. Similarly, a blockchain network needs to have backup systems so that if one or more nodes stop operating, others take over. How is this achieved? Through redundancy mechanisms and algorithms that allow the network nodes to rotate dynamically. In other words, there will always be enough active nodes to validate transactions and generate new blocks in the chain. This ensures that the network continues to operate efficiently, and that companies or institutions can continue to trust that the network will keep their transactions and data secure, no matter what. On an efficient level, real-time monitoring allows technical teams to constantly assess how the network is performing and detect potential problems before they affect service. These systems allow network resources to be adjusted according to demand, which also aids scalability, i.e. the ability to grow and adapt as needed. Service Level Agreements (SLAs) established between the operating teams are key to ensuring that each node in the network operates efficiently and securely. On the other hand, the Service Level Agreements (SLA) between all participants define quality standards, establishing criteria on response times, availability and resilience. This means that, on the one hand, each operating team assumes individual responsibility for the management of its node, but at the same time, this responsibility is also distributed jointly and severally among the rest of the network administrators. Therefore, if a node has difficulties, the rest of the consortium can collaborate to maintain the stability and continuity of the service. Regulatory compliance: increasingly present Once the technical aspects have been established, it is also important to take into account compliance with laws that protect privacy and data security. This is especially relevant for companies and institutions operating in sectors where the handling of personal information is sensitive. In Europe, for example, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) sets very strict rules on how personal data must be handled. Consortium networks, too, have to comply with these regulations from the design stage, implementing advanced security measures to protect users' identities. It must also be ensured that individuals using the network can exercise their rights, such as the right to be forgotten or to access their data, even in a decentralized environment. Complying with regulations avoids possible sanctions and generates confidence among network participants and end-users. Complying with current regulations not only helps to avoid possible sanctions, but also generates trust among network participants and end users. Trusting that data is protected and laws are followed makes companies and institutions more willing to adopt these technologies. In Europe, for example, there are also other important regulations to take into account, such as eIDAS, which regulates electronic identification and trust services, or MiCA, which establishes rules for cryptoassets. ✅ Compliance with these regulations ensures that the network can operate legally throughout Europe and makes it easier for more organizations to use it securely and efficiently. What do we do with the gas? This dilemma is one of the most recurrent when considering how the network will be designed. In some public blockchains, such as Ethereum, each transaction requires the payment of a fee (known as gas) to incentivize nodes to validate and process transactions. This model ensures that network resources are used efficiently and prevents excessive unnecessary transactions (spam). It also provides a clear incentive mechanism for those who keep the network active. In consortium networks, however, where all participants are already known and trusted, it may not be necessary to implement such transaction fees. Instead of monetary incentives, the governance model and agreements between consortium members may be sufficient to ensure the proper functioning of the network. Even so, gas can be useful to control access to network resources, preventing a single entity from abusing or overloading the system. The payment of a fee ('gas') to incentivize nodes to validate and process transactions ensures that network resources are used efficiently and prevents unnecessary transactions. In many gas-free networks, on the other hand, transaction fees are eliminated altogether, simplifying network usage and reducing operating costs for businesses. This makes the network more accessible and improves the user experience. However, eliminating gas also brings some challenges: without a direct incentive for nodes that validate transactions, other agreements or mechanisms may need to be put in place to ensure that these nodes remain active and keep the network running. With no fees to limit the number of transactions, the network could be overloaded with unnecessary or abusive transactions, which would affect its performance. ✅ Deciding whether a consortium network should operate with or without gas is not a simple choice. It all depends on finding the right balance between the need for node incentives and control of access to platform resources. Each network is different, so this decision must be made according to the objectives and specific characteristics of the consortium. Is there a future? So far, both companies and institutions have played a key role in the development of public-private networks. These actors have succeeded in creating collaborative environments that combine new technologies with essential requirements such as security, privacy, and governance. This work has been vital in sectors where regulatory compliance is critical and has enabled consortium networks to offer scalable and resilient services. In addition, these advances have also been important in defining interoperability standards that allow different networks to communicate with each other efficiently. The major advances in these networks are likely to focus on aspects such as interoperability and decentralized digital identity. Looking ahead, the biggest advances in these networks are likely to focus on aspects such as interoperability and decentralized digital identity. In the short to medium term, these capabilities will be key for multinational companies and governments that need to exchange data securely across jurisdictions without losing control over information privacy. Users, in addition, will also stand to gain, they will be able to have more control over their own data, avoiding intermediaries in identity verification processes. This will not only improve security but will also increase efficiency in sectors as diverse as banking and public services. These advances show that, although blockchain networks have reached a high degree of maturity, further progress is needed to consolidate them, evolving in important aspects such as security, information privacy, decentralization, and regulatory compliance.

