Anyone can access the data stored on your network because a public Blockchain is, by definition, visible to everyone. Even if your personal data in transactions is encrypted, meta data or inference could provide a motivated actor with a wealth of information about the people involved in a transaction.

For these reasons, businesses wishing to leverage Blockchain technology to better their procedures and operations typically employ private Blockchains, which are restricted or permissioned networks in which only a small number of approved nodes can participate.

Using a private Blockchain allows organisations to presume that no unauthorised users would be able to access the network, removing numerous security needs. Do you recall the sybil attacks? In a private network, however, there’s no way for someone to deceive your network by adding a million malicious nodes.

On private networks, more effective consensus methods can be utilised due to the lower security requirements, resulting in transactions that are several orders of magnitude faster (compare 7-15 transactions in Bitcoin or Ethereum to 1000 in Hyperledger fabric). Furthermore, because the owner maintains the node fleet, transactions in private Blockchain networks are frequently free, as there is no need to pay for network maintenance or other associated fees.