Char Howland and Daniel Bluhm, Author at Hyperledger Foundation

May 02

Hyperledger identity community completes development of DID:Indy Method and advances toward a network of networks

By Char Howland and Daniel Bluhm Blog, Hyperledger Indy, Identity

New Hyperledger Indy updates pave the way for verifiable credentials to be issued and read on different networks, affirming Hyperledger as the most advanced framework for interoperable, decentralized identity

Earlier this year, the Government of British Columbia announced the “Indy DID Method Code With Us” challenge. The goals were to align the content that can be written in the DIDDocs published on Hyperledger Indy networks with the current World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Decentralized Identifier (DID) Specification and to add a namespace element to DIDs (and other object identifiers) published on Hyperledger Indy networks, so users know on which of the many Hyperledger Indy networks the DID was created.

Hyperledger Indy is an open source project housed at the Hyperledger Foundation providing the codebase to create distributed networks, purpose-built for SSI and verifiable credentials. Networks built on Indy are some of the most mature and tested networks with self-sovereign identity (SSI) capabilities; but since they were developed before the publication of the World Wide Web (W3C) DID Specification, they needed to be brought into alignment.

While the Indy DID Method began as a community development effort within Hyperledger Indy, it needed a push to completion; hence the Code With Us challenge from the government of British Columbia. Indicio was awarded the challenge and went on to develop and complete several of the remaining components.

The result is that a credential issued using any Hyperledger Indy network (such as Indicio, Sovrin, Findy, Bedrock, IdUnion, etc.) can be processed by any verifier. This is because the objects in the verifiable presentation reference the Hyperledger Indy network used by the issuer. The Indy:DID Method lays the groundwork to make this possible.

This advancement in interoperability is significant. While issuers still need to be anchored in the specific Indy ledger of their choice, holders can seamlessly receive verifiable credentials from issuers rooted in different Hyperledger Indy networks, and be able to create verifiable presentations from any combination of those credentials. Likewise, verifiers will be able to verify presentations that include claims derived from credentials rooted in multiple Indy networks. The Indy:DID Method paves the way for Hyperledger Indy credentials to scale by allowing Indy networks to seamlessly interoperate, creating a global “network of networks” effect.

With the groundwork complete, networks and agent frameworks now need to incorporate the Indy:DID Method. This community adoption will increase the viability of the Indy and Aries project stack and position it to be the globally dominant way to issue and share verifiable credentials in a multi-ledger world.

To learn more about did:indy and the next steps for implementation, you are welcome to join the leading contributors from Indicio and BCGov at the Hyperledger Identity Implementers Call taking place, Thursday, May 5, 8:00 AM US Pacific (3pm UTC)

Note:

The Indicio team would like to thank BC Gov for funding this work and Dominic Wörner, another contributor to the Code With Us challenge, for his work on Indy VDR.

Where to find the work:
- PR to Indy Node: https://github.com/hyperledger/indy-node/pull/1740
- PR to Indy VDR: https://github.com/hyperledger/indy-vdr/pull/84
- Indy HIPE about did:indy: https://github.com/hyperledger/indy-hipe/tree/main/text/0164-did-indy-method
- Demo: https://github.com/Indicio-tech/did-indy-demo
Where to ask questions:
- Daniel Bluhm (Indy Node questions)
  - Discord: dbluhm#9676
  - GitHub: https://github.com/dbluhm
- Dominic Wörner (Indy VDR questions)
  - Discord: domwoe#9301
  - https://github.com/domwoe

Apr 28

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Bosch leverages open source model; teams with PolyCrypt to tackle blockchain for the Economy of Things

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Labs

Read the full case study here.

Some years ago, researchers realized that IoT devices would need to buy and sell from one another. In this “Economy of Things,” the items to be traded will include power, data, and connectivity. Most transactions will be fast, low value, and high frequency.

For a company like The Bosch Group that’s active in everything from autonomous vehicles to thermal plants, the Economy of Things will touch many lines of business. That’s why, in 2017, the company’s advanced research group, Bosch Research, was looking to find a way to scale up blockchain transactions to support the Economy of Things.

