Blog Archives – Page 3 of 51

Apr 08

Introducing the Hyperledger India Chapter Student Society

By Robin Roy Thomas, Student Coordinator- Hyperledger India Chapter Student Society Blog, Regional Chapter

The Hyperledger India Chapter Student Society is an association for students and faculty members around the country who are researching, working, or are interested in blockchain and Hyperledger distributed ledger technologies. The Society works in accordance with the code of conduct issued by the Linux Foundation and Hyperledger and hosts bi-weekly meetings open to the public. The Society aims to provide a platform where students can engage with their peers to educate, co-create, and network all over the nation and bring about the next industrial revolution with blockchain and Hyperledger DLT technologies. Students volunteer, take up initiatives, and organize events relevant to their area of interest. The Society also tries to enhance leadership, teamwork, and professional conduct among students by allowing them to take charge.

Faculty members can volunteer as co-leads of the Society to share responsibilities for the activities and events to be organized. Faculty members can be part of the Society and act as mentors to encourage and motivate students to take up initiatives. They may also promote student projects, collaborate with industry professionals, and identify internship and placement opportunities.

The Society maintains channels on Discord and LinkedIn to connect and bring together interested students and mentors from the community. The LinkedIn page acts as a source for important announcements and events while Discord serves as a casual space where members can exchange and express their opinions, ideas, or even topics they are interested in. The Society also lists resources to learn and improve student’s blockchain skills and even posts must-read articles every week on Discord.

Bi-weekly meetings are conducted to discuss and keep up to date with recent trends in blockchain technology. Several segments, like Pitch your Project (PYP), where students are provided an open stage to pitch their ideas in front of others, and Blockchain for the Week, where a couple of recent developments and news within the blockchain space are discussed to keep track of the current trends in the blockchain space, are also part of the bi-weekly session.

Planning is also underway for additional programs such as Research Paper discussions and a study circle for Hyperledger Fabric. (See details on the study circle below.)

The Hyperledger India Chapter Student Society relies entirely on student and faculty participation and enthusiasm and encourages members to learn with others and inculcate a sense of learning in public.

Watch our recent meeting record here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGWf0i_bVH8

Join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/KGCgzemKkY

Official LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/hyperledger-india-chapter-student-society

Our Wiki Page : https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/HIRC/Hyperledger+India+Chapter+Student+Society

Hyperledger Fabric study circle

Weekly study circle meetings will be held starting from April 10th, 2021, for a period of two months (8 sessions) to cover the practical aspects of Hyperledger Fabric. At the end of the sessions, participants are expected to come up with a project demonstration of their choice.

Session #1 on the 10th of April 11:00 A IST will be taken by Mr. Pavan Adhav (https://www.linkedin.com/in/pavan-adhav/).

Click here for more information about the event.

Apr 02

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

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 Media and Entertainment Special Interest Group Guest Presentation: Verizon Full Transparency Initiative

Join the Media and Entertain SIG meeting for a guest presentation on the “Verizon Full Transparency Initiative.” Jason Small and Dante Pacella from Verizon along with Hunter Prendergast from MadHiveCooper will discuss the recently launched blockchain-based system Verizon is using to transparently track all changes made to official news releases in its corporate newsroom. The talk will dive into why Verizon made this a priority, how this is a first step towards adoption of this open-sourced system across brands and media entities and what the system does and doesn’t do.

For more information on the meeting, which is Tuesday, April 6, at 9:00 AM PDT, go here.

Hyperledger In-Depth: An Hour with Valid Network

Gilad Eisenberger of Valid Network will lead a discussion on securing the new economy. New economies are on the verge of creation with blockchain as their infrastructural foundation. Old processes are being challenged by autonomous decentralized processes that go beyond the organization’s walls. Those processes share data, resources, and risks. Every transformation holds many layers of challenges when one of the most crucial requirements is security. The talk will walk the audience through the process of understanding different attack vectors and their potential impact as well as how mistakes can be avoided and safer execution can be adopted.

Tune on Wednesday, April 7 at 10:00 AM EDT. For more information and to register, go here.

Community Innovation Lecture: Decentralized ID and Access Management (DIAM) for IoT Networks

The next talk in MOBI’s (Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative) Community Innovation Lecture Series will focus on centralized ID and Access Management (IAM) in IoT networks. Nima Afraz and Vipin Rathi from the Hyperledger Telecom SIG will present a decentralized approach to validate and verify the identity of IoT devices, data, and applications, drawing from a recently published solution brief.

To learn more or to register for the lecture, which is Wednesday, April 7, at 10:00 AM EDT, go here.

Webinar: Dialogue with Hyperledger – China Blockchain Industry Embracing the World

Hosted by Alliance of Blockchain Industry, Z-park (ABI), this webinar will discuss the current development status of China’s blockchain industry, and how blockchain can better promote the economy all around the world. Key speakers include Hyperledger’s Brian Behlendorf, Ant Group’s Xianghui Jiang and RootChain’s Jay Guo.

