We have mentioned that blockchain promises the value of multiparty networks and addresses the issues of time and trust by collapsing and flattening the individual business processes to single processes with management enabled by constructs such as smart contracts, transactional finality, and channels and ledgers, which are the records of transaction finality. We have also seen that, due to various reasons such as industry-driven regional and the contextual network, it may emerge that we will need to be connected not only to flatten the network wide business process but to simply address the movement of value across the network.

Furthermore, these networks may not necessarily be on a homogenous blockchain technology platform and may include other frameworks such as Ethereum, Corda, and so on. To add to this complexity, there are existing business systems that the enterprise manages for the sake of business analysis, reporting, regulatory and compliance systems, and so on. It would be cost prohibitive for any enterprise to replace these (legacy) systems in order to adopt and join blockchain powered networks. These emerging paradigms lead to two essential challenges that an:

• Enterprises: Ensuring seamless and meaningful integration into existing business systems
• Business networks: Keeping up with technology innovation and heterogeneity in the technology stack (and resulting trust systems)

These challenges must be addressed to ensure not only interoperability within the individual enterprise but also that the business network is interoperable with other contextual networks. This is an area that all of us and the community as a whole need to focus on and address at a protocol level as it is an adoption imperative for blockchain network success.