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Developer Showcase

Jun 14
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Developer showcase series: Brian Wu, Coding Bootcamps

By 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 Brian Wu of Coding Bootcamps

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

To start your career in this space, you should spend as much time as you can reading blockchain news, white papers and books. Understand the basic blockchain concept from examples like Bitcoin, Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. Read Nakamoto’s Bitcoin white paper and Hyperledger blockchain books, visit Ethereum.org website and watch youtube videos. You also need to run some examples, so start to write a smart contract to get some hands-on experience.

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

I am a software architect with 17 years of experience working on blockchain, big data, cloud and other emerging technologies. I am currently working on a large blockchain project in the finance industry.

In today’s technologically advanced world, blockchain is a cutting-edge and revolutionary technology. The decentralized P2P features give it the potential to influence every aspect of the global economy. Decentralized applications are becoming more popular. However, we are still in the early stage of blockchain evolution so now is an excellent opportunity to get involved in this space.

What are the main differences between teaching Hyperledger to students and developing Hyperledger applications?


While teaching at Coding Bootcamps, I often get questions from students that help me view blockchain development differently. For example, during the class we follow recipes that are small models of actual, larger scale projects from my daily work. Thus, teaching concepts help me refresh my knowledge and skills that are essential in my everyday job.

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

Hyperledger Fabric FabToken with EVM integration.

Tell us briefly about your books on Hyperledger? What Hyperledger technology they cover and what inspired you to write your books?

Hyperledger Cookbook helps developers plan, design, and create a full-fledged enterprise decentralized application using Hyperledger technologies. The book explores the entire Hyperledger blockchain family, including frameworks, such as Fabric, Sawtooth, Indy, Burrow, and Iroha, and tools, such as Composer, Explorer, and Caliper. It is also packed with problem-solution-based recipes to tackle pain areas in the blockchain development cycle.

There are few (if any) books currently on the market that discuss the entire range of Hyperledger projects as they are mostly focus on Fabric and Composer technologies. I think reading a good hands-on Hyperledger book can help readers to get more knowledge and insights by working on practical examples and recipes. Practical resources are great for preparing you to start developing and deploying these technologies.

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

Hyperledger recently added two projects to its family – Hyperledger Aries and Hyperledger Ursa – that focus on digital cryptographic security. The zero-knowledge proofs have become quite popular in blockchain today. Expect to see more use cases for applying these technologies.

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

Performance

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

In next 5-10 years, a lot of industries will start embrace blockchain, leading to a range of career opportunities:

  1. Most  finance companies will leveraging blockchain technology on their payment system and other finance service.
  2. National cryptocurrencies will emerge.
  3. Blockchain will tightly integrate with  the most popular technologies such as AI, big data, cloud and IoT.  
  4. Web 3.0 will be powered by blockchain technology.

What is the best training advice for those who want to build a career in blockchain or Hyperledger?

Learning blockchain is different than learning one single coding language like Java or Python. Before you start coding blockchain, you have to know lots of concepts such as cryptography, decentralized networks, etc. After learning these concepts, you need to learn a coding language like JavaScript, C++, Python or Java. Currently, the easiest and most popular programming language for building Hyperledger applications is JavaScript (for instance, frameworks like Node.JS and React.js are common). Also, you need to know how to design a database. MongoDB is the most popular database for Hyperledger blockchain applications.

Learning blockchain via online free resources is slightly difficult and lengthy but not impossible. Since blockchain is relatively new, you may not get as much community support from other developers compared to more popular coding languages like PHP, HTML, etc. Thus, it is a good idea to take hands-on training classes to learn it fast and thoroughly.

My last piece of advice is that you should align your learning with an industry-recognized certification like Certified Hyperledger Fabric Administrator. Gaining a reputable certification adds lots of credibility to your resume and credentials.  

What is the best piece of career advice you have for blockchain beginners?