This is the third meeting of “Blockchain Connecting to the World” series and is supported by Hyperledger and CoinTelegraph China. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided for Mandarin and English.

Find out more about this webinar, which is Wednesday, April 7, at 6:00 PM PDT, here.

Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group Guest Speakers: Shamit Bhat, GSMA, and Monique J. Morrow, Syniverse Technologies

Join the Telecom SIG meeting for a guest presentation on “GSMA-DLT Shared Vision for the Telecom Industry.” Shamit Bhat from GSMA and Monique Morrow from Syniverse Technologies will present a shared industry vision that evolved around the tenet that Distributed Ledger Technology or DLT cannot be assumed as siloed and certainly involves other business technology enablers. 80% of the discussions must be business focused and 20% technology focused. The ecosystem is multi-stakeholder in nature including Opcos, Wholesale Carriers, Banks, Mobile Players/Enterprise and Policy Makers. This presentation will emphasize DLT opportunities for the Telecom Industry and provide a clear roadmap for moving from POCs to commercialization with demonstrable proof points to maximize impacts for some key use cases.

For more information on the meeting, which is Thursday, April 8, at 9:00 AM PDT, go here.

Webinar: CBDC Overview

SIMBA Chain is hosting Forbes contributor Vipin Bharathan for a discussion on Central Bank Digital Currencies. In addition to providing a basic overview of CBDCs and their role in bringking greater resilience to the payment system, the talk will include a quick review of major CBDC papers and initiatives and guidance on a practical way forward to pilot central bank digital currencies.

For more information on the webinar, which is Thursday, April 8, at 2:00 PM EDT, go here.

Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program Applications Open

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. Applications are now open for the fifth year of the program and, for the first time, mentees from any career stage are invited to apply for any of the 22 planned projects. These paid mentorship opportunities are open to participants from anywhere in the world. The deadline to apply is May 7.

Linux Foundation Training Program (LiFT) Scholarship Applications Open

The Linux Foundation is hosting the Linux Foundation Training (LiFT) Scholarship Program to provide opportunities to up-and-coming developers and sysadmins who show promise for helping shape the future of Linux and open source software but do not otherwise have the ability to attend training courses or take certification exams. The deadline to apply is April 30.

Virtual Meetups

Friday, April 9, at 13:00 UTC / 15:00 CEST: Hyperledger Sweden hosts “Hyperledger Tech Study Circle”
Saturday, April 10, at 12:00 UTC / 15:00 AST: Hyperledger Riyadh hosts “21 use cases of blockchain solution with Hyperledger – For Entrepreneurs”

See the full Virtual Meetup schedule here.

Apr 01

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Applications Open for Expanded, Paid Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program

The Hyperledger Summer Mentorship program is a hands-on, results-oriented program that starts with active developers designing and proposing mentorship projects that have real impact on advancing Hyperledger technologies. This year, the 22 projects cover a range of technologies, challenges and technical difficulty levels. The program offers both part and full-time projects tackling development challenges such as interoperability, security and scalability and addressing a mix of use cases, including in climate change, digital identity and telecom services.

“Since we kicked this program off five years ago, growing it has been a priority for Hyperledger,” said Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger. “We believe strongly in creating opportunities for a wide spectrum of aspiring open source and blockchain developers, which is why this is a structured, paid and very hand-on program with involvement from mentors from around the world. We hope, by expanding the program to all career stages and adding a larger number of projects, we will bring even more energy to this program and our community and fuel more breakthroughs on the career and technology front.”

The developers 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 as well as a stipend. For more about the program, including the schedule and stipend details, go here. To learn more about how the Hyperledger Summer Mentorship program has helped shape the career of one recent mentee, read this Developer Showcase profile of Sara Ghaemi, a member of last summer’s cohort.

All Hyperledger Summer projects must be approved by the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee before becoming official mentorship opportunities. Read on for descriptions of some of the projects planned for this year:

Support Clique for Besu on HL Labs BAF

Hyperledger Labs Blockchain Automation Framework(BAF) is a tool to deploy different DLT platforms automatically on a given Kubernetes cluster. BAF supports multi-cloud and multi-DLT deployments, and already supports HL Fabric, HL Besu, Quorum, R3 Corda. For HL Besu, currently only IBFT2 Consensus is supported by BAF.

With this mentorship program, we want to support the Clique consensus for Besu, so that BAF can be used to deploy and operate a HL Besu network with Clique consensus. This will also include upgrading BAF to support the latest stable Besu version.

The expected outcomes of this project are:

Documented, ready-to-use Besu Clique consensus on BAF
Documented upgrade of Besu to latest stable on BAF

Documentation and Use Cases for Climate Action

The Carbon Accounting and Certification Working Group is developing an Operating System for Climate Action, which is a set of applications for obtaining and certifying data, creating tradeable tokens for emissions and offsets, and using DAO’s to coordinate collective action.

