Blog Archives – Hyperledger

May 14

Weekend Update: This Week’s Round-up of Remote Blockchain Learning Resource

By Hyperledger Blog, Weekend Update

Welcome to the Weekend Update. Our goal with this weekly post is to share quick updates about online education, networking and collaboration opportunities and resources for the open source enterprise blockchain community.

If you have suggestions for resources or events that we should spotlight in a future Weekend Update, let us know here using #HLWeekendUpdate.

Hyperledger Climate Action & Accounting Special Interest Group Guest Presentation: Greenhouse gas reporting and moving cloud energy to renewable sources

Join the Climate Action & Accounting SIG meeting for a guest presentation on “GHG reporting across supply chains and moving cloud energy use to renewable sources.” Carrie George, VP & Head of Sustainability & Impact, from Everledger will discuss Everledger’s climate-related work, including an internal program aimed at improving practices across all Everledger offices and product impact across all the industries in which Everledger operates. Discussion will include how the Hyperledger community can support interoperability across blockchains on GHG reporting and mitigation and drive consistent improvements in cloud energy reporting and transition to renewable and ultimately carbon free cloud energy across the world.

For more information on the meeting, which is Tuesday, May 18, at 8:00 AM PDT, go here.

Hyperledger Performance and Scale Working Group discussion: Fabric performance

The Hyperledger Technical Work Group from China will be guests in the next Hyperledger Performance and Scale WG call to share an overview of their Fabric performance work.

For more information on the meeting, which is Tuesday, May 18, at 9:00 AM EDT, go here.

Hyperledger In-depth: An hour with Quant Network

Over the years, there have been many attempts to solve the problem of interoperability. Of the various approaches taken, the World Economic Forum (WEF) identified three main categories: Cross Authentication (DLT-relayers), Oracles and the API Gateway. Which, of course, begs the obvious question: how do these categories compare and which is more suited for enterprise deployments? Join Luke Riley, Head of Innovation for Quant Network, for an in-depth presentation and discussion on “categorization and comparison of the DLT interoperability solutions.”

Tune on Wednesday, May 19, at 11:00 AM PDT. For more information and to register, go here.

Webinar: How Does A Regulated DLT Exchange Work? Technology Insights From The World’s First Fractional Bond Exchange

Bonds meet enterprise blockchain – a revolution in the largest debt market in the world: In November 2019 Singapore-based fintech BondEvalue unveiled the world’s first blockchain-based bond exchange that allows investors to trade BondbloX, which are $1,000 fractions of traditional wholesale bonds. In this webinar, panelists from BondEvalue, Northern Turst and Citi will look under the hood at the technology inside the exchange and how a regulated DLT network actually works.

Tune on Thursday, May 20, at 8:00 AM PDT. For more information and to register, go here.

May 21 deadline for Hyperledger Global Forum Scholarships applications

Hyperledger is committed to making Hyperledger Global Forum as accessible as possible. One key initiative it a scholarship program that provides support to traditionally underrepresented and/or marginalized persons in the technology and/or open source communities (including, but not limited to, persons identifying as LGBT, women, persons of color, and/or persons with disabilities) who may not otherwise have the opportunity to attend Hyperledger events for financial reasons.

The deadline to apply is May 21. Go here for more details.

Blockchain and the Future of Identity report

The Blockchain Research Institute released a report recapping a discussion of the future of digital identity innovation by a panel of blockchain and identity experts, including Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf. Go here to read the report.

Virtual Meetups

Wednesday, May 19, at 16:00 UTC / 10:00 MDT: Hyperledger Denver hosts “Interactive Innovation Discussion With Craig Fischer At The U.S. Treasury Dept”

See the full Virtual Meetup schedule here.

May 13

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The Power of Collaboration in a Vendor-Neutral Environment: An Interoperability Story

By Kevin Otto, Senior Director, Community Engagement, GS1 US Blog, Hyperledger Fabric

With the vast amount of data being shared today, and even more potential for data to be shared widely through distributed ledger technologies, the value of collaboration is becoming an imperative. As the saying goes, none of us is as smart as all of us.