It has always been a fundamental part of the technology to use incentives that reward collaboration and good practices among participants in a blockchain network. So much so that even Satoshi Nakamoto himself included, in 2008, an entire chapter on these incentives in the Bitcoin whitepaper. Despite this, there are still problems today, especially in private and consortium networks, when it comes to rewarding the nodes that maintain the networks. Here is why. Blockchain miners? At a very high level, the mining process within a blockchain network is responsible for ensuring that everything that is happening within the network is done correctly. For example, validating transactions or generating the new blocks that form the network. This work is carried out by so-called "miners" and, taking into account that this procedure is economically and computationally expensive, it is necessary for the network itself to reward them in some way. According to Satoshi himself in his paper, the economic incentives that these miners have are divided into two types: They are rewarded every time they create a new block in the chain They are rewarded with a small commission for each transaction included in the chain. In this way, the network itself is able to financially incentivise the people or entities that dedicate their time and resources to maintaining it, without the need for third parties to do so. In other words, due to the very design of decentralised networks, participants are offered both the benefits of the service and the responsibility of maintaining it. This paradigm has not only allowed the technology to evolve but has also made it sustainable without the economic support of third parties, extending to the rest of the technologies that are now grouped under the umbrella of Web 3.0. Analysing Blockchain technologies So far, within the ecosystem of enterprise Blockchain networks in use today, four technologies stand out above the rest: Hyperledger Besu, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric and Quorum. Unlike public Blockchain technologies, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum where miners do not trust each other and need a PoW or PoS type consensus algorithm, in enterprise technologies this process of agreement between the participants that validate the proper functioning of the network is carried out in a different way. The mechanism of consensus and validation of transactions is carried out through algorithms that base their agreement on the identity and reputation of the nodes that are in charge of such verification. In other words, the participants know and trust each other when it comes to verifying that the network is working correctly. On the other hand, it is important to note that in the technologies used in private or consortium networks, due to their design, there is no incentive for the validating nodes in the network to close a block directly through cryptocurrencies or commissions for the validation of the transfers made. With this in mind, would it be necessary to incentivise the participants or companies that are responsible for the proper functioning of the network? Medium and long-term incentives? In general, business networks tend to share the costs of network maintenance among the companies using the network. Companies that are typically interested in using such a network pay a flat fee to the companies in charge of maintaining it, and in this way, they can execute all the transactions required by their corporate applications. So far so good, but what if these operation and maintenance costs are not covered in the medium to long term, would there be sufficient incentive to maintain the network, and how could the immutability and permanence of the information in the chain be guaranteed without a clear service continuity plan? On the other hand, there is another type of blockchain network management in which several companies or entities are associated to carry out network maintenance in a collegial manner, where all assume in good faith to comply with established policies, good practices and previous agreements on the availability of validator nodes. Despite this, how would responsibility be shared in the event of possible network incidents? What would happen if the cost of the operation is not balanced and one of the participants makes more use of the network than the others? In short, how can such a collegial operation be professionalised? A new approach To address the problems associated with the lack of incentives in enterprise Blockchain networks, it seems inevitable to increase the professionalisation of the core of the network. This means having business-agnostic nodes with sufficient incentives to validate transactions and maintain consensus without additional interests, whether related to use cases or to the execution of transactions. In other words, they should be able to validate such transactions regardless of their origin or who sends them, even preventing them from having visibility over the information they receive. In the world of public networks, there have been so-called "layer two" solutions for several years now, in which a second protocol is introduced on top of an existing blockchain network, also known as "layer one". The main objective is to solve problems of scalability, cost and