Digital Infrastructure building blocks
Digital Infrastructure has been evolving on two paths due to regulatory constraints and a level of prudent institutional investment in the space
The crypto markets have developed a decentralised and highly scalable model for market infrastructure. This model is based upon tokenisation, AMMs and scalable public chains
Traditional Markets have been slower to adopt digital infrastructure despite multiple POC's in the space. Regulatory hurdles, the lack of standards and a fragmented approach based around enterprise solutions (private permissioned) has slowed the rate of deployment.
Recent Regulatory Changes are creating alignment and the two spaces seem to be on a course that will see extensive cross pollination of ideas and regulations
Private Ledgers
Regulatory considerations drove early adopters in the regulated market space to deploy private blockchain implementations. These enterprise solutions were permissioned offering were only trusted participants could join. The rule book and validation/consensus protocols were set and implemented by the network operators.
This version of ledger controled who could participate, validate transactions, and maintain/write to, the shared ledger. The network operator typically has the right to override, edit, or delete entries on chain if required.
Permissionless Public Ledgers
The blockchain that most people know is the public blockchain, such as the one that hosts Bitcoin. Anyone is free to join the network, set up a node and participate in the maintenance and validation of data on the network.
Participants are incentivised to maintain the integrity of the network through rewards gain by "mining" under a proof of work consensus model or by value at risk, under a proof of stake model. This creates a decentralised and incentivised self-governing network.
The speed of transaction validation and the associated costs (GAS) of the early public ledgers has led to the development of alternative Level 1 blockchain solutions and various Level 2 solutions that are enhancing speed and efficiency.
Permissioned Public Ledgers
Permissioned or Hybrid blockchains are a response to the need to balance regulatory constraints with public net efficiencies. In the model the network is built so that the ledger is typically an encrypted ledger on a public blockchain. Participation is on a permissioned basis and the activities participants can perform is "permissioned" via the network governance model
Much of the development in the space is occurring via Layer 2 Zero Knowledge Rollups that provide the levels of privacy and compliance to meet regulatory considerations whilst maintaining an encrypted version of the ledger on a public ledger
and DAOs
A DOA (decentralized autonomous organization) in itself is not a version of a network but more a legal structure that supports a governance structure that is run from the ground up.
Unlike other DLT offerings a DOA has no central governing body. All decisions are voted on by members and network activities determined by member voting.
Popularised in the crypto and emerging carbon market place where community involvement is a driver