Blockchain-based DLT is often portrayed in a positive light, however some would argue that this technology lacks standardisation and uniform understanding. This paper explores a comparison of four blockchain technology platforms, focusing on their business level properties including actors and roles, services, processes and data models.

This comparison results in a reference model, which could potentially guide the business and system analysts and software developers when developing new blockchain-based DLT platforms or their supported implementations. Accuracy of the proposed reference model is validated by considering it against selected blockchain platforms. The reference model is also validated via application, showing its usefulness for a risk-related blockchain security assessment.

This paper seeks to unify this understanding and proposes a comprehensive reference model to characterise blockchain-based DLT. The main research question is “How can you unify the understanding of the technology, through reference model?”. The proposed model will be developed by investigating and comparing existing blockchain implementations.

This investigation also presents two approaches to validation, that were performed on the model, with the corresponding results. To find out more about how to assess blockchain-based DLT systems, download this paper.