As part of this project, we’re looking for technical writers who could help both document the technologies and how they could be applied to actual use cases. We’ve started with a few ideas and would like your help refining them with actual or potential projects. We’d also like help reaching out to and interviewing potential users of the applications to get their feedback on how they could be used.

The expected outcomes of this project are:

Improved documentation of the blockchain carbon accounting applications.
Tutorials on how to develop and enhance the applications.
Use cases for the applications.

HL Iroha and HL Cactus Integration

Hyperledger Cactus is a blockchain decentralised integration tool designed to allow users to securely integrate different blockchains started by Fujitsu and Accenture. Cactus has pluggable architecture that makes it easy to integrate various blockchain by creating plugins (currently plugins for Fabric, Besu, Quorum are implemented). Cactus allows transfer not only of assets but also of data between multiple blockchains. On the other hand Iroha (version 1.x) is great with asset management, and has functionality to store data, which makes those two projects a perfect fit!

With this mentorship program we will not only allow the interoperability between different blockchains but also create a system of Iroha networks that will also demonstrate the integration in examples easy to run by everybody.

The expected outcomes of this project are:

Documented, ready-to-use integration of Iroha and Cactus
Documented example of integration between multiple (two and more) iroha’s networks with Cactus
Documented example of integration between Fabric and Iroha (Fabric plugin for Cactus is already implemented) integration

Check out the full list of mentorship projects and start your application today. The deadline to apply is May 7. The Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program is part of the Linux Foundation’s overall commitment to mentoring. The application process is being managed through LFX Mentorship, a platform created by the Linux Foundations to train future open source leaders. Students from diverse communities are encouraged to apply. All are welcome here!

Apr 01

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Developer Showcase Series: Sara Ghaemi, TELUS

By Hyperledger Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program

In this edition of our Developer Showcase Series, where we learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies, we are spotlighting a recent graduate of the Hyperledger Summer Mentorship Program. Today, we get an update from Sara Ghaemi, Technology Specialist at TELUS and a member of last summer’s cohort.

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

Currently, I’m a technology specialist at TELUS working on various projects. TELUS is very keen on the space of blockchain, and we are in the exploratory phase. Before joining TELUS, I was a master’s student and research assistant at the University of Alberta, working on blockchain research. When I started my master’s program, I had already been exposed to cryptocurrencies and how they work. When deciding on my research topic, I got interested in how this technology can be leveraged in use cases other than cryptocurrencies. I was also curious about the performance of distributed ledgers and the ways we can have blockchain features with higher throughput and lower latency than public blockchains such as Bitcoin.

As a result of this interest, I worked on a blockchain-based serverless computing platform called ChainFaaS, which was implemented using Hyperledger Fabric. As part of our research group, we also worked on performance analysis of distributed ledgers. After about two years of researching this topic, I got into the Hyperledger Mentorship program, which introduced me to the world of blockchain interoperability. During this program, I worked on blockchain interoperability with a focus on Hyperledger technologies.

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

Continuing my research as my side projects, I am currently using Hyperledger Fabric, Besu and Caliper. Given my interest in interoperability, I am also following Hyperledger Cactus closely. Very recently, I have also become interested in Hyperledger Indy for access management.

I’ve had a lot of positive experiences with Hyperledger. First and foremost is the community. During my mentorship program, I had the opportunity to get involved with the Hyperledger community in different ways. The community is very welcoming, and everyone is always there to help. There have been many instances where I was stuck on something and was able to get help from the community through chat groups. Moreover, the variety of blockchain solutions that are available in Hyperledger’s greenhouse has been a great help for me.

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

I believe blockchain interoperability is an important area to focus on. Given the momentum in the blockchain space, many different blockchain networks are introduced for various use cases. All of these networks are isolated from each other, resulting in silos of information. I believe it is crucial for the future of blockchain to have secure interoperability solutions so that even when new networks are introduced, they can work with currently running networks.

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

Blockchain is a space that is changing fast. Don’t be overwhelmed by the amount of information that is on the internet. Understand the basics first and then focus on one specific blockchain technology that interests you the most. Spend some time to fully understand that technology. When you get a good understanding of one of the blockchain networks, it will be much easier to understand the rest.

If you want to learn something in more detail, I recommend reading a few top research papers in that area. For example, I remember struggling with understanding how exactly Hyperledger Fabric works. Reading the “Hyperledger fabric: a distributed operating system for permissioned blockchains” paper gave me great insight into the details of Fabric.

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

I’m hoping that blockchain can allow users to be in charge of their own data on the internet. Instead of relying on third-parties and trusting them not to disclose their information to others, the users should be able to see and control who can access their data and information.

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

I hope to see blockchain and/or Hyperledger being used in production at a large scale.

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

Don’t be afraid to ask questions. I used to spend a lot of time trying to fix the issues that I had with my code. One of my mentors once told me to reach out to experts in the area and ask my questions. Worst case scenario, they are not going to answer.

What technology could you not live without?

Internet!