Bosch set out to do meet that requirement by leveraging a specific, step-by-step open source strategy for developing new markets:

Identify a requirement
Set goals
Consider the terrain
Build a partnership
Pick a suitable license
Use open source archetypes

The goals were to lead an effort to create standards for the Economy of Things and to build a framework where different partners could work together.

A survey for likely partners led the Bosch team to Perun, an early layer-2 protocol that passes state information off-chain through virtual channels. Bosch joined forces with several academics to implement this protocol and start creating an ecosystem.

As part of the process, Perun needed a stable home where everyone could access the latest code, and other people could find it. Hyperledger Labs provides a space where developments can be started without the overhead of creating an official Hyperledger project.

In Q3 2020, Perun was welcomed into Hyperledger Labs, and development has continued with work from the team at Boch and PolyCrypt GbmH, a startup spun out of the Technical University Darmstadt, where much of the academic research behind Perun began.

The Bosch team was eager to talk about its approaches and contributions to Hyperledger Foundation. To that end, they worked with Hyperledger marketing and others in the Perun community on a case study that details not only the business and technology challenges they’ve set out to tackle but also the strategic way they are leveraging open source development to advance the industry for all.

We never know what technology will turn into the Next Big Thing.

Perhaps Perun will be one of them, powering billions of micropayments between IoT devices or enabling people to shop with Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) that are still on the drawing board today.

Read the full case study here.

Apr 26

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Developer showcase series: Navil Rodrigues, Coding Bootcamps

By Hyperledger Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Transact

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Navil Rodrigues of Coding Bootcamps.

What advice would you offer other technologists or developers interested in getting started working on blockchain?

To the newbies starting out their journey in the blockchain space, I would suggest having a strong grasp on fundamentals like cryptography and data structure like merkle tree to know how blocks are linked with each other. After which I would suggest reading the book “Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas” to enhance your knowledge. Later on you can choose a public or private blockchain that interests you.

Give a bit of background on what you’re working on, and let us know what was it that made you want to get into blockchain?

I am currently working as a full-time blockchain developer at Mckinley Rice. My most of the time goes architecting and implementing smart contracts for Ethereum and sidechains. I also have experience in developing and designing ICO contracts and bridging solutions to connect different chains. The “State of trust,” “Decentralization” and “Immutable data records” made me fall for this technology.

What Hyperledger project(s) are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger technologies?

I have worked on a supply chain finance platform built upon Hyperledger Fabric that was developed to provide a common platform for suppliers, anchors and financial institutions. I keep an eye on what’s new in Hyperledger Fabric to stay updated with the latest developments. I would say the community behind the Hyperledger umbrella development is very active and its industry experts.

What are the main differences between developing blockchain applications in Hyperledger Fabric or Ethereum?

There are several differences. For instance, the consensus algorithm or architecture of a popular public blockchain like Ethereum or Polygon is very different from Hyperledger Fabric as they serve different purposes. Likewise, when it comes to NFT assets on a public network like Polygon versus a private network like Hyperledger Fabric, public networks allow integration with cross-chain networks and DeFi. For example, RealBig NFT assets are tied into both crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms for staking.

What do you think is most important for the Hyperledger community to focus on in the next year?

The most important thing Hyperledger can focus on is increasing the number of transactions per second. Also, we like to see Hyperledger tools and libraries that are currently at incubation stage become active.

As Hyperledger’s incubated projects start maturing and hit 1.0s and beyond, what are the most interesting technologies, apps, or use cases coming out as a result from your perspective?

Hyperledger Transact is a really interesting product. We need methods for quickly creating distributed ledger technology (DLT) applications.

What’s the one issue or problem you hope blockchain can solve?

Blockchain is going to solve many problems. However, I am looking forward to seeing blockchain being adopted and implemented more by private companies.

Where do you hope to see Hyperledger technologies and/or blockchain in 5 years?

We hope to see robust widely accepted Hyperledger DLT applications especially among enterprise companies.

