A Blockchain-Inspired, Multi-Layered Transaction Model for Business Process Modeling

Software development for information systems can be characterized by the development of three kinds of models: (1) business models for business goals and requirements, (2) logical models for the solution design, and (3) physical models for actual implementation. The concept of transactions can beneficially be applied to these models. Past efforts for applying low-level transaction concepts to higher-level models focused on the atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability (ACID) properties supported by traditional relational DBMS. We propose a novel transaction model that (1) refines the formalism of the ACID properties, and (2) adds blockchain-inspired formalism and properties including statefulness, privacy, and accountability. It supports transaction decomposition to sub-transactions, thus enabling multilayered transactions. The proposed model is based on our experience on developing a proof-of-concept prototypical Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) model repository using the blockchain platform Hyperledger's Fabric. A use case of the prototype is used as the illustrative example.