TradeLens worked when its technical controls and governance rules reinforced one another; it was weaker wherever a single mechanism would have been expected to carry the whole trust burden.

WorkedDid not

Data control

Participants retained control¹

Centralised storage¹

Access

Relevant parties only²

Visibility for everyone²

Record integrity

Consensus-based immutability¹

Unilateral alteration¹

Governance

Layered coordination²

Technology without governance²

Technology governance addressed IP concerns by combining data immutability, security, and controlled access.¹ The permissioned blockchain allowed participants to host nodes as trust anchors for consensus, so the record was not controlled by one actor acting alone.²

That architecture was paired with organisational rules. Strategic governance handled off-chain matters, technological governance handled on-chain matters, and interoperability governance connected the two environments.¹ Together, these mechanisms aligned incentives among rivals and mitigated disputes over IP and data use.²

TradeLens platform managed IP fears via layered governance in multi-rival supply chain ecosystem