MultiChain

What is MultiChain?

MultiChain is an open-source platform for creating private blockchains.

Think of it as “Bitcoin for enterprises”. Same technology, but designed for permissioned networks where participants are known.

MultiChain lets you deploy a private blockchain in minutes.

Why MultiChain?

Building blockchain from scratch is hard. MultiChain gives you:

• Ready-made consensus - no need to implement your own
• Flexible permissions - control who can do what
• Built-in assets - create tokens without smart contracts
• Data streams - store arbitrary data on-chain

It’s a toolkit for building permissioned blockchain applications.

The Permission Model

MultiChain has granular access control. You can assign permissions per address:

How Permissions Work

When you create a MultiChain network, you become the admin.

You can then:

1. Grant permissions to other addresses
2. Revoke permissions at any time
3. Require multiple admins to agree on changes

This is very different from Bitcoin, where anyone can participate.

Streams

Streams are MultiChain’s way of storing arbitrary data on the blockchain.

Think of a stream as a database table that lives on-chain:

Stream Use Cases

Streams let you build applications without writing smart contracts.

Creating and Using Streams

A typical workflow:

1. Create a stream: Define its name and permissions
2. Subscribe: Nodes choose which streams to index
3. Publish: Write key-value items to the stream
4. Query: Read items by key, publisher, or time

Each stream item contains:

• Key(s) - for lookups
• Data - the actual content (JSON, hex, text)
• Publisher - who wrote it (signed)
• Timestamp - when it was confirmed

Stream Security

Who can do what?

You can make streams:

• Open - anyone on the network can write
• Restricted - only specific addresses can write

All writes are signed, so you always know who published what.

Consensus in MultiChain

MultiChain uses a round-robin mining approach:

1. A set of addresses have mine permission
2. Miners take turns creating blocks
3. The mining diversity parameter ensures rotation

This is much simpler than proof of work:

• No wasted energy
• Fast block times (seconds)
• Predictable throughput

With known validators, you don’t need expensive puzzles.

When to Use MultiChain

Good fit:

• Multiple organizations sharing data
• Need audit trails and immutability
• Want blockchain benefits without public exposure
• Simple asset tracking or data timestamping

Not ideal for:

• Public, trustless systems
• Complex smart contract logic (use Hyperledger or Ethereum instead)
• Very high throughput (thousands of TPS)

MultiChain excels at simple private blockchains with minimal setup.