6.3.2. Degree of Decentralization

The degree of decentralization is dependent and based on the chosen mechanism of manageable system integration. This will also require promoting adoption of such decentralized solutions, implying that some software components of the decentralized solutions are still expected to be hosted by intermediaries. The intermediaries could be backend databases, mobile applications, and backend application, with users only keeping hold of secrets or instances of decentralized system components such as blockchain nodes assigned to registered entities to the decentralized solutions.

The decentralized model could be substantiated with the blockchain network and its chosen consensus algorithm. Implementations of a blockchain network with its dedicated blockchain interface provide a certain degree of decentralization when it comes to transactions being validated and packed in a block on-chain with the respective methods of

deployed smart contract invoked as well as proposing state changes on-chain registry for peer authentication and the blockchain network. Decentralization around smart contract managemen<sup>t</sup> and deployment, managemen<sup>t</sup> of software component instances of the decentralized solutions, and managemen<sup>t</sup> of the distributed network protocols might be limited depending on the choice of blockchain implementations adopted but would definitely not be solely managed by product producers in the supply chain industry.
