How Permissioned Blockchains Transform Business: A Detailed Overview

Reports say the global blockchain market will reach $400.16 billion in 2030, which is a significant jump from $22.56 billion in 2024. The triggers that stimulate the market include the demand for data security and transparency, and the expansion of DeFi and tokenization.

Using blockchain means businesses don’t have to depend so much on traditional centralized systems that can fail or be attacked. Therefore, companies are choosing permissioned blockchains to protect their valuable ideas, follow the rules consistently, and keep clear records of what’s been done. More than 50% of those organizations that used blockchain in 2018 said they preferred a permissioned model of blockchain.

PixelPlex has extensive experience in private blockchain development.  We have discussed permissioned blockchain opportunities with our experts and prepared this detailed guide. You will learn about the potential of blockchain systems to improve control inside the company and help with big goals like increasing efficiency, reducing costs, and verifying international transactions.

What are permissioned blockchains?

Blockchains help to store information in a decentralized way. They serve as immutable transaction ledgers that protect the data against unsanctioned access and preserve confidentiality. Depending on the domain and peculiar needs of the applications, there are two types of blockchains. They can be permissioned and permissionless. Permissioned blockchains are closed networks that require “permissions” to access. Participants have to digitally identify themselves with special certificates. Such an approach allows for controlling who is involved in transactions.

Permissioned vs. permissionless blockchain

Let’s go deeper into examining both blockchain types. In a permissioned model of blockchain, trusted participants work together to manage and validate transactions. They set the network’s rules, prioritize controlled access, and decide on the execution of smart contracts. This type is well-suited for enterprise development. Permissionless blockchains emphasize openness, decentralization, and transparency, supporting public, trustless ecosystems.

Important aspects of permissioned blockchains

Access control

The owners of the network are responsible for decision-making. You can think of adding permissioned users as an extra security step for the blockchain. Administrators control who can do what by letting only specific, known people perform certain actions. The blockchain keeps a record of everyone involved in the transactions. This is what makes permissioned blockchains different from public ones.

For example, a hospital might use a permissioned blockchain with only certain approved computers inside the hospital to keep track of patient records. You wouldn’t be able to access this system because you don’t have the right permissions. On the other hand, you can join a permissionless blockchain, like Bitcoin, simply by downloading the right software and connecting to the network with your wallet – anyone can join and participate.

Decentralization

Permissionless blockchains are open to everyone, so anyone can join and take part, making the network bigger and more spread out. In contrast, permissioned blockchains are usually used by businesses and only let specific people in, so they are more controlled and less spread out than permissionless ones.

Development peculiarities

Many open blockchains (permissionless) are built by a community and can be used by anyone. Private blockchains (permissioned) are usually owned and controlled by the company or people who created them.

With a private blockchain, a blockchain development company or other experts who build it can decide what information is public and what’s private. For example, they might let everyone see what products are being traded, but only certain people can see the price. They can also limit who can run the computers that support the network, which makes it more secure.

All these rules about who can see or do what are managed by a special access control system. Public blockchains don’t have this kind of system because everything is open.

Transparency

Permissioned blockchains need to be more open in some ways because they are used by businesses. The users and their connections (called nodes) are known, and their transactions can be seen. This helps companies avoid mistakes like double billing, paying twice, or other errors that can happen in business systems.

Consensus mechanisms

Permissioned and permissionless blockchains are set up differently, that’s why they don’t use the same ways to agree on transactions. Usually, businesses that build permissioned blockchains use one or more of these three methods:

• Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT): This method requires all voting nodes to agree, even if some nodes can’t be trusted. The system stays safe and works well as long as most nodes are honest and follow the rules.
• Federated consensus: Here, a group of trusted validators checks and approves transactions. When enough of these validators agree, the transaction is accepted.
• Round-robin: In this method, nodes take turns (chosen in a semi-random way) to create new blocks. After a node has had its turn, it must wait before it can be chosen again.

Pros & cons of permissioned blockchains

Advantages:

• Strong privacy and security: Only users with proper credentials and permission can access or change transaction data.
• Flexible decentralization: Networks are partly or fully controlled, allowing businesses to avoid the risks of fully centralized networks.
• Highly customizable: Platforms adapt to an organization’s specific needs with different setups and integrations.
• Verifiable chain of custody: Known users make it easy to track and verify every transaction.
• Scalable and high performance: Transaction verification happens faster due to fewer nodes needed.