Mar 31

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Hyperledger Cactus: On the Road to General Blockchain Integration

By Peter Somogyvari at Accenture and Hart Montgomery at Fujitsu Laboratories Blog, Hyperledger Cactus

Since its inception as a Hyperledger project almost a year ago, Hyperledger Cactus has come a long way. Today, the maintainers are excited to announce a version 0.4 release that supports many exciting integration applications and moves us in the direction of our “dream” modular architecture.

Hyperledger Cactus is a pluggable enterprise-grade framework to transact on multiple distributed ledgers without introducing yet another competing blockchain. With this project, we aim to provide a decentralized, adaptable and secure integration to and between blockchain networks that is adaptable for various platforms and protocols. Roughly speaking, Cactus consists of “business logic plugins,” which coordinate cross-blockchain integration and “ledger plugins,” which facilitate connections to particular ledgers.

The Hyperledger Cactus v0.4 release includes the following modules:

Ledger Plugins – the mechanism to communicate with various DLT platforms
(Hyperledger Besu, Corda, Corda OS, Hyperledger Fabric, Go-Ethereum, Quorum, Hyperledger Sawtooth)
Three Business Logic Plugin samples – the application integrates multiple blockchains
Support Libraries – various utility libraries that make programming business logic plugins easy. These are great for setting up your own applications!

In fact, it’s very easy to try out Hyperledger Cactus today. We provide instructions for running a sample implementation of the Business Logic Plugins (service applications in Hyperledger Cactus architecture) that takes advantage of various blockchain platform features so you can evaluate Hyperledger Cactus on your own PC.

It is even possible to set up a container with a supply chain example using a single command-line command! Here is a link to this example. We encourage you to see for yourself how easy it can be to get started with blockchain integration using Hyperledger Cactus.

Our long-term architectural goals for Hyperledger Cactus are to offer a flexible, modular system that allows users to configure blockchain integration systems to exactly fit their needs. We want users to be able to reuse code as much as possible while still avoiding code bloat and duplication in the features that are used. Contributors are working to complete Hyperledger Cactus in line with an architecture that is based on prototype code. Unimplemented features are detailed in the white paper.

Our white paper describes the path of development for Cactus, starting with enumerating various use cases that can be realized with Cactus. We use these use cases to derive and establish basic design principles such as pluggable architectures and modular interfaces. As the result of many long discussions, we have put together an initial architectural design. We present a diagram that showcases this below:

CACTUS Architecture

This diagram is a little bit complicated, but hopefully it allows you to picture the modularity and flexibility of the Hyperledger Cactus system. We want to emphasize that our system design pushes the ledger-specific functionalities as far to the edge as possible in order to maximize ease of development and make applications as ledger-agnostic as possible.

If this seems interesting to you, we’d love to welcome you into the Hyperledger Cactus community. Unlike our project namesake, we are not prickly! Whether you want to contribute or are just interested in using Cactus, we would love to connect.

It’s easy to get in touch with us! The simplest way is to reach out on the Hyperledger Cactus rocketchat. We have pair programming sessions set up for new contributors and users almost daily (please check the Hyperledger calendar), so we’d be more than happy to help if you would like to contribute or want help getting up and running. We look forward to hearing from you!

Mar 30

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#Hyperledger Women Share their Blockchain Journeys – Part III

By Hyperledger Blog, Community Spotlight

In celebration of #HyperledgerWomen, we asked some of the many excellent women leaders in our community to share some details about their blockchain journey, including how they got started, what projects get them excited and advice they’ve received or have to share.

Read on for part II of this story where we hear from:

Hanna Zubko, Co-Founder and CEO at IntellectEU

Melanie Cutlan, Managing Director, Blockchain & Multiparty
Systems Co-Lead at Accenture

Sandra Ro, CEO, Global Blockchain Business Council

How did you get into the innovation/technology space?

Melanie Cutlan: “I was about 10 when I learned to code and have been hooked on technology ever since. I graduated from ASU with a CIS Degree in business – and I have always enjoyed the convergence of tech applied to solve business problems in new ways.

I have been in the innovation space for over 10 years, helping clients and teams adopt new technologies to rethink how they get work done. I helped to launch our Tech Masters program, which inspired business users to learn how to apply simple technologies to their day-to day-work, while running programs to make Emerging Technologies more approachable and easier to understand for the business user. I then created a team to explore how emerging technologies could disrupt our core service offerings, making the “next new” tangible for our business stakeholders and our clients.”

When and/or how did you first learn about DLT/blockchain?

Melanie: “In 2015, while running an innovation team – the Tech Garage – we were looking for ways that we could apply Blockchain to solve back office problems inside Accenture and within our scope at clients. I was immediately amazed by the possibilities and have dedicated my career to it ever since.”