transaction processing speed that the main public blockchain networks currently have. In other words, a new protocol is added to complement the existing one, improving some of its limitations. Photo: Shubham Dhage. An example of this type of "layer two" network is Polygon, a platform that, thanks to its design, allows much faster and less costly transactions than those that can currently be carried out on Ethereum, the layer one with which it interacts. In fact, it has become one of the biggest players in the Blockchain ecosystem today and has a multitude of interesting technologies, both public and private, that can be used for corporate applications. In terms of the enterprise blockchain ecosystem, within Polygon's portfolio of solutions, there is a new technology called Supernets that adds a new approach to the incentive models that currently exist. Polygon's Supernets allow the creation of private networks compatible with Ethereum technology, but delegating the validation of transactions to "professional" validators Broadly speaking, Supernets allow the creation of private networks compatible with Ethereum technology, but with the peculiarity that it delegates the validation of transactions to "professional" validators already present in Polygon's main network, with their corresponding incentives. The idea is that business applications can be deployed in private or consortium networks guaranteeing the necessary security and scalability, and at the same time, use the public chain to carry out the validation of these transactions through zero knowledge proofs, or more commonly known as Zero Knowledge Proofs. Next steps for Blockchain technology Since Telefónica allied with Polygon in March 2022 to jointly develop solutions, Telefónica Tech's blockchain team has carried out a technological analysis process to specify the use cases that materialise this collaboration. The improvement of incentives for the administration of private and consortium networks is one of them. Although Polygon Supernets is a technology that is only a few months old (it was launched in April 2022), at Telefónica Tech we are already taking the necessary steps to integrate it into our traceability, certification and tokenisation processes within the TrustOS platform. BLOCKCHAIN 5 key trends for mass adoption of Blockchain July 28, 2022 In addition, within Alastria, the Spanish non-profit association that promotes the digital economy through the development of decentralised registration technologies, Telefónica will lead a new network with Polygon Supernets technology that, by combining the performance and availability of private networks, together with the validation of transactions through nodes already present in the Polygon public network, will provide a new approach to the options already existing in the consortium. We expect that by using this new technology, companies interested in deploying their applications on a blockchain, whether private or consortium, will no longer have to worry about the incentives for validators to manage it, as by default the network will have "professional" nodes with sufficient incentive to continue validating the good use of the network in both the medium and long term.

Until relatively recently, the world of private DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) has been divided around a few players that have covered most of the international market. Historically, technologies such as Corda, Quorum or Hyperledger Fabric have been the most widely used in corporate projects. For example, Forbes magazine's list of the fifty companies that lead in the use of DLTs worldwide indicates this. However, as of the second half of 2019, the launch of a new project within the Hyperledger umbrella called Besu was made public. This is an Ethereum-based technology that enables the development of enterprise-class applications both on the public network and on private or consortium networks. This hybrid approach has allowed Hyperledger Besu to see rapid adoption within the blockchain world. Background In 2018, the team at Pegasys protocol engineering (part of the American company Consensys) started developing this technology. At that time, the product was called Pantheon and its main objective was to develop an Ethereum client suitable for productive enterprise environments. In February 2019, version 1.0 of the product was launched and a few months later, in August 2019, Pantheon was officially adopted into the Hyperledger ecosystem under the new name Besu. Through this incorporation, a first bridge of collaboration was established between two of the largest blockchain development communities in the world: Ethereum and Hyperledger. Since the beginning of the project, the product has been constantly evolving in relevant aspects such as consensus algorithms, permissions management in the network or privacy at the Ethereum protocol level. In addition to all these already integrated functionalities, the roadmap refers to advances in stability, interoperability and performance, especially taking into account the needs of business applications. What is Hyperledger Besu? Hyperledger Besu is an open-source Ethereum client written in Java under the Apache 2.0 license. It is designed to be used both on the Ethereum core network and for the creation of private