Disadvantages:

• Limited transparency, as only authorised participants can access and view the data. It may also result in concerns regarding the manipulation of records or unfair control by those with permission, potentially reducing trust among stakeholders.
• Governance of the system is complicated, as setting up and managing permissions and roles requires careful coordination and may slow down decision-making.
• Permissioned blockchains have fewer participants compared to public blockchains, which may reduce the benefits of broad decentralization.

How do business apps benefit from permissioned blockchain?

It’s good to know the advantages of permissioned blockchain. However, we’ve decided to categorize them for businesses to better understand what they receive.

Optimized business processes

• Costs cut: Transaction costs become lower due to the reduction of intermediaries. To validate the transaction, the network processes fewer nodes. It increases the throughput, and there is no need for significant computational power. The processes become automated, and transactions happen swiftly, driving operational efficiency.
• Time saved: This benefit relates to the previous one. Eliminating middlemen results in instantaneous transactions. It means the business is able to react to requests quickly and shorten the time to market.
• Governance structure well-defined: Companies that decide to leverage permissioned blockchain technology are described as possessing a well-organized structure. They choose consensus protocols that meet their needs and keep decentralization and control in balance.

Improved security measures

• Access controlled: Identity management protocols and security mechanisms ensure that only authorized members are able to act in the network. Defining roles and permissions contributes to operational security. For example, Deloitte has integrated blockchain technology with the KILT protocol to improve its Know Your Customer (KYC) processes by issuing reusable digital credentials. This system allows only verified individuals to share and manage their identity data securely. It ensures strict access control and enables compliance and privacy in financial services.
• Data protected: Permissioned blockchains utilize data encryption. It reduces the risks of fraud and malicious activities and builds participants’ trust.
• Transactions fixed: Records in the blockchain are safe from tampering or manipulation. No one can change or remove the data, which ensures transparency across the transactions.

Effective partner collaboration

• Trust: Successful partnerships are based on trust. Permissioned blockchain technology allows partners to technically leverage trust. You offer a reliable platform to your partners, and they know they can count on you.
• Interoperability: Software companies like PixelPlex can seamlessly integrate permissioned blockchains into our clients’ legacy systems. Blockchain adapts to the environment, and partners continue to exchange data smoothly.

Challenges and how to address them

Here are the most common challenges that businesses face when implementing permissioned blockchain technologies. We’ve compiled a list of possible solutions that our developers leverage to deal with them.

Security issues

Arising issues with data security might appear due to unreliable members of the network. Several authorized users might agree to change the data and undermine the integrity of the network. Besides, relatively small and centralized networks of permissioned blockchains make them vulnerable to cyberattacks such as physical breaches, network intrusions, and malware. Attacks can involve manipulating consensus processes, disrupting network communication, or stealing credentials. Additionally, reliance on external systems like databases adds vulnerability. These threats include eclipse attacks, DDoS, DNS poisoning, and malware injections, all of which can compromise system integrity and trust.

How to address it?

• Use digital certificates and robust authentication to ensure only authorized participants join and perform specific roles.
• Adopt secure consensus algorithms, such as Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT), Proof of Authority (PoA), or Byzantine Fault Tolerance (BFT).
• Apply strong encryption (data at rest and in transit), privacy-enhancing technologies (e.g., zero-knowledge proofs), and secure key management to protect sensitive information.
• Harden nodes with firewalls, regular updates, and hardware security measures to prevent unauthorized access and attacks.
• Deploy real-time security monitoring tools and develop tested incident response plans to quickly detect and mitigate threats.
• Conduct smart contract audits.

Regulatory concerns

Permissioned blockchains often operate across multiple jurisdictions, each with different (or even conflicting) laws related to digital assets, data protection, contracts, and enforcement. This creates legal uncertainty, as participants must comply with a patchwork of rules. Besides that, multinational operations cover several countries with different regulatory expectations regarding digital signatures, recordkeeping, and transfer of digital assets.

How to address it?

• Establish transparent rules, roles, and accountability among participants to meet regulatory requirements and facilitate audits.
• Implement selective data sharing and privacy controls to comply with regulations like GDPR and HIPAA.
• Use identity verification and KYC/AML procedures to verify processes and align with financial and data protection regulations.
• Maintain comprehensive audit trails to support regulatory reporting and dispute resolution.

