Quiz Entry - updated: 2026.07.30
What are the three deployment types of a blockchain, and how do they differ in who can read and write?
Public (anyone reads and writes), consortium/community (a pre-authorised group runs consensus; reads may be open or restricted), and private (write access kept inside one organisation).
The deployment type sets the whole trust and performance profile:
| Type | Who validates (writes) | Who can read |
|---|---|---|
| Public | Anyone on the Internet | Anyone (transparent, auditable, e.g. via a block explorer) |
| Consortium / community | A set of pre-authorised nodes across several organisations | Public or restricted to specific participants |
| Private | Kept within one organisation (possibly its divisions) | Restricted |
A public chain buys transparency and auditability but sacrifices performance and privacy; on it, data confidentiality relies entirely on encryption or hashes because there are no privileged users. Consortium and private chains are essentially a public chain plus a permission-management component that admits participants — so they recover performance and privacy at the cost of decentralisation.