What is the best piece of developer advice you’ve ever received?

Spend more time on architecting a solution thoroughly than developing it.

What technology could you not live without?

The Internet.

Apr 22

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Sustainability by design: Takeaways from Linux Foundation Research “The Carbon Footprint of NFTs” report

By Hyperledger Blog, Research

As Tom Brady, DCComics and Visa will tell you, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are a class of assets underpinning the worlds of digital art, digital collectibles, metaverse gaming, and beyond, that have exploded in popularity. At the same time, they have been met with skepticism, tainted by market hype, and associated with energy-intensive Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanisms.

Diving into this tug of war between innovation and sustainability, Linux Foundation Research, in collaboration with Hyperledger Foundation and Palm NFT Studio, just released a detailed report on the current and future state of carbon consumption and NFTs that explores the environmental impact of NFTs, investigating how and why NFTs can have varying carbon footprints depending on underlying technology stacks.

As this report, “The Carbon Footprint of NFTs,” confirms, not all blockchains are created equal. Case in point: Recent estimates suggested that mining activities associated with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are responsible for emitting 114.06 megatons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s as much as the entire country of the Czech Republic.

This report looks at problematic energy use for specific types of blockchains and then dives into several emerging blockchain technologies that can reduce or eliminate these harms. It goes on to provide guidance on steps and strategies to not only increase the sustainability of blockchain but leverage the innovation of NFTs and smart contracts to tackle climate change itself.

Researched and written to provide an objective look at pitfalls and potentials of NFTs, this detailed report includes interviews and insights from climate experts, economists, technologists and companies on the front line of NFT and blockchain innovation. The key takeaways are outlined in the graphic below:

The report’s final words are “The choices are up to you,” underscoring that there is a path to sustainability with NFTs. The key is putting the climate front and center in design, development and deployment decisions taking place right now.

Download the full report to find out more about the pathway to NFT sustainability.

Apr 22

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Hyperledger Foundation Teams with Palm NFT Studio on Deep Dive into the Carbon Footprint of NFTs

By Hyperledger Announcements

Announces report from Linux Foundation Research on the current and future state of carbon consumption and NFTs

SAN FRANCISCO (April 22, 2022) – Today, in honor of Earth Day, Hyperledger Foundation, the open, global ecosystem for enterprise blockchain technologies, announced the publication of the report “The Carbon Footprint of NFTs: Not All Blockchains Are Created Equal.” This Linux Foundation Research report, developed in collaboration with Hyperledger Foundation and Palm NFT Studio, provides an extensive look at the environmental impact of NFTs (non-fungible tokens) and delves into how and why NFTs can have varying carbon footprints depending on underlying technology stacks.

“For all the excitement about the potential of NFTs to create new value and traceability as digital assets authenticating everything from art and collectibles to products in the supply chain, there is equal consternation about climate impact of the blockchain mining enabling them,” said Daniela Barbosa, Executive Director, Hyperledger Foundation, and General Manager Blockchain, Healthcare and Identity at the Linux Foundation. “As champions of innovation and openness, Hyperledger Foundation views this report as a critical look at the pitfalls and potential of NFTs and, more importantly, a way to put climate considerations front and center in this fast-moving market.”

This extensive report includes an analysis of the carbon impacts of Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) consensus mechanisms as well as an overview of technology alternatives for reducing energy consumption, underscoring the impact different blockchain decisions make on the climate. It goes on to provide guidance on steps and strategies to not only increase the sustainability of blockchain but leverage the innovation of NFTs and smart contracts to tackle climate change itself.

“Defining a problem is the first step to solving it,” said Hilary Carter, Vice President of Research at the Linux Foundation. “Researching and writing this report showed us the double-edged reality of NFTs but also gave us the opportunity to map out new approaches that can lead to a sustainable, even beneficial NFT future. Addressing climate change will include rethinking when, where, and how we deploy technology and, in this case, how we can pivot to climate-forward practices in both the deployment and application of NFTs.”