Collaboration in the supply chain is accomplished in many ways, but where the exchange of data is concerned, it happens more efficiently within a standards-based framework. There are dozens of companies currently leveraging Hyperledger platforms in combination with GS1 Standards as a foundation for data consistency and accuracy. Together, innovative use cases come alive, including potentially life-saving advances in food and pharmaceutical supply chain safety, as well as applications of technology that make supply chains more visible to support product provenance and information transparency.

Collaboration in a vendor-neutral environment starts with having an organizational culture that first recognizes the value of having access to outside insights. Like the Hyperledger projects, collaboration often means joining together with peers, or even competitors, to better understand how to apply standards and technology to solve a collective problem. When industry leaders come together for a GS1 US initiative meeting, workgroup, discussion group, or virtual event, for example, they are making a commitment to problem-solving on pre-competitive issues and operating with the understanding that all participants are there to learn, contribute, and holistically support their respective industries.

To better understand the power of collaboration in a neutral environment, let’s examine a recent example—a pilot program convened by GS1 US to explore interoperable seafood traceability solutions.

Facilitating Innovation

GS1 US facilitates innovation in a few ways, often through a discussion group or to conduct a pilot that investigates a specific challenge or technology. First, the organization has a dedicated team of innovators who regularly explore the impact of emerging technology, such as DLT, artificial intelligence, robotics, emerging data carriers and more, on the supply chain. This is a proactive operation designed to stay ahead of what could be influencing the business landscape in the next few years.

Another way is as a response to an industry “ask.” Highly engaged industry executives leverage the organization’s neutrality to evaluate a technology that has industry communities buzzing and interested. In either case, GS1 US serves as a bridge between the technologists and those who can use their solutions to solve problems.

The seafood traceability pilot was born through industry’s request. Several stakeholders expressed concern for the lack of interoperability between solutions and a growing need to address visibility gaps in the seafood supply chain that leave it open to fraud and other food safety hazards. They foresaw a potentially inefficient future where end users would be forced to join multiple ecosystems, and the costs of each would create a burden to work with their many trading partners. GS1 US hypothesized that GS1 Standards could play a role to preserve solution choice while enabling multiple systems to interoperate.

Assembling the Participants

Building on our evolving and well-rounded understanding of the supply chain and the industries using GS1 Standards, GS1 US recruited participants of diverse sizes.

In early 2020 as part of the first phase of the pilot, the team selected traceability solutions from FoodLogiQ, IBM Food Trust (which leverages Hyperledger Fabric), ripe.io, and SAP to be evaluated. Simply put, the phase would create a prototype for how GS1 Standards can help each solution interoperate to transmit and exchange information about a product’s journey throughout the supply chain. The pilot’s focus was on the use case first, not necessarily the technology—hence the inclusion of FoodLogiQ, which does not have a DLT solution. Blockchain was considered a technology choice—each platform was required to have the ability to extract data to exchange with another platform.

Just recently, GS1 US completed the second phase of this pilot, adding end user participants (well-known seafood industry stakeholders and solution providers) and real-world traceability data, building on the simulated data of the first phase. For this part of the study, GS1 US enlisted the help of the Global Dialogue on Seafood Traceability (GDST), a seafood industry forum dedicated to forming global application standards for seafood traceability. In this phase, the group tested the flow of existing standardized product data using the established prototype and the GDST application standards for the seafood supply chain.

Key Findings and Their Significance

In both phases of the pilot, GS1 US determined that interoperability between solutions was possible when leveraging the GS1 System of Standards for the unique identification of products and locations, as well as GS1 Electronic Product Code Information Services (EPCIS), as a standardized data model for physical event data. EPCIS provided a consistent format and exchange protocol for sharing event data and transmitting key information from production to sale by uniformly facilitating the transmission of critical tracking events, such as whether a product had been shipped, received, packed, or transformed.

The interoperability of these systems supports the movement toward more widespread supply chain digitization and future requirements of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed Food Safety and Modernization Act (FSMA) section 204 food traceability rule.

Using real-world data, the pilot demonstrated how EPCIS effectively connected two or more traceability systems and provided a way for systems to “speak” to each other using standards. Equally important, industry collaboration was critical to define the systems’ “conversation.” With both key elements in place, participants were confident that they had moved a step closer to industry-wide traceability and transparency for seafood.

Ongoing Efforts

Moving forward, the GS1 US team will continue to work with industry to understand traceability data requirements, evaluate the need for new technical standards or protocols required for interoperability, and explore more advanced use cases.