Sandra Ro: “I first learned about blockchain and crypto through the FX trading community in London in late 2011. Once I really understood Satoshi Nakamoto’s bitcoin white paper (had to read a few times before the lightbulb moment), I realized it could be a paradigm shifting technology, a breakthrough that could disintermediate the financial system. Though I was initially focused on bitcoin and blockchain technology as a game-changer for the foreign markets, I eventually appreciated the potential for the technology to build alternative systems to help us develop more resilient and decentralized systems.”

What’s a blockchain project you’ve worked on that got you excited about the technology?

Hanna Zubko: “Our team at IntellectEU worked on dozens of projects across capital markets, payments, insurance, KYC and identity domains, so it’s hard to pick just one. However, one project that made me particularly excited about how blockchain technology can positively impact our lives and our planet is MyWaste, focused on incentivizing more recycling among the population. Our team worked very closely with The Studio (now part of the Fairville venture), the innovation arm of Belfius, one of Belgium’s leading retail banks, to build the MyWaste application. MyWaste introduced a MyWaste token that rewards end-users for their ecological sustainability efforts. These tokens can then be spent at local merchants on “green” products and, more importantly, make citizens aware of their waste production and incentivize more recycling and reuse. Here are some of our other blockchain projects that I am proud of: https://intellecteu.com/#case-studies.”

Melanie: “All of them! As co-lead of our Blockchain & Multiparty Systems, I am working with clients across all industries across our three priorities – Digital Identity, FS Infrastructure and Supply Chains.”

Sandra: “Before GBBC, I ran CME Group’s FX and Metals Research and Product Development, where we began quietly researching cryptocurrencies back in 2014. Ultimately, we launched a new business department within the firm dedicated to crypto and blockchain called Digitization. It was under the umbrella of Digitization at CME that we launched the Bitcoin pricing indices and subsequently, BTC futures, which trades and is the dominant USD cash-settled BTC futures today. At the time, CME Digitization was on the cutting-edge of institutional enterprise blockchain projects. During this time I had the chance to meet with over 200 start-ups and was a founding member of numerous blockchain associations, including Hyperledger. At that point, I decided to dedicate 100% of my time to blockchain for social impact, particularly widening financial access to those most excluded.”

What’s an entrenched problem you hope blockchain will help solve?

Hanna: “The problem of TRUST and resulting challenges of reconciliation and digital asset record keeping. It occurs in so many situations when enterprises interact with each other ranging from Know Your Customer (KYC) to sharing patient record data, as well as insurance claim management, IP management, and royalty payouts.”

Melanie: “If I may pick a favorite problem to solve, I am excited to see responsible and sustainable supply chains for food. Giving a face to those who grow our food, and incentivizing sustainable practices for the raw materials, without extracting the value to the larger players at the end of the supply chain. I am excited to see multi-tier supply chains coming together, providing resiliency, helping adapt to disruptions in supply chains, and ensuring a consistent supply of food to those who need it most.”

Sandra: “There is a tremendous amount of friction in many business processes in nearly every industry, government sector. A good example of such frictions is in cross-border payments, particularly for those for who can least afford to be paying high fees and wish to send small notional amounts. The blockchain and digital asset communities have the ability to affect real change in the space by bringing new solutions to the table, and forcing incumbents to innovate in ways that have a real and tangible impact on the lives of millions.”

What advice do you have for women looking to get started in this space OR what was the best advice someone gave you?

Hanna: “Get involved with Hyperledger! Blockchain is a growing space, and it has a significant need for more talented people, especially women, to join it. You may choose to contribute to one or several of Hyperledger’s open source projects. Also, the majority of Hyperledger member companies in our community are hiring. We are hiring at IntellectEU as well and would love to have you join us!”

Melanie: “By the very nature of emerging technologies, there are not experts that have been in the space much longer than you. Jump in, help shape the future of Multiparty Systems from the ground up. The ecosystem is in need of technologists, consultants, strategists, entrepreneurs within technology providers, service providers and industry constructs. There is such a need for talent. Bring your best, and take a chance on yourself to learn something new, apply something old in a new way, and have some fun reshaping the future of industries with new technologies.”

Sandra: “There are a myriad of skill sets needed in this burgeoning industry, and we need women of all kinds of backgrounds to get involved. My only suggestion is to dive in, even if you are not exactly sure of what you want to do. The sector is growing so quickly, there are opportunities being created each day, and no matter what the future may bring, this is a collaborative technology, so get stuck in, be curious, and help one another.”

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

Mar 29

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#Hyperledger Women Share their Blockchain Journeys – Part II

By Hyperledger Blog, Community Spotlight

Read on for part II of this story where we hear from:

Archana Sristy, Sr. Director of Engineering for Blockchain Platforms at Walmart; Hyperledger Governing Board Member

Maria Teresa Nieto Galan, Blockchain Technological Specialist at Telefonica; Hyperledger TSC Member

Maryam Mahjoub, CMO at Soramitsu

How did you get into the innovation/technology space?

Maria Teresa Nieto Galan: “I arrived by chance. When I finished my degree in computer engineering I started working in a company that had just created its Blockchain department. From the first moment I was attracted by this technology and the world of innovation where every day is a new challenge.”