Key takeaways from the report include:

Approximately 80 percent of NFTs are transacted via Ethereum which currently uses the energy intensive Proof of Work consensus mechanism. Ethereum is transitioning to Proof of Stake in 2022.
The NFT ecosystem is evolving with other lower carbon footprint blockchain options already available, as well as layer 2 solutions that are less energy intensive and more scalable.
The entire blockchain ecosystem must shoulder the responsibility for environmentally sound solutions.
Verified offsets should be employed for a fully carbon-neutral solution. Align projects with certified environmental projects will benefit communities and foster cycles of positive reinforcement in scale and investment.
Embedding energy and climate disclosures in platforms allows users to make informed choices about using one blockchain or sidechain over another.

“This report comes at a critical moment in the evolution of NFTs,” shared Co-Founder and CEO of Palm NFT Studio Dan Heyman. “As they gain traction with enterprise-grade businesses and fans alike, the volume of NFTs minted for any given program shifts from numbering in the thousands to hundreds of thousands and into the millions. It’s imperative that we implement solutions to negate the environmental impact. We’re motivated by the findings of the Linux Foundation research report, and hope they serve as a catalyst for more innovation in our industry, and ultimately a more environmentally conscious blockchain.”

The full “Carbon Footprint of NFTs: Not All Blockchains Are Created Equal” report as well as a one-page visual recap of 12 top takeaways are available for download here.

About Hyperledger Foundation

Hyperledger Foundation was founded in 2015 to bring transparency and efficiency to the enterprise market by fostering a thriving ecosystem around open source blockchain software technologies. As a project of the Linux Foundation, Hyperledger Foundation coordinates a community of member and non member organizations, individual contributors and software developers building enterprise-grade platforms, libraries, tools and solutions for multi-party systems using blockchain, distributed ledger, and related technologies. Organizations join Hyperledger Foundation to demonstrate technical leadership, collaborate and network with others, and raise awareness around their efforts in the enterprise blockchain community. Members include industry-leading organizations in finance, banking, healthcare, supply chains, manufacturing, technology and beyond. All Hyperledger code is built publicly and available under the Apache license. To learn more, visit: https://www.hyperledger.org/.

About the Linux Foundation

Founded in 2000, the Linux Foundation and its projects are supported by more than 1,800 members and is the world’s leading home for collaboration on open source software, open standards, open data, and open hardware. Linux Foundation’s projects, including Linux, Kubernetes, Node.js, Hyperledger Foundation, RISC-V, and more, are critical to the world’s infrastructure. The Linux Foundation’s methodology focuses on leveraging best practices and addressing the needs of contributors, users and solution providers to create sustainable models for open collaboration. For more information, please visit us at linuxfoundation.org.

Apr 19

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Tackling Energy Security and Climate Change with Open Source and Blockchain

By Si Chen, Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting SIG Blog, Climate, Special Interest Group

It started out as two separate projects at the Climate Accounting and Action SIG, a Hyperledger group focused on using blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLT’s) to solve climate problems.

Bertrand Rioux, then a Research Fellow at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, started a project to use Hyperledger and DLT’s to reduce methane emissions in oil and gas production.

Meanwhile, halfway around the world in Los Angeles, Si Chen, who had developed open source ERP and CRM software and runs an ecommerce company, started a project to reduce emissions in transportation and the supply chain with DLT’s.

Then the world changed.

War, trade embargoes, and soaring energy prices have sent countries around the world scrambling to secure their energy sources.

Would this derail our last chance to reduce emissions and stop climate change?

Amazingly, the answer is no in at least one important way: Reducing methane emissions from oil and gas production could both help improve energy security and help the climate at the same time.

Here’s why: Each day at an oil or natural gas field, excess methane either leaks from the ground or is burnt (or “flared.”) This methane could also be sold as natural gas and used later if it could be captured and transported. The amount is mind boggling. According to FlareIntel, 260 billion cubic meters of methane is lost each year. This is 1.7 times the amount of natural gas Europe imports from Russia. It also has the climate impact of 1.3 billion cars — almost all the cars in the world, or nearly seven times the emissions of all the world’s airlines.