Ultimately, the pilot story is just one story where the power of standards to bring unlikely collaborators together, united in a common goal. When industry leaders join together, advancement for all can be accomplished.

Cover image by Volker Glätsch from Pixabay

May 11

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Climate Change Action: Five Ways to Get Involved in Our Global Climate Accounting Efforts

By Sherwood Moore, co-chair, Hyperledger Climate Action & Accounting Special Interest Group Blog, Special Interest Group

The Hyperledger Climate Action & Accounting Special Interest Group (CA2SIG) is part of a growing ecosystem of innovators that is working to make global climate accounting a reality. We are an Open Source group working with a community of talented professionals that are tackling the technologies, frameworks, standards, partnerships, and use cases it will take to get there. With the support and know-how from community members such as the Linux Foundation, Open Earth Foundation and Climate Chain Coalition, we are making good progress, but we need your help. Whether you are a blockchain developer, product manager, research, analyst or subject matter expert in policy, environment, industry, etc., there is a role for you to play. We invite you to join us and take part in catalysing the most radical collaborative movement in human history, one that will help facilitate the investment of $50 trillion dollars over the next 30 years to secure the future of humanity.

Here are a five ways you can get involved:

Join the Standards Working Group to help design and implement the “protocols and standards” needed to ensure that climate accounting data can function as part of a global interoperable layer of information sharing. This group is actively looking for real use cases to design for and test against.

Join the Consumer Disclosure Working Group to create solutions to help make consumers aware of the environmental impact they make in their daily lives. This group is currently developing a data-driven sustainability score for companies and consumers to help quantify how sustainable a product really is. This group is actively looking for a company or companies to partners with to develop a real world proof of concept.

Join the Operating System for Climate Action to help build tools to record emissions (right now from energy data from utility bills) and allow emissions and offsets to be tokenized and traded. This group is also working to build a Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO) to allow users to vote collectively on climate action. (Read more about this effort here: Help Us Scale Up Our Operating System for Climate Action.)

Take a leadership role by taking on one of the blockchain projects listed on the Project Ideas Board. The Climate Action & Accounting SIG and Hyperledger Labs are here to provide support to help you launch any new project. Take a moment to explore some of the projects that are waiting for leadership:
- Vehicle zero emission travel network
- Data center carbon calculator
- Personal carbon offsets calculator (based on actual data and not surveys).

Finally, if you have your own idea for an Open Source climate project, click here to share it with us, and we can work with you to explore how we can help you find the support and expertise you need to get started.

To learn more about the Climate Action & Accounting Special Interest Group (CA2SIG) and how to join our community of contributors, take a moment to explore our “How to Contribute” page and join our bi-monthly General Meetings to introduce yourself and meet the group.

May 10

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Universal DLT interoperability is now a practical reality

By Luke Riley, Head of Innovation at Quant Blog, Hyperledger Besu, Hyperledger Fabric

Anyone who’s involved in the implementation of DLT-based solutions will need no introduction to the problem of interoperability. It’s an issue that has dogged the technology from the very beginning and has severely limited its application. Now, though, that era is in the past. Today, DLTs can interoperate seamlessly and easily, allowing their full potential to be realised across a multitude of use cases. Here, we’ll take a look at how this breakthrough has been achieved. And we’ll begin with a review of the problem and the various attempts to solve it.

To answer this question we will firstly introduce each approach and follow with a comparison between them.

WEF DLT Interoperability Category 1: Cross Authentication

This interoperability category is the most decentralised of the three categories. It requires separate authorization on each side of the interoperability connection. Examples include:
– Hash-locking: this is used, for example, to atomically swap assets across distributed ledgers.
– DLT-Relayers: these are distributed ledger communication protocols that act as orchestration layers between other distributed ledgers. They are designed for the exchange of different types of messages between these networks. Two DLT- relayer examples are Polkadot and Ethereum 2.0.

WEF DLT Interoperability Category 2: Oracles

Oracles allow distributed ledgers to connect to external data resources (which may be another distributed ledger). Oracles are therefore orchestration layers, connected to different resources, that perform various actions according to on-chain and off-chain pre-defined bespoke rules. Some oracles not only pass information from an external data resource to smart contracts but also send data from the distributed ledger back to the external resources. There is usually a single oracle to perform each task, but occasionally there can be a collection of oracles performing the same task (in a permissioned or permissionless manner). Smart contract logic then states how consensus of data is achieved between multiple inputs recorded by different oracles. An example of an oracle system is Chainlink.

