Product Deep-Dive

How DRAK Works

A six-step workflow that takes your business process model from a graphical diagram to a live, production-grade blockchain smart contract — with no blockchain expertise required at any step.

Six steps from model to live blockchain

Business analysts, not blockchain developers, own every step. Software developer assistance is only needed if business logic cannot be fully expressed in DMN.

1
Input — Business Process

Create a BPMN Model of Your Workflow

Use any standard BPMN graphical modelling tool (such as Camunda Modeler or BPMN.io) to draw your business process as a swimlane diagram. Each lane represents a participant — producer, shipper, bank, customs agent, insurer. The tool outputs a standard XML file. No coding. No blockchain knowledge needed at this stage.

2
Input — Business Rules

Create a DMN Model for Decision Logic

Use a DMN (Decision Model and Notation) editor to define the business rules and decision tables that govern your workflow — for example, "if shipment is delayed more than 5 days, apply penalty clause." DMN is an OMG standard, readable by any business analyst. If all business logic is fully expressed here, no software developer is required for any subsequent step.

3
Core Innovation — DE-HSM Transformation

DRAK Transforms Your Models into Smart Contracts & API

This is where DRAK's core innovation operates. The engine ingests your BPMN and DMN XML files and performs a multi-stage transformation:

Graph analysis: The BPMN model is parsed into a directed graph representation capturing all participants, activities, gateways, and sequence flows.

DE-HSM modeling: The graph is transformed into a Discrete Event / Hierarchical State Machine (DE-HSM) multi-modal model. Discrete Event (DE) components model timing and temporal coordination between participants; Hierarchical State Machines (HSMs) model functional state transitions within each participant's scope.

Blockchain-independent intermediate representation: The DE-HSM model is encoded into a structured data representation that is independent of any specific blockchain platform. This is the key to portability — the same intermediate model can target Ethereum or Hyperledger Fabric without modification.

Code generation: DRAK generates smart contract code and a REST API. The generated smart contract embeds the DE-HSM data structure and a main interpreter method that checks state, determines valid transitions, manages participant synchronisation, and enforces ACID properties automatically.

4
Deployment

Deploy Smart Contract(s) to Your Target Blockchain

The generated smart contract is deployed to your chosen blockchain network — Ethereum (public or private), Hyperledger Fabric, or both simultaneously for cross-chain workflows. DRAK supports nested sub-transactions deployed as separate smart contracts on different blockchains, enabling true multi-chain architectures. Expensive computations are automatically identified and routed to sidechain processing to minimise gas fees and maximise cost efficiency.

5
Preparation

Prepare Trade Information & Credentials

Each participant prepares the information relevant to their role in the workflow — trade documents, certificates, credentials, payment authorisations — as JSON or structured text files. This is the only step that requires familiarity with file management. No blockchain wallets, no Solidity knowledge, no smart contract interaction syntax. DRAK's API abstracts all of that.

6
Execution

Invoke the API to Run the Trade Workflow

Call the generated REST API with the appropriate information to initiate and progress the transaction. DRAK's runtime manages all participant synchronisation, enforces ACID transaction properties across the entire multi-step workflow, enforces privacy constraints (each participant only accesses their relevant data), and handles any necessary sidechain interactions. If a mid-transaction disruption occurs, DRAK's repair capability (TABS+R) can amend the running contract and resume from a consistent state.

The technology that makes DRAK uniquely capable

Each capability addresses a hard problem that has blocked blockchain adoption in industrial settings.