Scalability challenges

As we mentioned in the introduction, the blockchain market is growing at high speed. That is why it might be challenging for businesses to cope with the pace. The infrastructure should be able to support the growing needs of the network.

How to address it?

• Use consensus algorithms (PBFT, PoA) to provide high throughput and low latency.
• Build flexible systems that can scale horizontally by adding trusted nodes or integrating with other networks without service disruption.
• Use tools and strategies that enable fast node synchronization and data migration to avoid downtime during scaling or upgrades.
• Evaluate trade-offs carefully to maintain robust security while improving transaction speed and network capacity.

Permissioned blockchain platforms

Let’s examine the most well-known examples of permissioned blockchain platforms in business:

IBM Hyperledger Fabric

It is one of the most famous frameworks for creating permissioned blockchains. Companies of various business domains use it to manage supply chains, automate business processes, and increase transparency. For example, the IBM Food Trust platform helps companies such as Walmart and Nestlé track food products at all stages of the supply chain, ensuring security and preventing adulteration.

R3 Corda

A consortium of major banks created Corda for the financial sector. It helps to exchange data and conduct transactions between banks with a high degree of confidentiality and compliance with regulatory requirements. Unlike classic blockchains, Corda uses a distributed registry without global data replication, which is optimal for corporate needs.

MediLedger

This one is a permissioned blockchain-based platform for the pharmaceutical industry that helps combat drug counterfeiting. Major pharmaceutical companies and distributors (Pfizer, Walgreens, Walmart) rely on it. MediLedger provides supply chain transparency and authentication automation through smart contracts.

Propy

It is a blockchain platform for the real estate market that uses smart contracts to process purchase and sale transactions and store documents, reducing the need for intermediaries and increasing the transparency of transactions.

TradeLens

Maersk and IBM have jointly developed this platform that uses a permissioned blockchain to track marine cargo and optimize logistics processes, which increases efficiency and reduces costs.

Crypti

This platform combines both public and permissioned blockchains. Each decentralized application has its own blockchain, which optimizes operation and simulates the conditions of the free market.

Permissioned blockchain for various business domains

Characteristic features of permissioned blockchain technologies make them applicable in almost any industry. And here is why:

Finance & banking

Banks and financial institutions need to securely exchange data and conduct transactions in compliance with confidentiality and regulatory requirements.

Supply chain & logistics

This domain increases transparency with blockchain. Companies track goods and combat counterfeiting. For example, digital technologies may assist directly with shipping goods to keep track of things like temperature, location, arrival times, and condition of containers during transportation. It can also be used to monitor parts of complex machines, like airplanes, to make sure they are safe and follow the rules.

Healthcare & pharmaceutical companies

Pharmaceutical firms use blockchain to control the authenticity of medicines and comply with regulations. Blockchain creates secure, tamper-resistant records that track medicines through the supply chain, preventing counterfeit drugs from reaching patients. For example, multiple studies and implementations using platforms like Hyperledger Fabric and private Ethereum show how blockchain maintains an immutable ledger of every transaction and movement of pharmaceutical products, enhancing transparency and safety. Besides, blockchain technologies help to create electronic health records that store important and private patient information (diagnoses, treatments, appointments, bills, and lab test results).

Retail

Permissioned blockchain increases customer trust and optimizes processes. Luxury clothes labels like Louis Vuitton are going digital to cope with counterfeit goods. For instance, when buying something next time, you might find a badge and scan it. You will find the information about the production, aftercare services, etc., that will prove its authenticity.

Real estate

Real estate companies are adopting blockchain technology to handle different types of transactions. For example, lease agreements are created and payments are made directly on the blockchain. It also facilitates and automates transactions.

Government sector

Government and private entities need access control and high data security to protect sensitive information and ensure operational integrity. For example, Estonia’s e-Estonia initiative uses blockchain to secure government networks and data while maintaining full privacy.

Conclusion

The global blockchain market is expanding rapidly, with more companies reaping the benefits of this technology every day. We hope this article serves as a helpful starting point for you to explore how permissioned blockchain can transform your business. PixelPlex is here to support you and ready to become your trusted partner on this journey.