Capturing and using this methane as natural gas would both increase the amount of energy available and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Yet while the energy industry is behind it with many new initiatives, a lack of data on methane emissions and lack of focus to reduce them has held back progress. To encourage greater momentum, several groups have started to produce certifications for responsibly sourced natural gas, but these certifications are often proprietary and opaque to the general public.

The Climate SIG rallied together to address this critical problem with a bold plan: An open certification of natural gas that could be transferred through the supply chain, running on open source software and through distributed ledgers, so that it could be transparent to regulators, investors, and the general public. The solution involves four steps that combine the work of Methane Reduction and Supply Chain Decarbonization SIG projects:

1. Combine data from multiple sources, including company reports, government data sources, ground instrument readings, and satellite data, to calculate the total methane emissions from both leakage and flaring.
2. Calculate added emissions impact from the combined methane emissions.
3. Transfer the added emissions down the supply chain, from oil well to resellers to eventually the gas utilities.
4. At each stage, certify the quality of the natural gas based on the added methane emissions.

This project has grown from the two original developers to a larger group. Even though the developers are from around the world and have never met in person, they’re working together the open source way. Through Zoom calls, wiki pages, and shared code repositories, they’ve been building a prototype for the Hyperledger Global Challenge while interviewing industry members, data providers, and government regulators.

Being open source, the projects are open to new participants and contributors. For more information or to get involved, please see the Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting SIG as well as the Methane Reduction and Supply Chain Decarbonization project pages.

Apr 13

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Introducing Hyperledger FireFly 1.0: The SuperNode for Enterprise Web3 Applications

By The Hyperledger FireFly team Blog, Hyperledger Firefly

It’s been a busy 10 months for Hyperledger FireFly. From its inception as a Hyperledger Lab contributed by Kaleido in June of 2021, FireFly moved quickly to be a full Hyperledger project just four months later. And today the community is excited to announce that version 1.0 of Hyperledger FireFly is now generally available.

Hyperledger FireFly 1.0 combines a number of technical and market milestones. At its core, it offers a composable Web3 stack to help speed up decentralized application (dApp) development by a factor of 10x-100x, making it the first open-source SuperNode for enterprises to build and scale secure Web3 applications.

It is already in production deployments with a number of leading blockchain consortia today, including RiskStream Collaborative in the insurance industry, Synaptic Health Alliance in healthcare, and TradeGo in commodity trade finance.

A Composable Web3 Stack To Support Decentralized Apps

Over the last decade of enterprise blockchain projects, architects and developers have realized that they need much more than a blockchain node for their projects to be successful. Early custom-built blockchain engagements often were multi-million dollar, multi-year projects that struggled to get into production.

As the $3T market for Web3 has materialized around areas such as decentralized finance (DeFi), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and the metaverse, companies are looking to embrace these disruptive technologies and the potential for new business opportunities. Writing decentralized applications, however, requires a large set of composable Web3 and traditional IT technologies that interact with each other as enterprise building blocks that anyone can use.

The Hyperledger FireFly SuperNode provides this new type of decentralized orchestration layer between companies’ existing systems and Web3. It enables the shift of value in open network systems and reduces the reliance on proprietary technology or custom-built code. It solves for the layers of complexity that sit between the low level blockchain and high level business processes and user interfaces, letting developers focus on building business logic instead of infrastructure.

By enabling companies to avoid “reinventing the wheel” just to connect to Web3, Hyperledger FireFly increases developer efficiency and fills a void of previously missing functionality to help companies create secure and auditable connections to Web3’s open ecosystems. In doing so, companies using FireFly will gain a first-mover advantage over their peers that can’t successfully make the leap to Web3.

The Best of Public and Private Blockchain Technologies

Hyperledger FireFly’s open-source approach brings the best of both public and private blockchain technologies onto a single platform. Its multi-chain support also provides companies a crucial step towards interoperability. Companies can quickly bootstrap projects on FireFly by tapping into Web3 innovations such as smart contracts and NFTs without having to build everything from scratch, while also satisfying enterprise requirements for simple APIs, reliable delivery, and robust connections. FireFly also helps to ‘future-proof’ these applications by providing a blockchain-neutral platform to build on.