WEF DLT Interoperability Category 3: API Gateway

An API provides access to a server and the resources it is connected to. An API gateway provides organised access to many underlying API resources, simplifying requests to the underlying resources to improve the user experience. A DLT API gateway can have shared end points across distributed ledger networks, standardise DLT data objects and can compress many DLT actions into one endpoint. This is the approach we take with Quant’s Overledger API.

One way to determine the best interoperability path to follow in the search for true universal interoperability is to look at how each approach “scores” in terms of the key functional criteria that defines a robust, flexible and scalable solution. These criteria are:

Proven Technology

While it’s true that DLT-relayers have been in development for many years, they are not yet proven technology – there is, as yet, no stable implementation running in a high-load environment. A similar story is true of oracles – although data feed technology is established, data feeds from one distributed ledger network (DLN) to another and back again has yet to be proven in practice. API gateways, on the other hand, have a long-proven record with many thousands of implementations around the world.

Decentralisation method: As pointed out by the WEF, the three different models have different decentralisation properties. DLT-relayers, for example, can be fully decentralised if a permissionless DLN is used. Oracles, however, have two different levels of permissions. One depends on the network permissions, the other depends on the smart contract permissions. With API gateways, on the other hand, the amount of decentralisation is provided by the ecosystem of separate API gateways run by different stakeholders.

How users interact: For DLT-relayers, users either need to be provided with direct access to relayer nodes, or they must be given access to DLT-relayer nodes through an API gateway model. Non-oracle users can interact with the on-chain oracle smart contracts, or they can interact with an off-chain oracle instance. For the API gateway itself, users interact through the API using standard elements like REST.

Resilience: The resilience of DLT-relayers depends on the consensus protocols it runs, particularly that of the connecting chain. As each consensus protocol has limits on the percentage of malicious nodes that it can handle, the resilience of the entire network is dependent on the number of nodes in the network. With oracles, the more oracles that feed data about the same topic, the more resilient the system – generally speaking – will be. An API gateway’s resilience is determined by the number of instances running and its load balancing capabilities and can be tuned for each type of use case.

Combining permissionless and permissioned DLNs: As yet there is no technical, or convincing theoretical demonstration, of how this can be completed using DLT-relayers without compromising security.

The brief analysis above points to a clear conclusion: API gateways have significant advantages over the other approaches. And it was for this reason that Quant chose the API gateway model for Overledger, our own solution to the challenge of interoperability. Developed by a team highly experienced in enterprise security and nation-level critical systems, Overledger is built on research that began as a collaboration with UCL, and now provides a secure, simple, and cost-effective API connection to all major DLTs. A robust, enterprise-grade solution, Overledger is easily integrated with multiple DLTs, including Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Besu, and Quant is constantly expanding the list of supported DLTs.

Today, Overledger is helping to unlock the potential of DLTs in many major projects across the world. One of the most ambitious of these projects is LACChain, an alliance led by the Inter-American Development Bank. Operating across the Latin American and Caribbean region, LACChain is already having demonstrable positive social impact, and the consortium has developed a roadmap that will ultimately lead to the interconnection of regional DLT ecosystems.

Achieving success will require the integration of LACChain (which provides both Hyperledger Besu and EOS technologies) and Quant’s unique Overledger technology. This will facilitate the creation of a new, fast cross-border payments system for the region, using tokenised currency. By flexibly tokenising money, using Quant’s (patent-pending) multi-DLT token technology (MLTS), the LACChain DLN will power a variety of new solutions, ranging from money transfers between private individuals to government and corporate payments, as well as many other future LACChain use cases.

One immediate benefit of this breakthrough will be a revolution in remittances and financial inclusion. For example, where, currently, cross-border banking services for people such as migrant workers or farmers are hard to access and unreliable, the LACChain solution, supported by Overledger, will allow foreign and/or local currency to be transferred in a simple but secure manner, with affordable transaction costs. The system has the potential to be expanded to the large-volume market of the unbanked or others currently excluded from the financial system. In short, the LACChain/Quant partnership will open the door to a host of faster, more efficient and more inclusive financial processes and applications in the LAC region, ranging from cross-border and interbank settlement, to the deployment of digital wallets and smart contracts. The pilot phase of the LACChain project is already well advanced, and full commercial development over the coming twelve months will be a landmark year for DLTs and DLNs.