business-purpose networks based on the same technology. In addition, it is compatible with Ethereum's public test networks (Görli, Rinkeby or Ropsten), which are widely used within the Ethereum development community. The implementation of Besu follows the technical specifications of the EEA (Ethereum Enterprise Alliance), an organisation that aims to create open standards within the Ethereum ecosystem, accelerating the adoption of the technology within corporate business processes. In relation to the more technical side of the technology, it is interesting to know the following features of Hyperledger Besu: Use of different types of consensus algorithms: on the one hand, it is possible to use a Proof of Authority type algorithm for private/consortium networks and on the other hand, it is compatible with the Proof of Work type algorithm currently used by the public Ethereum network, the second most important blockchain worldwide in terms of market capitalisation. It includes the EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine), which enables the execution and deployment of Smart Contracts and Dapps (decentralised applications), both on the public network and on private or consortium networks. In terms of programming, Besu is compatible with the most widely used tools within the Ethereum development community, such as Truffle, Remix or web3j, among others. Thanks to the Besu client, the Ether cryptocurrency can be mined within the main Ethereum network. In terms of key management, Besu is compatible with the most popular wallets within the Ethereum community. For example, Metamask, the digital wallet used by more than one million people worldwide. In terms of privacy and network permissioning, it is worth noting that these are two fundamental pillars within Hyperledger Besu. On the one hand, it has the ability to keep transactions secure and private depending on the needs of the business, and on the other hand, it allows different access permissions to be condivd only for those nodes or accounts that are allowed. In terms of monitoring, Besu allows you to manage both nodes and the network using third-party tools and has a block explorer that gives customers real-time control of what is happening on the blockchain. From a business point of view, Hyperledger Besu allows you to: Deploy private or consortium networks, taking advantage of their privacy capabilities, high performance, network access permission settings or incident support. Deploy a node on the public Ethereum network to provide additional trust and transparency for use cases that need it. It is important to note that a Hyperledger Besu node cannot connect to a public and private network at the same time. That is, if there is a use case that requires it, it would be necessary to have at least one node for each type of network. BLOCKCHAIN Rethinking consensus for a more sustainable Blockchain: from PoW to PoS April 5, 2023 Ready for business environments? Most business blockchain projects have historically been developed as proofs of concept and have not been able to make the leap to production environments. To a large extent, this is due to the scarcity of companies able to offer support for a product developed with this type of technology. To encourage the use of blockchain in corporate environments, it is essential that there are specialised companies with technical capacity that are capable of guaranteeing the viability of the product in the long term, taking into account essential aspects such as security, performance and availability, which are fundamental for any business process. In this sense, in October 2019 Consensys launched "Pegasys Plus" a commercial distribution of Hyperledger Besu in which 24x7 technical support, training, product updates, patch creation and improvements in aspects such as security, monitoring or efficiency are offered. In this way, companies that want to integrate blockchain into their business processes will find it easier to create 100% productive platforms. Blockchain consortiums Another important aspect to take into account is the adoption of this technology by the largest European and Latin American blockchain consortiums. This point is very important when it comes to understanding the reasons for the rapid growth of the technology: Within the Spanish blockchain ecosystem, Alastria, an open association of companies that promotes the digital economy through the development of decentralised registry technologies, stands out. At a technical level, they advocate a technology-agnostic platform by promoting different types of networks. For this reason, the so-called "B-network", deployed by some of its partners and Hyperledger Besu, was born at the beginning of 2020. In the case of Europe, 29 countries (all EU Member States, Norway and Lichtenstein) and the European Commission have joined forces to create the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI). They have been working on it since 2018 and its main objective is the creation of a cross-border network for public administrations, providing the members of the European Union with a DLT network based on several protocols, including Besu, that takes advantage of all the benefits offered by blockchain technology in their public services. In Latin America, LACCHain, an alliance of companies and