Hyperledger FireFly has built-in integrations and support for popular communities such as Ethereum (Quorum, Hyperledger Besu, Geth, public mainnet), Hyperledger Fabric and Corda, and for standard digital assets such as ERC20, ERC721 and ERC 1155. The FireFly code base comprises more than 200,000 lines of enterprise-ready code, and is extensible and pluggable for token bridges, L2s such as Polygon, and standards-led approaches such as the Baseline protocol.

Here’s a full overview of components available in the 1.0 release:

Hyperledger FireFly has come a long way in a short time. We are excited about how quickly we’ve been able to grow the project and the community and how quickly enterprises and consortia are adopting the technology. We would like to invite you to come be part of our community. Here’s our Github and our Discord. We also hosted a deep dive into FireFly SuperNodes and the 1.0 release on April 13 watch below.

Recorded webinar: (download slides here)

Apr 12

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Hyperledger Lab Perun: Achievements of 2021 and Outlook for 2022

By the Perun community Blog, Hyperledger Labs

2021 was an eventful year for the Hyperledger Lab Perun, which is maintained by PolyCrypt GmbH and Robert Bosch GmbH’s project “Economy of Things.” Below we summarize developments and achievements for the project and the growing network surrounding it. We also provide a brief outlook on what’s to come in 2022.

This Hyperledger Lab aims at establishing an open-source project based on Perun channel protocols, which is a technology for scalability and interoperability of blockchains. The core components are the Go-Perun SDK and the Perun Node.

New features in Go-Perun SDK & Perun Node

Virtual channels: The SDK now supports virtual channels. This allows opening channels with funds from other channels and therefore without any on-chain fees.

Reorg-resistance (Ethereum backend): The Ethereum backend now supports reorg-resistance. That is, it is possible to configure how many blocks are required in order to confirm an on-chain transaction. This improves the robustness of our library as it protects against chain reorgs.

External watcher: Go-Perun now has an interface for injecting a custom watcher logic. This means that SDK users can now implement their own watcher logic or use an external service for watching and reacting to chain events.

Perun Node v0.6: A new client that adds a text-based user interface for trying out Perun Node, support for ERC20 tokens and improved error handling.

More supported blockchains

Polkadot backend: We successfully developed a Polkadot backend for Go-Perun. This means that it is now possible to use Go-Perun on Polkadot chains. The backend is currently restricted to single asset payment channels.

Cosmos backend: We successfully developed a Cosmos backend for Go-Perun. The on-chain logic has been implemented in the form of a CosmWasm smart contract. This means that it is now possible to use Go-Perun on a Cosmos chain supporting CosmWasm. The backend is currently restricted to payment channels.

Dfinity backend (smart contract): We started the development of a backend for the Dfinity Internet Computer. This currently includes the Perun smart contracts for this network. We plan to continue the backend development later this year.

Demonstrators, Tutorials, Talks

Perun Credential Payment: We have published a proof of concept implementation that shows how trustless and low-fee payments for verifiable credentials in the context of self-sovereign identities (SSI) can be realized using Perun State Channels.

Perun Tutorial and Protocol Documentation: We extended the documentation of our software. In particular, we added developer tutorials that explain how one can get started with using Go-Perun for developing their favorite state channel application. We also added a description of the perun protocols.

Talks: We have given several talks on the Perun Project:

Outlook for 2022

Cross-chain interoperability: We will be working towards enabling cross-chain capabilities of the Perun Framework. This will enable, for example, asset swaps between different blockchains and more.

IoT Readiness: We will make the architecture of Perun Node more flexible, so that funding and watching services can be accessed over remote interfaces. We will also add an alternate client implementation that can be deployed on resource constrained embedded devices.

More blockchain backends: We will be looking into extending the feature set of our existing backends, for example, enabling generalized state channels on Polkadot. We plan to add more blockchains to our list of supported backends.