Maryam Mahjoub: “My original passion was for healthcare – but after fainting from trying to cut a squid in my Biology 101 class, I realized I’d never be a doctor. So, I got into marketing, and as the progression of our lives shifted more online, I began focusing more on technology – specifically, healthcare technology. I eventually did my MSc in Healthcare Leadership, focusing on health data management and its impact on health outcomes.”

When and/or how did you first learn about DLT/blockchain?

Archana Srisly: “I first became aware of blockchain from the early Bitcoin days but started digging deeper into Enterprise Blockchains in 2016, when we announced PoC’s to track produce and meat in Walmart’s supply chains in the US & China. It’s been fascinating to learn how this technology can completely transform how companies conduct business.”

Maria Teresa: “I started with Blockchain in the year 2016 with a platform called Eris-DB, now better known as Hyperledger Burrow. Then, I started to create some applications with Ethereum until I met Hyperledger Fabric, the DLT that I use the most in my daily life.”

Maryam: “I entered the world of blockchain in early 2019. It was a fairly easy transition for me to understand the value of blockchain and the opportunities it offers in various industries – this is because in healthcare data management, data privacy, accessibility, and interoperability are all huge topics of concern. Learning the technology behind blockchain protocols, crypto, identity management, etc. took a little bit of time.”

What’s a blockchain project you’ve worked on that got you excited about the technology?

Maria Teresa: “There are two projects with which I had love at first sight. The first is TrustOS, our product in Telefónica. It is a complete Blockchain solution that abstracts all the complexity of blockchain technology and makes it easy to adopt it in any use case. On the other hand, the second is TrustID, a project that we released as an open source in Telefonica under the umbrella of the Hyperledger Labs. It’s aim is to develop a new standard to simplify identity management in blockchain networks regardless of the underlying technology of the networks.”

Maryam: “I think one of the most valuable benefits of blockchain is that it offers inclusion. Over 1.7B people – and over 200M entrepreneurs and businesses – are currently unbanked. Blockchain could be absolutely revolutionary for developing nations, disenfranchised groups, and of course, women. For instance, the Bakong project – developed by Soramitsu on Hyperledger Iroha – was designed to give Cambodians access to online payment management and a digital currency. It formally launched in October 2020, and has already seen over $20mm in transactions by over 50,000 users based at 21 financial institutions. This is a huge first step for a country where nearly 80% of its population is unbanked.”

What’s an entrenched problem you hope blockchain will help solve?

Archana: “My hope is that through transparency, Blockchain will build more Inclusion, create equitable opportunity and access for all in the Digital Economy.”

Maria Teresa: “The world is becoming more and more digital, but trust is increasingly being lost. For example, our personal data is shared without our own control. I think that blockchain can solve this gap in the digital world because this technology adds a trust layer to the operations.”

What advice do you have for women looking to get started in this space OR what was the best advice someone gave you?

Archana: “Pull up a chair, and join the discussion. Go to a local meet up or join open source communities such as Hyperledger to get started. We need diverse representation while building transformational technologies that will shape our future. Stay curious, and own your voice.”

Maria Teresa: “It is becoming increasingly clear that the technological world is going to be very present in our lives in the near future. Blockchain is one of the technologies that will be part of this digital world. Do not be scared if at first it seems complicated, as you learn more and more you will understand more and more things. And, if at any time you find yourself blocked, ask for help, there is a large community behind this technology willing to help and share their knowledge.”

Maryam: “I think the most important thing for women to remember (myself included) is to speak up. From our school years forward, women generally tend to be less vocal with their questions, ideas, and inputs. When I first started out working in a highly technical environment, and not being technical myself, I was a little self-conscious about asking questions out of fear of sounding dumb. But to do my job well, I needed to understand the technical features and nuances of the systems our development teams were building. The number of developers I bribed with good coffee and tasty treats for their time and insights! I learned how to pose my questions to get the answers I needed – and eventually, I got to a stage where I wasn’t just asking for help, but I was providing it as well. I could ask business-driven questions or provide a perspective that our technical team may not necessarily have.”

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

Mar 26

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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 2021

Join more than 1,200 users and contributors of Hyperledger open source blockchain projects from around the world at Hyperledger Global Forum. The virtual event, scheduled for June 8-10, will take place in two segments each day to accommodate a global audience.

Go here to register.

IBM Blockchain Pulse Webcast

Tune in for a discussion of “Blockchain Interoperability with the IBM Blockchain Platform and Hedera Hashgraph” featuring two interoperability leaders, The Standard Bank from South Africa and Hala Systems. The discussion will include a “tech preview” of how to try Hyperledger Fabric with the Hedera Consensus Service.

For more information on the event, which is Tuesday, March 30, at 11:00am EDT, go here.