May 07

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Weekend Update: This Week’s Round-up of Remote Blockchain Learning Resources

By Hyperledger Blog, Weekend Update

If you have suggestions for resources or events that we should spotlight in a future Weekend Update, let us know here using #HLWeekendUpdate.

Hyperledger Global Forum Scholarships

Go here to apply.

Webinar replay – An overview Alastria’s mission to promote the digital economy and how the Hyperledger community is involved

In case you missed the Hyperledger In-depth session with Alastria on their platform agnostic approach to promoting the digital economy through the development of decentralised ledger technologies/blockchain, the recording is available here. Hyperledger’s executive director, Brian Behlendorf, moderates the Q+A at the end of the presentation.

Virtual Meetups

Monday, May 10, at 21:30 UTC / 18:30 BRT: Hyperledger Brazil Chapter hosts “Debate sobre tecnologias Blockchain – Corda / Ethereum / Hyperledger” (Portuguese)
Wednesday, May 12, at 9:00 UTC / 18:00 JST: Hyperledger Tokyo hosts “5月12日オンライン開催 Hyperledger Tokyo Meetup” (Japanese)
Wednesday, May 12 at 19:00 UTC / 14:00 GMT-5: Hyperledger Latinoamerica hosts “Introducción a Blockchain Automation Framework” (Spanish)

See the full Virtual Meetup schedule here.

May 05

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Developer Showcase Series: Anand Banik, Walmart Global Tech

By Hyperledger Blog, Developer Showcase

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Anand Banik, Principal Software Engineer at Walmart Global Tech.

Give a bit of background on what you’re working on and how you got into blockchain.

When I joined Walmart Global Tech’s Supply Chain Tech team, one of the challenging tasks was how to do data reconciliation in multi-party transactions. Conventional technology stacks like API or Messaging frameworks were designed for transactions that involved data-transmission with minimum validations. For the most part, they were point-to-point and required complex architecture for use cases that involved multi-party transactions. Blockchain, with its distributed architecture, immutability and smart contracts, was an ideal candidate for multi-party transactions – especially in supply-chain use cases like food safety, where my journey with blockchain and specifically with Hyperledger began.

What Hyperledger frameworks or tools are you using in your projects? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

Most of the work I have done is on Hyperledger Fabric, but I have also dipped my toes in Sawtooth. I find Explorer to be a great tool for monitoring and Caliper for performance testing. Also, the Blockchain Automation Framework seems to be an awesome tool for deploying the network and maintaining its state in a cloud agnostic way. I am keeping a keen eye on Aries for the work being done on decentralized credentials.

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

As the adoption of blockchain increases across various industries, data and technology standardization would play a key role in their success. I believe one of the focus areas for Hyperledger should be making interoperability part of its core principles.

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

The best way to get started on blockchain is to start reading the “Getting Started Guide” to a framework (e.g., this one for Hyperledger Fabric) and then try to run and tweak any sample application you can get your hands on. It’s also important to understand the design principles of blockchain to effectively implement blockchain solutions to solve business problems.

As Hyperledger’s projects continue to mature, what do you see as the most interesting technologies, apps, or use cases coming out as a result?

In my opinion, one of the most complicated use cases that could benefit from blockchain technology is global trade. Personally, I am also rooting for an implementation of blockchain to maintain travel records like visas and passports.

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

To use transparency and visibility to establish trust.

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

In the next five years, I hope to see adoption of blockchain technology in the areas of trade finance, pharmaceuticals, healthcare and learning credentials.

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

Experience is gained through failures, not success.

What technology could you not live without?

Electricity

Apr 30

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Weekend Update: This Week’s Round-up of Remote Blockchain Learning Resources

By Hyperledger Blog, Weekend Update

If you have suggestions for resources or events that we should spotlight in a future Weekend Update, let us know here using #HLWeekendUpdate.