Building out the ecosystem: As development with the protocol and surrounding network continues, we will be working to further define the components of the Perun ecosystem and the communities working to advance these technologies.

If you want to learn more about the framework, please refer to the white paper and our last Hyperledger labs post or this Hyperledger presentation on Perun or reach out via our Discord channel. (New to Discord? Go here for more and to get signed up.)

Apr 07

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Five Takeaways on Open Source, Blockchain and Innovation from HLTH VIVE and HIMSS

By Jim St. Clair, Executive DIrector, Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) Blog, Healthcare

The month of March 2022 finally gave us the opportunity to enjoy sunny Florida and partake in the competition of the largest in-person health conferences in two years. In one corner, the scrappy new competitor, HLTH VIVE, having their first ever conference in the Miami Convention Center. In the opposing corner, the champion, HIMSS, which before the pandemic drew a crowd of over 40,000, and managed to draw almost 28,000 (including a shocking 10,000 last minute, in-person registrations) for a week at the massive Orange County Convention Center in Orlando. It was a busy scene for sure – attended by industry professionals, healthcare leaders, government and start-ups.

These shows cover a huge array of topics, so we were pleased to see that the real-world impact of blockchain and other technologies that support the increasingly decentralized world of medicine were front and center at these events. As we recently highlighted in the post Hyperledger-Powered Solutions Helping to Reshape Healthcare, there has been continuous innovation and investment aimed at breaking down information silos and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data reporting and sharing. It’s gratifying to see the realization of that work and to gather with colleagues for discussions about what’s been achieved and what comes next.

Read on for five takeaways from the two weeks we spent in Florida getting the latest on open source and blockchain technology in healthcare:

In person is back! It’s worth noting that after two years the in-person experience is finally coming back. It’s hard not to immediately appreciate the value of face-to-face engagement, and reportedly there were only a few health challenges at either event.

“First rule of blockchain: Never talk about blockchain.” HIMSS hosted two breakfast panels featuring a range of healthcare industry professionals discussing blockchain applications. It was worth noting that these applications didn’t make Anthem or Humana, for example, “blockchain companies,” but instead demonstrated how enterprise blockchain ledgers support existing business processes and improve workflows. This will probably continue in new adoption models.

Healthcare gets decentralized. While there is plenty of talk about “Web3” in healthcare on the Internet, it’s probably worth noting first how healthcare as an industry is poised to be decentralized, without the first NFT. The shift to remote patient monitoring (RPM), Hospital at Home, and telehealth demonstrate the shift to healthcare moving away from the centralized hospitals and doctor’s offices as the primary means of healthcare services. The Linux Foundation Open Voice Network (OVON) hosted a half-day summit on voice and AI in healthcare, based on other industry trends for voice-controlled devices making major inroads in customer services and delivery. Distributed ledgers, with their auditable and immutable transaction chains, complement voice-only, AI augmented encounters to tie information back to clinical records and support prescriptions and clinical interventions.

It’s more than privacy; it’s also consent. While healthcare has been heavily regulated for decades, especially concerning medical privacy, there is growing recognition of the need for consent mechanisms, especially in digital health. During the VIVE event, Linux Foundation Public Health (LFPH) presented twice on eConsent mechanisms and the role Hyperledger Indy and W3C Verifiable Credentials can play in enforcing identity and consent as part of health information exchange.

Future innovations will drive toward scale, speed, and equity. As LFPH member VMWare notes in its takeaways, digital innovation in healthcare is driving the future, and the healthcare industry is living through major market transitions in digital health and patient-centric care models. There is tremendous room for multi-stakeholder collaboration in open source and leveraging blockchain for decentralized healthcare applications, making engagement more patient-centric.