institutions, is operating with the aim of developing the blockchain ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Among its objectives are the promotion of innovation and the reduction of inequalities thanks to the adoption of blockchain technology. In terms of infrastructure, since 2019 they offer their partners the ability to use a DLT network based on Hyperledger Besu for their business use cases. BLOCKCHAIN TrustOS, the Swiss Army Knife of Blockchain Networks August 30, 2022 How do we use Besu at Telefónica? Telefónica has been bringing blockchain to our customers for years through TrustOS: a solution created so that companies can adapt their processes to blockchain easily and simply. It consists of several modules in the form of API (Application Programming Interface) so that companies can implement their certification, traceability or tokenisation use cases quickly and simply. A clear example of what Besu would bring to TrustOS can be found in the certification section. Customers using this module will be able to reliably record information in both private and consortium networks, abstracting from the complexity associated with the technology. Using TrustOS APIs, customers will be able to access networks based on Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger Besu in a transparent way, without the need to adapt their developments to each type of network. Photo by Glen Carrie on Unsplash

Did you know that there are currently dozens of public Blockchain networks and that, added to the private and consortium ones, there could be hundreds? Which of them would be best suited to the needs of companies? In the following paragraphs we will answer these and other questions related to the adoption of this technology at the corporate level. In recent years, the number of companies and public entities that are using Blockchain technology for their daily operations is growing significantly, partly thanks to the new use cases that have been developed with the Blockchain technology. How can a company implement Blockchain technology? Applications such as cryptocurrencies, decentralised finance, NFTs or web 3.0 have burst onto the corporate world and more and more companies are interested in integrating some of them into their technology stack. The problem arises when it comes to putting it into practice within the company: How would the use case be implemented? Which network is the most suitable for a company's processes? In the last five years, Telefónica's Blockchain team has heard these types of questions on a regular basis and that is why we decided to create a product that would make it easier for companies to build their use cases, and thus help to answer their doubts and needs in relation to blockchain technology. Cloud Zero trust, a trend in the cyber security environment November 14, 2022 Blockchain network interoperability There has been an open debate about the interoperability of Blockchain networks for several years. Currently, the number of technologies within the ecosystem is growing exponentially, but almost all of them are isolated. In other words, it is not possible to exchange information between them, which causes a problem when it comes to sharing data stored in different blockchains. As companies and public institutions start to adopt Blockchain as a technology for their use cases, there is a need to use different networks for their applications. A public network could be used, for example, for use cases that require a high level of transparency in the display of information. But if you want to maintain data privacy and keep it in a specific geographic location for regulatory reasons, you could store it in a private network. As can be seen, depending on the needs of each entity, it will be better to use one type of network or another. TrustOS, the Blockchain service managed by Telefónica Tech To remove these barriers to the adoption of the technology, Telefónica has created a product such as TrustOS, which makes it easier for companies to use different types of blockchain networks for their applications. In this way, regardless of the network used, the company will not have to adapt its processes or integrations to a new technology, which will allow it to tackle projects where Blockchain adds value without technological risk. In order to get a general idea of the number of Blockchain networks that can be accessed with TrustOS today, the following paragraphs will list the most important ones: Public Networks These types of networks are the first to be used within the ecosystem. They are open and accessible through the internet. Anyone who wants to join can do so without restrictions and the information stored in them is public and auditable at any time. Moreover, there is no central entity that regulates the functioning of the ecosystem. In order to benefit from the advantages of this type of network, Telefónica has made access to these two public networks available to its customers through TrustOS: Ethereum: on this platform, companies can include the business logic of their applications through Smart Contracts. This is possible thanks to the fact that the Ethereum network is the largest Blockchain network in the world where this type of smart contracts can be deployed. Access to this technology through TrustOS allows the deployment