First of all, I welcome you to the world of blockchain. You should be patient as there are lots of things you need to learn and master. Second of all, follow my advice on training, especially gaining an industry-recognized certification. The next step for securing a high paid career as a blockchain consultant or developer is to build your portfolio by contributing to blockchain projects or creating new ones. Improve your soft skills like communication, networking, etc.

Last, but not least, make sure to polish your resume to reflect your passion, knowledge and expertise in blockchain development by listing technologies like Hyperledger or blockchain coding languages and projects that you’ve done.

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

Never stop learning

What technology could you not live without?

Internet

May 20
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Developer showcase series: Nadeem Bhati, High School Technology Services

By 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 Nadeem Bhati of High School Technology Services.

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

Blockchain is fairly new technology. You won’t find experts with 10+ years of experience. Everybody is learning and growing together, which makes this field very enjoyable onceyou get into it. Having a level playing field helps new entrants get confidence quickly. Some great way of getting started include enrolling in a certification program, attending community meet-ups and participating in hackathons. You meet new people, share ideas and learn from each other, which makes this journey more enjoyable.

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

Working on blockchain is working on the cutting edge of technology right now.There are very passionate people backing blockchain technology because they are confident that it has the potential to start a revolution. From decentralized currency to business transaction between parties in a trustless environment, blockchain has a varied range of use cases.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

I am currently working on a pharma-trading platform that resolves the issue of drug counterfeiting using Hyperledger Fabric. Previously, I worked on platforms for energy distribution on Hyperledger Fabric  in which group of households, or group of societies, connected by a power-grid form a network of nodes. These nodes can buy/sell energy generated by non-conventional ways such as solar. I have also worked on stocks-bonds trading proof of concept, on Hyperledger Fabric as part of my exploration of blockchain use cases. Many of my proofs of concept  are either in development or have seen their 1.0 releases.

What are the main differences between teaching Hyperledger to students and developing Hyperledger applications?

While teaching at High School Technology Services, I often get lots of questions from students that help me in looking at blockchain development differently. For example, in-depth discussions on sovereign identities, asynchronous cryptography and consensus algorithms have widened my perspective on how layman and new entrants as well as experts feel when they think of blockchain. This has helped me in my personal research into blockchain and making my developed platforms more user friendly.

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

Recently, FabToken was introduced in the latest release of Hyperledger Fabric. Further inclusion and improvement to make fabric more versatile should be expected.

I would personally like to see Hyperledger Composer development to be taken up again as it is a tool that has motivated many individuals, including me, to head towards Hyperledger

Other things on my wish list include pluggable interfaces and documentation.

Also, it would be interesting to see when we are able to easily integrate crypto-currencies into Hyperledger Fabric blockchains natively.

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

I have a list:

  • Sovereign Identity and inclusion of better identity solutions in current web infrastructure.
  • All sorts of registries published on chain for security and easy verifiability.
  • Cryptoeconomics, micropayment schemes to reward publishers of good content.
  • Testing ground for new market designs like frequent batch auctions, combinatorial auctions and automated market makers.

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

Blockchain is a revolution that promotes transparency. You build peer-to-peer self-sustaining applications that can stand its ground. From destabilized governments to supply chain vendors, use cases of blockchain are endless. Control over personal information is vital and can be successfully addressed using blockchain.

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

I have another list:

  • Many dapps replacing centralized applications.
  • Peer-to-peer marketplace for internet connections/incentivized mesh networks.
  • Identity, reputation and credit systems for those that currently have few resources such as refugees.
  • Decentralized DNS alternatives like ens.domains .
  • Blockchain flourishing in production environments across a range of use cases.

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

Software development never stops evolving. It’s important that one always keeps learning and evolving. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable and adapt the growth mindset as this will ensure that you never stagnate.

What technology could you not live without?

The internet.

This global computer network providing a variety of information and communication facilities has deeply affected my life and learning.