Virtual Meetups

Wednesday, March 31, at 15:00 UTC / 17:00 CEST: Hyperledger Berlin hosts “Hyperledger in European Research and CarbonBlock projects”
Wednesday, March 31, at 17:00 UTC / 13:00 EDT: Hyperledger NYC hosts “Review of Asset Tokenization and Know Your Customer Integrations in Fintech
Wednesday, March 31, at 19:00 UTC / 14:00 COT Hyperledger Latinoamerica Chapter hosts “Alastria: Contribución al ecosistema basado en tecnologías descentralizadas” (Spanish)
Thursday, April 1, at 22:00 UTC / 19:00 BRT: Hyperledger Brazil Chapter hosts “Blockchain aplicado ao Comércio Exterior” (Portuguese)

See the full Virtual Meetup schedule here.

Mar 26

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Developer Showcase Series: Sravani Shatdarsanam, Chainyard

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 Sravani Shatdarsanam, Software Engineer at Chainyard.

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

Supply chain involves many processes connecting raw material suppliers, procurement departments, quality departments, distributors, etc. The raw material supplies (e.g., a part) needs a certificate associated with it, which generally is paper based. These certificates are sometimes mismatched, which causes a huge loss to the company in finding and attaching the right certificate to the right part and may also violate the compliance requirements. I am working on a solution that helps in resolving this problem by creating a digital tamper proof certificate that can be verified cryptographically and ensure the reduction of certificate mismatches.

Three years ago, while pursuing my Master’s degree, I was introduced to blockchain, when one of the teams presented on “Securing IoT using Blockchain” at “The Forensure’18 – Cyber Security & Forensics Conference and Expo.” I became intrigued and started to attend bootcamps where I learnt about developing decentralized applications in Ethereum.

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

I have been majorly working on Hyperledger Fabric SDK Go. I started working with automation testing, penetration testing and bug fixes and eventually went on to working closely with the architecture team in setting up networks based on the requirements, writing smart contracts for specific types of transaction, and executing them on the networks.

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

Provide good training materials for certifications. Ideally, this would be a semester course for students to gain knowledge along with a certification. Hands-on labs, based on the level of experience, could also be provided.

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

Blockchain is a very interesting technology, but often people misinterpret it to be a cryptocurrency. Any new developers need to first understand the basic difference, and then the journey gets interesting and easier from there.

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?

I find Trust Your Supplier really interesting. Built on blockchain, Trust your Supplier creates a trusted source of supplier information and digital identity that simplifies and accelerates supplier onboarding and lifecycle management.

Procurement organizations have permissioned access to pre-verified supplier information through a single application with aggregated supplier data and standardization across industries. Data Providers and other third parties enhance the ecosystem of services to provide an integrated experience allowing marketing analysis prior to onboarding tasks and continuous monitoring of suppliers.

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

Ledger Archiving and Pruning: Most of the projects involved with blockchain involve large transactional volumes of data. These large volumes can be difficult to maintain due to the payload size and need to record endorsers for that transaction, which can require added storage capacity. If researchers can come up with an approach to prune the ledger, archive the old data, manage the overall storage, and still retain trust in the ledger, this will help most of the customers dealing with huge volumes of data and lead to more adoption.

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

The best way to predict the future of this technology is to look at the way it has evolved. Trust is one of the key factors of blockchain as it eliminates the man in the middle process. Five years from now, this technology will be adopted by many organizations and used in many applications with users benefiting from the real-time aspects enabled by blockchain.

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

To become proficient in the work you do, get their basics right. Then you can achieve your goal.

What technology could you not live without?

The Internet

Mar 25

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#Hyperledger Women Share their Blockchain Journeys

By Hyperledger Blog, Community Spotlight

Read on for part I of this story where we hear from:

Bobbi Muscara, founder of Ledger Academy; Hyperledger TSC Member and chair of the Hyperledger Learning Materials Development Working Group

Grace Hartley, Strategy & Operations Associate at ConsenSys; Hyperledger TSC Member

Joan Zerkovich, Senior Vice President, Operations at American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS)

How did you get into the innovation/technology space?

Bobbi Muscara: “As a Trained Educator and Computer Scientist, it was natural to develop a career in teaching and developing learning materials for the constantly changing technology field. One of my first positions was with a company that created a medical system that enabled nurses and doctors to have a digital medical record (circa 1988).”

Grace Hartley: “I started at ConsenSys two and a half years ago in the Protocols Group. We are the team who originally built and submitted Hyperledger Besu to Hyperledger. Prior to joining ConsenSys, I was working as a financial services consultant and didn’t have any blockchain experience. Since joining ConsenSys, I have slowly built my blockchain knowledge. I am constantly amazed at how active the blockchain ecosystem is. Everyday there is a new announcement with a new product launch or technical innovation.”