Hyperledger In-Depth: An hour with Alastria

Alastria is a non-profit association that promotes the digital economy through the development of decentralised ledger technologies/blockchain. Join Jesus Ruiz, CTO of the Alastria Blockchain Ecosystem, to hear about Alastria’s mission to promote the digital economy and how the Hyperledger community is involved. The session will include an overview of Alastria and the work the consortium has been doing since 2018 as well as the benefits of using the Alastria networks. Expect to learn about production use cases and how you can get involved. There will also be an overview of Alastria’s platform agnostic approach, and specifically Network-B (Hyperledger Besu released Feb 2020) and Network-H (Hyperledger Fabric release March 2019), which are available to Alastria members.

Tune on Wednesday, May 5, at 9:00 AM PDT. For more information and to register, go here.

Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program Application Deadline – May 9

The Hyperledger Summer Mentorship program is back with more opportunities than ever for hand-on skills building and experience in developing leading-edge open source blockchain technologies. These paid mentorship opportunities are open to participants from anywhere in the world.

For the first time, mentees from any career stage are invited to apply for any of the 22 planned projects. New developers who may otherwise lack the opportunity to gain exposure to open source development and the next generation of student developers in the Hyperledger community are encouraged to apply.

Applications are due May 9. Get the details for applying here.

Call to Action: Help Shape Blockchain Training and Education

Besu Certification input needed

The Linux Foundation and Hyperledger are planning a Hyperledger Besu certification program and need your help.

To develop a successful, technology-based certification exam, it is important to understand the level of community support that exists for such a certification. For example, how important is the technology to the relevant job market? Would such a certification be valuable to showcase practitioner skills to help them get hired? Would a certification be trusted by employers evaluating skills of job applicants?

To sign up to take this survey, go here.

Blockchain talent demand and gaps research

The Blockchain Education Network (BEN) has also launched a survey aimed to help the industry understand the demand for talent and the gaps in Blockchain Education. The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete, and in return you will get free access to the final report along with free access to BEN’s pool of future talent for hire.

To take this survey, go here.

Case Study: How BondEvalue launched the world’s first fractional bond exchange with Hyperledger Sawtooth

Learn more about how BondEvalue used Hyperledger Sawtooth to make bonds faster, more accessible, and more technologically advanced in this new case study.

Virtual Meetups

Monday, May 3, at 6:00 UTC / 11:30 IST: Hyperledger India Chapter hosts “Women in Blockchain – Season 2”
Friday, May 7, at 16:00 UTC / 12:00 EDT: Hyperledger Washington DC hosts “How Hyperledger Powers the IBM Digital Health Pass”

See the full Virtual Meetup schedule here.

Apr 29

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Hyperledger-Powered Digital Identity Solutions at Work

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy, Identity

As the world continues to grapple with COVID-19, there is an upswing in interest in digital identity technologies and their potential to underpin new health passes, travel credentials and other pathways to restarting economies that are effective, secure, accessible and privacy preserving.

For more on these efforts, read up on the work of the Good Health Pass Collaborative.

Stephan Curran’s post on Why Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) for Identity? also offers a good explanation of sudden and urgent issues driving interest in identity and the role of Hyperledger technologies in delivering solutions.

Advances on these fronts are fostering important new developments. However, digital identity solutions are reshaping other industries as well. Read on for a sampling of Hyperledger-powered solutions that are in production now, bringing innovation to the telecom, supply chain, education and training and financial services markets:

Alastria ID over Red H+

Alastria ID, a project of Alastria, the Spanish association that promotes the development of solutions based on decentralized ledger technologies, is focused on decentralized identity management. It is a self-managed identity model based on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Verifiable Credentials standard designed to facilitate compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for individuals, companies, organizations and entities. The use of credentials issued on different networks will enable interoperability across multiple applications.

Telefonica and Inetum have partnered to implement Alastria ID in a Hyperledger Fabric production environment in Alastria. Named “red H+” (H+ network), this implementation gives more than 500 members of Alastria access to a production grade infrastructure based on Hyperledger Fabric technology. Red H+ offers a free of charge Hyperledger Fabric environment for Alastria members, designed for the deployment of proofs of concept or production projects without demanding requirements, and a production-ready paying platform for those members interested in having certain levels of service and personalised and guaranteed response times, as well as value added services such as Alastria ID.

(Note: You can learn more about Alastria’s mission to promote the digital economy and how the Hyperledger community is involved in this May 5 webinar.)

