Examining business network history in more detail, we can see that there are two elements to the history of an asset (or participant), namely, its current value, and the sequenced set of transactions that led to this value. We can generate the value of the asset at all points in time if we sequentially apply from an arbitrary point in time all the transactions that affected it. Effectively, we think of transaction history as a set of transaction events that occur at different times and places in the business network, thereby determining its state at any given point in time.

We will see these two aspects of business networks explicitly expressed in Hyperledger Fabric via the concepts of a ledger world state and a ledger blockchain. The world state holds the latest value of an asset in a business network, whereas the blockchain holds the record of all transactions in the business network. This makes Hyperledger Fabric a little more powerful than other blockchains—like them, it records all the transactions in a blockchain. Additionally, it also calculates the current value of an asset, making it very easy to be confident that you're working with the the most up-to-date state. These most-recent values tend to be the most important because they represent the current state of the world. And, that's what most participants are interested in when it comes to initiating new transactions.