The Hyperledger Fabric community is very excited about the release of Fabric v2.2 LTS. Fabric v2.2 represents the first LTS release in Fabric v2.x. Further enhancing the new features that make developing and deploying Hyperledger Fabric networks easier than ever before, we have added updated tutorials on the “how to” that allow developers to take full advantage of these features with tutorials supporting multiple languages so as Go, JavaScript, and TypeScript with support for Java coming soon. There are many exciting new features to be aware of, so let’s dive right into the highlights:
- Decentralized governance for smart contracts: This is actually a huge change from earlier 1.x versions of Fabric where one company had the ability to influence chaincode parameters and endorsement policies for the entire consortium on a channel. In Fabric v2.2, multiple organizations must agree to the chaincode parameters and there is a much more deliberate process to upgrade chaincode that now requires a sufficient number of organizations within a consortium to agree ahead of time before the chaincode can become active on the channel.
- New chaincode lifecycle: This feature has to be one of my favorites because packaging, installing, approving, and committing the chaincode on a channel is much easier and can even be used in a “chaincode-as-an-external-service” model. Chaincode is now packaged in easily readable tar files that make it much easier to inspect and coordinate the installation across multiple organizations in a consortium.
- New chaincode application patterns: This includes the ability to add automated checks for chaincode validation prior to endorsing a transaction proposal and the ability to decentralize agreement across multiple transactions that relate to specific terms and conditions in a business case.
- Private data enhancements: This enables the sharing and verification of private data without actually exposing data to those who are not supposed to see it by allowing them to compare on-chain hashes of the data to ensure they match. The many other features that these private data enhancements enable are too numerous to cover in this blog, so be sure to check out the “What’s new in Hyperledger Fabric v2.2” linked below.
- External chaincode launcher: This is a seriously cool feature that I am pretty excited about and one that most developers would probably say is long overdue. Now there’s no requirement that a peer node have access to a Docker daemon in order to build and launch chaincode. What a game-changer! Chaincode is no longer required to be run in containers, leaving the developer with more flexibility than ever before!
Other noteworthy things to consider for Fabric v2.2 LTS:
- Build Your First Network (BYFN) has been deprecated as of this v2.2 and is replaced by the Fabric Test Network. You can find the updated tutorial here.
- The updated tutorials will all use new fabric samples based on Asset Transfer chaincodes and applications and the Fabcar chaincode will get retired.
- The new Fabric Test Network allows you to start the network in a much more flexible manner and can be chaincode agnostic if you want it to be.
These are just a few of the highlights, so I highly recommend that you visit the Hyperledger Fabric docs to read in full detail all the exciting new features and the possibilities they open up.
You do not need to be an expert to be an effective contributor to the Hyperledger project. In fact, I think you will be amazed at the welcoming nature of the community and how quickly you can build on your skills simply by engaging as a contributor.
Remember, all are welcome so if you’d like to join the community or learn more, you can find more information here:
Thanks for reading about our newest Fabric release. We encourage developers to try these new features out and give us feedback!