May 16
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Developer showcase series: Alishba Imran, The Knowledge Society

By 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 Alishba Imran, a 15-year-old machine learning and blockchain developer and nanotech researcher at The Knowledge Society. She’s interested in leveraging these tech and sciences to solve some really important problems with human reproduction and healthcare.

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

I would highly recommend taking courses, replicating projects, and talking to industry leaders in blockchain. The blockchain community is still fairly new, but you’d be shocked to see that there are so many resources out there for youth to get started. There’s still lots of work to do, but resources like IBM’s cloud service built on Hyperledger Fabric are very helpful. I think the best way to start learning is by replicating work that has already been done by other people. Once you have enough knowledge and sophistication in the topic, you can move to start creating your own projects. In this stage, I would highly recommend speaking with companies that are working in the space and setting up meetings. People are always willing to help, so just take initiative and reach out. The blockchain community is a small group, but it’s also a very interesting technology that can be used to solve some really big problems in our world.

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

I’m a 15-year-old innovator from The Knowledge Society. I got introduced to blockchain through The Knowledge Society (TKS), which is a human accelerator program for youth where we are learning about emerging tech/sciences and leveraging them to solve really important problems in our world. Through this program, I got to learn about blockchain and the mindsets and skills to start making my own projects. One of my most recent initiatives is called Honestblocks, which is a clockchain platform I developed using Hyperledger Fabric/Hyerpledger Composer that allows people in developing countries to manage their healthcare data and track their products. A huge issue in these countries is counterfeit medicine. Around 30-40% of medicine in many markets is counterfeit. I wanted to solve this issue by tracking medicine in the supply chain before it reaches the consumer. I partnered with a doctor in India to help develop the pharma side of the project. The platform is set to be tested in a few clinics in India. I also won Youth Innovator for this project at the Enterprise Blockchain Awards (EBA) this year!

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

Let’s say you just immigrated to a new country. In today’s world you would have to go through a lengthy process and paperwork to get your passport and documents. Even after you get them, there’s a chance that any of the online form of identification can be manipulated/tampered with. But in the blockchain world, governments will give out identities. This will enable anyone to have their own blockchain identity. There will only be one per person, giving every person one tamper-proof way to  access to all the services. Then, when you need to go to the doctor, all your medical records will be stored on a blockchain. You can grant access to required information to hospitals, insurers, or your doctor. All your money transactions are completely done by cryptocurrencies. I imagine all companies and corporations would be decentralized. We would enter a self-sovereign society where you own all of your information. This is the type of world that is possible using blockchain. This is the future that excites me.

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

The best piece of advice I’ve ever received is to always keep pushing out content and moving forward. You need to be oriented for other people’s success. You can have the most knowledge in the world, but, if you aren’t building stuff and putting out useful content, no one would know. Drive and ambition are very important, but it’s vital to have a really good ratio between thinking and doing. My overall goal is to be the next female Musk or Jobs. I want to break down stereotypes that still exist for females in this industry and use technology to solve really important problems in our world.

Mar 28
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Developer showcase series: Zilya Yagafarova, Soramitsu

By Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Iroha

Give a bit of background on what you’re working on, and let us know what was it that made you want to get into technology? How did you get involved in blockchain? In Hyperledger?

I am a project manager for Soramitsu and I work with a team of highly skilled developers writing code for different platforms and also QA and DevOps specialists.

I have been interested in IT since I was a child and, by the age of 14, had already decided to commit myself to studying computer technologies. After graduating from university, I worked as a technical support engineer, an engineer of information systems’ implementation, and a business and system analyst. Now, I am a project manager.

The thing about IT is that you have to constantly learn new skills and work on self-development. Technology is advancing constantly, so you should become a better version of yourself everyday.

A few years ago, blockchain technology appeared on the market–it was new and seemed promising. My friends had already worked on Hyperledger projects and inspired me to join them.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

I am a project manager of Project Bakong, a payment system that is developed in collaboration with the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) using Hyperledger Iroha blockchain. We have finished with the implementation of the core system and will to launch a pilot with dozens of Cambodian banks, which is very exciting. Some of our technology is also being used in a decentralized autonomous economic system called Sora and in a decentralized digital asset custodian and settlement service called D3 Ledger. Collaborating with other projects is intellectually stimulating and enjoyable.