Joan Zerkovich: “My Bachelor Degree is in Biochemistry, and I got my certification as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist right after graduation. I was hired as a Research Associate at the University of California, Davis Medical School, right out of training, and I felt I needed to learn about computers to handle the multivariate data we were collecting and processing. I started taking Computer Science classes (they were free to staff on a limited basis) and learned how to program in C and to use BMDP on a mainframe. At some point, I had taken enough classes that I was asked to apply to the Computer Science program in order to keep going, but I decided to get an MBA with an emphasis on Information Technology instead. Oddly enough, the best class I took as part of the MBA program was on computer networks from a very forward thinking professor. I wrote my thesis on the importance of computer networking in the future.

As soon as I graduated, I was hired as the first Network Administrator for the University of California, Davis, as part of building NSFNet that eventually became the Internet. I ended up serving as the Chair of the Technical Committee for the Bay Area Regional Research Network (BARRNET) and then became the Director of the IT unit focused on new Internet based services. We brought up the first web server, distributed file system and authentication database applications for the campus. It was part of my job to participate in the IETF. It was a dream job, great people, fun work, intellectually challenging. I never looked back to medical research.”

When and/or how did you first learn about DLT/blockchain?

Bobbi: “In 2016, I started reading papers based on blockchain technology and became fascinated. I audited several online courses and became active in several online communities including, most notably, Hyperledger. I opened a blockchain training center, Ledger Academy, in 2017 and have been successful in obtaining contracts to develop learning materials for several sources.”

Grace: “My dad was actually the first person to talk to me about blockchain. He was asking me about the technology, and I got curious and did some research on my own. I became so curious that I applied for jobs in the blockchain industry and luckily landed at ConsenSys.”

Joan: “I was aware of blockchain for cryptocurrency for a while before I understood the power of DLT for business applications. I attended a PlugandPlay conference in the Bay Area in December of 2017 to learn more about insuretech startups. DLT technology wasn’t prominent in the presentations or solutions, but it was discussed on the fringes and, for some reason, I had an aha moment. DLT underpinnings would be critical to trusting insuretech data for claims. That led me to research DLT outside of cryptocurrency in more detail, and I came to the conclusion that it would be important to my company in order to transform our data operations. I then facilitated a strategic planning session with the AAIS leadership team in January 2018 to discuss how it could change the way the insurance industry exchanges information and eliminates statistical reporting. We started the openIDL proof of concept in May 2018 and demonstrated the first working prototype in August 2018.”

What’s a blockchain project you’ve worked on that got you excited about the technology?

Bobbi: “In the summer of 2019, Ledger Academy hosted Princeton Meetup groups that developed a Proof of Concept for a Social Impact Project called The Giving Chain with the R2D application. We created a supply chain blockchain that tracked donors to recipients on a local level in a decentralized system. The project was recognized at the US Capital by winning the 2020 Government Blockchain Association’s Social Impact award.

Joan: “openIDL”

What’s an entrenched problem you hope blockchain will help solve?

Joan: “openIDL focuses on improving data privacy and security as well as the auditability of information exchanges and transactions in insurance so companies can trust how data is used for analysis and reporting. However, the framework is applicable to any industry and any exchange of information. The goal is to improve the ability of companies to exchange information without exchanging confidential data, close to real time; to enable secure, real time reporting and to enable public policy decision making on current data, not stale data feeds often over a year or two old.

Certainly blockchain will have a transformative impact on identity management, medical information and provenance to name a few that are extremely important. openIDL can be a part of those solutions, but they weren’t the driver for openIDL.”

What advice do you have for women looking to get started in this space OR what was the best advice someone gave you?

Bobbi: “I am amazed at how many opportunities the blockchain space is opening up. For anyone trying to get involved, my suggestion would be to learn as much as possible and join the online communities. One of the core themes in blockchain is its decentralized nature, which implies community. The entire blockchain effort is only as strong as the members that support it, so sign up for webinars, join working groups and read up on blockchain topics that interest you. I found becoming a member of the Hyperledger Special Interest and Working Groups opened up opportunities that brought me to the Dutch Consulate in NYC, The Big Apps Blockchain Challenge in NYC, Hyperledger Global Forum in Arizona and the GBA Awards Ceremony in Washington DC.”

Grace: “The best advice I can give to women is to apply to the open jobs. There are significantly less women applicants than men applicants for blockchain roles. Most roles, including engineering but also some business roles, often do not require prior blockchain experience so don’t be shy to throw your resume into the conversation or reach out to the hiring manager.”

Joan: “I don’t recall ever getting any advice about entering the technology world. I just ended up there and navigated the waters. I’m sure I was surrounded by unwelcoming cultures, skepticism of my abilities (I’m not technically strong) or closed doors at times, but my recollection is that I would keep on moving until I found the right people, the right organization and the right project to work on. From my perspective, the best advice I can give is for women to approach their work and to deal with obstacles as technology or business issues and not gender issues. When you run into an obstacle, pivot; find a way around it and keep going. It may mean you have to leave a team or a company or a project to keep going but it’s usually the best thing to do. Once you find the right place, do your best work.”

Help us highlight the role of women in blockchain by tagging others in the community with #HyperledgerWomen.

Cover image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images from Pixabay