MemberPass®

MemberPass is a digital credential solution that enables financial institutions to instantly verify financial credentials seamlessly across all consumer contact points in a highly secure and privacy-preserving manner. It is the flagship product of Bonifii, the financial industry’s first verifiable exchange network designed to enable trusted digital transactions using open standards and best-of-breed security technologies. Because MemberPass is built on Hyperledger Indy, credit union members can retain full control of their private personal information. The credential is secure and flexible. It allows the member to reveal only the data necessary for a given transaction. (See more on MemberPass adoption here.)

SnapCert

SnapCert is a blockchain-based Credential Authentication platform for universities, colleges and institutes. Offered as a SaaS platform by Snapper Future Tech, SnapCert equips education customers to issue and verify credentials on a blockchain, ensuring no fraudulent credentials can be issued in their name.

Customers include Kushal, a social organization that trains unskilled labour under Indian government National Skill Development program. With SnapCert, verifiers can get real-time verification of Kushal credentials directly from the primary source of the data simply using the last four digits of the credential holder’s Aadhaar id and the name. The solution solves the problem of misplaced paper credentials and reduces the trust deficit by providing easy access to credible credentials that prove the holder’s construction training. It also helps Kushal manage long term record keeping for the skilled workers, connect stakeholders that need the data and increase transparency and ease of doing business.

SnapCert is built using Oracle Blockchain, which is powered by Hyperledger Fabric.

Trust Your Supplier

Built on Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology, Trust Your Supplier provides organizations a trusted exchange of information across an encrypted blockchain environment to minimize risk and fraud throughout the onboarding and life cycle of partnerships.

A single, digital identity for suppliers can be shared with multiple buyers and business networks. This two-tiered supplier profile approach allows suppliers to be discovered by new customers without handing over unlimited access to their data. The Trust Your Supplier cross-industry blockchain network provides clear provenance and a single, shared, tamper-evident ledger. This is ideal for supporting auditing capabilities as it provides an immutable relationship history between parties.

Verified.Me

In our current digital landscape, securely accessing online services has never been more important. With Hyperledger Fabric, SecureKey Technologies established Verified.Me, Canada’s leading digital identity network which helps verify consumers’ digital identity so they can access the services and products they want. With Hyperledger’s support, SecureKey has put user consent at the forefront and in control of when, why and with whom their personal information is being shared. This collaboration is critical to progressing the digital identity landscape in Canada and globally.

Join the conversation about blockchain-based identity technologies and solutions with #HyperledgerIdentity this month on social channels. Also, Hyperledger has an Identity Working Group that is open to all.

Cover image by vectambulist from Pixabay.

Apr 29

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MemberPass® is Gaining Adoption in Credit Unions

By Julie Esser, Bonifii Blog, Finance, Hyperledger Indy, Identity

Financial fraud isn’t anything new, and the extent of the crime can vary significantly. Forty-seven percent (47%) of US consumers experienced financial identity theft fraud in the past two years—in fact, every 15 seconds a financial fraud incident occurs. COVID-19 has only accelerated the growth of financial fraud. Losses due to identity theft increased by 42% from 2019 to 2020 primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a recent study published by the Aite Group.

Today, there are multiple authentication steps in place in financial institutions thanks to the steady increase in cybercrimes. These high-tech frauds take assets from financial institutions and deliver a bit of reputation risk to their public image. Research demonstrates that consumers expect their financial institution to take active steps to mitigate financial risks. Consumers want protection, but they also want a fast and efficient user experience. Too often, each delivery channel is a silo with its own authentication method:

For example,

The call center uses knowledge-based questions
The lobby and drive-up require a driver’s license or other physical forms of identification
Online banking access calls for a username and password plus, often a two-factor authentication.

And consumers want more control over their personal data. In late September 2020, we commissioned a nationally representative survey to over 1,000 adults about their perceptions of MemberPass, Bonifii’s digital credential solution that enables financial institutions to instantly verify financial credentials seamlessly across all consumer contact points in a highly secure and privacy-preserving manner.

There were lots of noteworthy findings:

62% of credit union members said they would sign up for MemberPass if it were available.
56% of respondents who are satisfied with their financial institution would use MemberPass.
67% of consumers would feel more positive toward their financial institution if MemberPass was offered.
50% of consumers would sign up for MemberPass today if a security breach had impacted their account or if they had been identity theft victims.

