Introducing assets

We've seen how a business network is defined by the participants who operate within it. These participants are the active agents who perform meaningful interactions within the network, and its their transactions which are of paramount importance. We now ask ourselves the question, What flows between participants? To which the simple answer is assets.

To understand what we mean by an asset, let's look at some examples. We notice that a student receives coursework from their tutor. That same student may subsequently show their educational certificate to a university. A car dealer sells a car to a buyer. An insurance company insures that same car for a policyholder, issuing a policy. A policyholder makes a claim. These examples all contains assets: coursework, education certificate, car, policy, and claim.

Assets flow between participants

We can see that assets are the objects that flow between participants. Whereas participants have a significant degree of autonomy, assets...