of decentralised applications on a network with a computational power of 1.25 PH/s, which is equivalent to 1.25 quadrillion operations per second, used, among other things, to verify and add new transactions to the blockchain. Bitcoin: within the framework of the European INGENIOUS project in which Telefónica Tech is actively collaborating, TrustOS is being used for connectivity with the Bitcoin network for sending evidence. It is the public blockchain network with the highest market capitalisation with a value of 577B$. Polygon: last March 3rd was announced the collaboration agreement between Telefónica and Polygon, one of the most popular Blockchain ecosystems of the last year, especially thanks to the rise of NFTs and Web 3.0. It is a technology that solves the scalability limitations of Ethereum, making it easier for companies to use this new network for applications that require a large volume of transactions with predictable costs and settlement times. Private Networks This type of network tends to have a higher transaction processing and privacy management capacity than public networks, but it should also be noted that they are less decentralised in terms of the data they store. It is a network that can only be accessed with a prior invitation from the organisation that administers it and is mainly used for business use cases that require privacy in the data stored, either due to regulatory or technical requirements. In the area of private networks, Telefónica manages and operates the H+ network for the members of Alastria, the Spanish consortium of more than 500 companies. This is a private blockchain used for applications that require information privacy, high performance when processing transactions and guaranteed support in the event of incidents. BLOCKCHAIN Incentives in business blockchain networks: a new approach January 16, 2023 On the other hand, within the framework of Telefónica Tech's collaboration with the European INGENIOUS project, TrustOS is also being used as a facilitator for connection to a private IOTA network, a DLT focused on the world of the Internet of Things (IOT). Beyond these platforms, TrustOS has the capacity to integrate with any network that uses protocols such as Hyperledger Fabric or Hyperledger Besu, as well as being compatible with networks that use the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Consortium Networks Regarding consortium networks, they use similar technologies to public networks, but the responsibility for administration and management is shared among several organisations. These entities control who can access the network and how the information stored on the network can be interacted with. Today, TrustOS provides access to two of the most important business and institutional consortia in the ecosystem: On the one hand, there is Alastria, an open association of companies, universities and public bodies, which promotes the use of Blockchain in Spain. They are not linked to any specific technology as they promote the use of different platforms within their alliance. Specifically, TrustOS allows interaction with the networks present in the consortium that implement the Hyperledger Besu and Quorum protocols. On the other hand, it is also possible to interact with LACCHain, a business and institutional consortium that promotes the development of the Blockchain ecosystem in Latin America and the Caribbean. Connections can currently be established with the LaCChain and LaCNet networks based on Hyperledger Besu. Next steps to enrich TrustOS with new Blockchain networks In addition to all the platforms mentioned above, work is already underway to use IPFS as a file storage system. This is a peer-to-peer network in which information can be stored in a decentralised manner, both in the public network and privately. The use of this technology has become quite popular within the crypto ecosystem, partly thanks to the boom in NFTs. IPFS has been used as a distributed file system where non-fungible tokens are stored, so that they can be uniquely identified, avoiding duplication and possible fraud. The European consortium EBSI (European Blockchain Services Infrastructure) is also being closely followed. This is a cross-border network formed by 29 countries (all EU Member States, Norway and Lichtenstein) and the European Commission, to provide public administrations with a private network that can be used for their applications and use cases. It is an infrastructure with great potential that would enrich the portfolio of networks that TrustOS already has. What type of Blockchain network is the best option? There is currently a wide variety of options when it comes to storing information in a secure and immutable way thanks to the different blockchain networks that exist today. This could pose a problem for companies that are starting to adopt blockchain technology, as there are many variables to take into account when selecting the network that best suits their needs. Telefónica Tech is therefore working to facilitate the process of integrating business applications into the Blockchain ecosystem, offering tools that make it possible in the most secure and simple way possible. Blockchain Rethinking consensus for a more sustainable Blockchain: from PoW to PoS April 5, 2023 Featured image: Patrick / Unsplash