There is a better way for financial institutions and consumers!

Since its launch in early 2020, MemberPass has been gaining momentum among credit unions and with the members they serve. MemberPass is the financial industry’s first digital credential solution that enables credit unions to instantly verify financial credentials seamlessly across all consumer member contact points. Because MemberPass is built on Hyperledger Indy, credit union members can retain full control of their private personal information. The credential is secure and flexible. It allows the member to reveal only the data necessary for a given transaction. Best of all, it’s impossible to hack or steal.

So far this year, we have seven active MemberPass implementations with another ten more credit unions planning their deployments in the next six months. Our active programs have gotten MemberPass credentials into the hands of about 20,000 members to date.

After we make a program sale, we continue to work closely with our credit union clients. We present each of them with a personalized copy of the MemberPass “Jump Start” playbook. This is a comprehensive toolkit to help the credit union increase the level of member adoption of MemberPass.

The playbook contains product benefits, consumer need identification tools, call center and drive-through workflow models, marketing strategies, incentive programs, and more. Our adoption goal is to get between 5-10% member adoption within six months of the “go live” date.

The demand for decentralized identity among financial institutions is only getting stronger—and, best of all, no one but the consumer owns his or her personal data!

Cover image: Hloom via Flickr / CC BY-SA, 401(K) 2013

Apr 28

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BondEvalue Upends the Global Bond Market Using Hyperledger Sawtooth

By Hyperledger Blog, Finance, Hyperledger Sawtooth

As many industries struggled to find their footing amid the aggressive headwinds caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the global bond market has managed to thrive. With near zero interest rates implemented worldwide to ease the financial burdens caused by the coronavirus, the demand for bonds soared.

But for those interested in investing in international bonds, the bond markets in Asia and Europe are particularly hard to break into for two reasons: high investment thresholds and lack of electronic infrastructure.

In the international bond markets, the minimum investment is $200,000. Typically, only those who have $5 million or above can afford to diversify their portfolio, and they pour about one-third of their wealth into bonds.

But there are roughly 500 million people who have assets that range from $100,000 to $1 million and are eager to expand their portfolio. However, they find the bond market impenetrable because of the investment barrier.

For those who have the means to break into the international bond market, it can still be a challenge as trading in the bond markets still happens over the phone and involves a number of intermediaries, with everyone taking a cut.

To make managing bonds faster, more accessible, and more technologically advanced, the team at BondEvalue recognized the need to upend the global bond market and create a modern infrastructure. In November 2019, BondEvalue launched the BondbloX Bond Exchange, replacing the traditional over-the-counter trading experience with the world’s first fully regulated blockchain-based bond exchange that allows consumers to instantaneously and transparently trade bonds in smaller denominations of $1,000 each.

Fully licensed and regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore as a Recognized Market Operator, the BondbloX Bond Exchange operates under a strategic partnership with Northern Trust, which is the exclusive custodian for the exchange. Together they deliver integrated asset servicing and digital ownership of fractionalized fixed income bonds on a blockchain network.

Using depository receipts as a model, traditional bonds are brought into the BondbloX Bond Exchange through designated market makers or a member participant from a secondary market. A designated custodian on the exchange (in this case, Northern Trust) confirms receipt of the bond into the blockchain, which then triggers the bond to be divided into fractionalized BondbloX worth $1,000 each and backed one-to-one on the blockchain.

These BondbloX are then traded on the BondbloX Bond Exchange and, with the blockchain infrastructure, settlement is nearly instantaneous, occurring on a T+0 basis. So instead of waiting for the normal two-day settlement cycle for traditional bond transactions, BondbloX trades are final within seconds, reducing counterparty settlement risks for investors.

The BondEvalue team realized the only way to feed the beast of building an innovative, groundbreaking global bond exchange would be to deploy Hyperledger Sawtooth. As a modular and flexible architecture, Hyperledger Sawtooth allows developers to separate the core system from the application domain so smart contracts can specify the business rules for applications without needing to know the underlying design of the core system.

Hyperledger worked up with BondEvalue on a case study that details how the exchange works, the technology and governance behind it and plans to scale to include more participants in more markets.

Read the full case study here.