It’s exciting to see how Hyperledger Foundation, LFPH and other Linux Foundation projects are actively involved in so many facets of new innovations in healthcare. Across the entire Linux Foundation, there’s a tremendous amount of work underway that is driving significant improvements in healthcare, demonstrating the power of open source to advance innovation:

Hyperledger Foundation hosts a variety of cutting edge solutions to decentralize transactions and integrate with new supply chain models.
Linux Foundation Public Health builds, secures, and sustains open source software to improve global health equity and innovation.
The Trust over IP Foundation is almost celebrating its second anniversary and has been pioneering a new model for digital identity that is already being adopted in Canada and the EU. IT’s also laying the groundwork for re-imagining patient identity.
LF AI & Data is supporting open source innovation in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AI/ML), a rapidly growing technology in healthcare.
There are numerous initiatives in Cloud Computing, which many public health agencies can leverage for system modernization.
The Linux Foundation is leading the charge in the US mandate on securing software supply chains, and there’s a tremendous opportunity to include LFPH and help to secure medical devices and Internet of Medical Things (IoMT).

Continue to watch this space for more exciting innovations to improve health outcomes in open source that can be realized in 2022.

Cover image: Piqsels

Apr 06

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Call for Applications: 2022 Hyperledger Mentorship Program

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Aries, Hyperledger Besu, Hyperledger Bevel, Hyperledger Cactus, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Mentorship Program, Hyperledger Ursa

Want to jump start a career in blockchain development? Ready to build hands-on skills developing leading-edge open source technologies? Looking to work directly with mentors who are invested in you and your work? Then the Hyperledger Mentorship Program is for you.

Now in its sixth year, the Hyperledger Mentorship Program provides a structured and guided learning opportunity for anyone, at any career stage, looking to get started in the open source movement. With full and part time options, fully remote work and a stipend, the projects are designed to be a pathway to becoming a contributor to the Hyperledger community that work for students, people in career transition and anyone else who wants to develop or sharpen their knowledge of cutting-edge blockchain technologies. Applications are now open.

This year, the Hyperledger Mentorship Program has grown to 30 planned part and full-time projects covering a range of technologies, challenges and technical difficulty levels and includes non-development projects such as Ecosystem Analysis and Developer Marketing. Each project is designed and proposed by active members of the Hyperledger community. Those who propose the projects serve as the mentors and work closely with their mentees on developing a project plan, setting milestones and solving problems. Mentees can expect regular evaluations and feedback. For more about the program, including the schedule and stipend details, go here.

Over the last five years, more than 70 mentees have completed Hyperledger Mentorship projects. Each of these mentees have made concrete contributions to Hyperledger projects and built important connections in the community. Some, like Bertrand Rioux, have gone on to become mentors themselves:

“I was accepted into the Hyperledger mentorship program last year after seeking a community to help advance my professional goals of developing software for climate action. I was fortunate to find a diverse group of mentors that helped me build the knowledge and skills I needed to effectively contribute to the Hyperledger open source community and to have the opportunity to develop technical expertise in a field I was actively working in. In addition to delivering a secure identity management solution for a Hyperledger Fabric Network, I started contributing my own ideas to the open source operating system for climate action. As a result, I am now taking a leadership role in the community. In addition to serving as mentor in this year’s program, I proposed a project on reducing waste emission in the oil & gas industry that was accepted.” – Bertrand Rioux, Independent Energy Consultant and Mentor for the Multiple Data Integration to Hyperledger Fabric Climate Accounting Network project

To learn more about the Hyperledger Mentorship experience and outcomes, check out these spotlights on last year’s projects with highlights from both the mentors and mentees.

Read on for descriptions of some of the projects planned for this year:

Multiple Data Integration to Hyperledger Fabric Climate Accounting Network

The Hyperledger Labs blockchain-carbon-accounting project includes a Hyperledger Fabric network for recording the carbon and Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions that cause climate change. Since there are many activities that cause such emissions, the network is designed to accept data from multiple sources of measurements. In this project, we will demonstrate integrations from measurement sources with blockchain networks by integrating the ThoughtWorks cloud computing emissions calculator, the NREL OpenPath mobile application, and other web- and mobile-based API’s sources to turn instrumented readings into emissions measurements. It will leverage previous projects involving Hyperledger Cactus, Vault security engines, and client security for Hyperledger Fabric.