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Nested Multi-Step ACID Transactions
Real-world trade spans many steps and many organisations. DRAK automatically generates transaction mechanisms that enforce atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability across the entire multi-step workflow — including nested sub-transactions, each of which can be deployed independently on separate blockchain networks.
✓ Sub-transactions can abort and roll back independently without collapsing the entire workflow — matching the semantics of database savepoints.
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Blockchain-Independent Portability
Unlike traditional smart contracts written in Solidity (Ethereum-only) or Golang chaincode (Hyperledger-only), DRAK's intermediate DE-HSM representation is platform-agnostic. The same business process model can generate contracts for multiple chains simultaneously. Methods can invoke other methods across different blockchain networks.
✓ No vendor lock-in. Switch or add blockchain platforms without touching your business process models.
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Live Contract Repair (TABS+R)
When an external event prevents a running transaction from completing — a shipping route is unavailable, a regulatory change invalidates a payment path — DRAK identifies the innermost failing sub-transaction, allows the corresponding BPMN fragment to be amended, regenerates the affected contract portion, and resumes execution while preserving all successfully completed steps.
✓ No more "failed transaction = start over." DRAK preserves your completed work and finds an alternative path forward.
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Automated Privacy Enforcement
In multi-party workflows, each participant must only see their relevant information. DRAK's generated contracts automatically compartmentalise participant data — a shipper cannot see payment amounts, a bank cannot see the detailed manufacturing specifications. Privacy rules are encoded directly into the contract logic, not managed by application-layer workarounds.
✓ Privacy-by-design: not a feature layer on top, but embedded in the generated contract structure.
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Regulatory Compliance Embedding
DRAK can embed compliance constraints for GDPR, SOX, HIPAA, PCI DSS, and internal corporate policies directly into contract generation. Compliance rules are modelled once in DMN and applied consistently across every generated contract — making regulatory auditing straightforward and keeping contract logic in sync with changing requirements.
✓ Compliance adapts with your regulations: amend the DMN rule set, regenerate, deploy an updated contract.
⬆️
Contract Upgradability
Business processes evolve. DRAK supports controlled smart contract upgrades using proxy patterns and structured indirection — allowing bugs to be fixed and features to be added to deployed contracts without abandoning the existing transaction history. Combined with the repair capability, this gives DRAK the most complete contract lifecycle management of any BPMN-to-blockchain tool.
✓ Deploy once, evolve continuously — without writing new contracts from scratch.
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Sidechain Cost Optimisation
DRAK automatically identifies computation-heavy operations in your generated contract — complex decision logic, aggregation, validation — and routes them to cheaper sidechain processing. The overhead cost difference is calculated automatically and the interaction protocol between main chain and sidechain is managed by the generated code, not by you.
✓ Same trust guarantees. Dramatically lower transaction fees for compute-intensive workflows.
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Security by Generation
The most common smart contract vulnerabilities — reentrancy attacks, integer overflow, improper access control — arise from hand-written code. Because DRAK generates contract code algorithmically from a verified transformation process, these classes of bugs are structurally eliminated. Cryptographic method usage is standardised and automated, not left to developer discretion.
✓ Eliminate the human coding errors that have cost the DeFi ecosystem billions of dollars.

Built on a decade of rigorous blockchain research

DRAK is not a prototype. It is the commercialised product of a systematic research programme that has produced 12+ peer-reviewed publications across the leading venues in distributed systems and blockchain.

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2021 — FSM Foundations
ACM ICBCT & BSCI: Off-chain computing patterns and sidechain tool. The algorithmic basis for DRAK's cost optimisation.
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2022 — DE-HSM Model
IEEE ICEET & BCCA: Multi-modal BPMN transformation and long-term transaction support. The core engine of DRAK.
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2023 — TABS Published
Elsevier BCRA: Full TABS system published. Peer-validated transformation pipeline from BPMN to smart contract.
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2024 — TABS+ (Nested Tx)
ACM DLT Journal: Nested collaborative transactions with full ACID properties across multiple blockchain networks.
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2025 — TABS+R (Repair)
IEEE VCC & ICDCS: Live contract repair capability. Amend running contracts without losing completed transaction history.

See DRAK in action with your own process

Request a pilot and our team will model one of your existing business workflows and demonstrate a live deployment.

Request a Pilot → Try the Live Demo