We decided to use Hyperledger Iroha because it is created for financial institutions to build highly performant systems that can scale to large numbers of concurrent users (in our case it is the population of a whole country!) and it proved itself capable of performing the task, in my experience.

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

The main target of the project I am working on is to help expand access to financial services for Cambodian people by providing instant payments through a mobile application and robust, modernized infrastructure.

Blockchain is a new and very promising technology, especially when it comes to finance – transactions in Hyperledger Iroha have settlement finality and the data are impossible to corrupt.

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

Design first–analyse the task from every angle and only then write the code that you fully comprehend; do not rely on random chance because it will not work.

What advice would you give for other women who want to build their careers in development? In blockchain?

Believe in yourself and in your capabilities. Then just work hard.

What technology could you not live without?

That must be maps and translation software. I travel a lot because our company is as decentralized as its products, and it would be impossible to discover the world as I do now without a way to communicate and navigate in it.

Feb 06
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Developer showcase series: Raj Sadaye, Arizona State University

By Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Composer, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Quilt

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Raj Sadaye.

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

One piece of advice I would offer someone interested in getting started with blockchain is to start working on a project or an application using the technology that they want to learn. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate or a complicated application, but could be something that has utility in the real world. While working on it, they might face difficulties or technical setbacks. The best way to tackle this is to reach out to the community of several other developers who are currently maintaining/ working on that technology. We can learn a lot by working on a project and reading the documentation thoroughly.

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

My interest in blockchains developed when I was searching for a method to secure IoT device communication as well as make it de-centralized to increase speed. Blockchain technology turned out to be the perfect solution for this. Over the past 8 months, I’ve worked on several projects at Arizona State University’s Blockchain research Lab. In March 2018, I worked on building a PoC for a Carbon credits trading ecosystem using blockchain for Lightworks at ASU. The system enables various players of the market to control carbon emissions while maintaining sustainable growth by incentivizing carbon capturing actors. A brief description of this project can be found here. Currently, we’re working with the Center for Negative Emission of Carbon to design a way to verify capture as well as emission of carbon with minimal human intervention. My current research focus is developing a data sharing protocol that enables edge to edge communication in IoT devices. I’ve also been working on building the CSE 598: Engineering Blockchain Applications course on Coursera for Arizona State University.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

Primarily, I’ve been working with Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Composer and overall, the experience has been really good. Hyperledger Fabric has a good set of tools to build the infrastructure for a distributed ledger solution. The certification authority is a high-quality tool that helps us with cryptographic validation and dynamically assigning certificates for actors being added to the network. Once a person is familiar with the documentation, it’s really simple to go about building applications. Hyperledger Composer is a tool that excited me the most over the last 8 month because it runs on top of Hyperledger Fabric and it can help a blockchain novice on how to build a distributed application. Both frameworks have really good tutorial sections that help developers get familiar with the technology.

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

In my opinion, supply chains and blockchain technology were always meant to go hand in hand. The most interesting app or use case that I’ve been recently come across is Everledger. Everledger rewires trust and confidence in a previously broken market by building consortiums of actors participating and maintaining provenance by supplementing blockchain technology with various other verification techniques. In the near future, I see other products also adopt such an architecture to avoid counterfeiting and adultery.


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

One issue I’m hoping to be solved using blockchain technology is verification of identity through digitization of personal documents. Verification of documents using hash-based fingerprinting assigning ownership of this digital record to the person rather than a centralized authority can help a lot in maintaining the privacy of data as well as avoiding frauds through detection of counterfeit documents being used.


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

In 5 years, I expect blockchain technology to move over the crypto-hype and focus on the real applications and use cases that it be integrated with. For Hyperledger, the most interesting upcoming project, in my opinion, is Hyperledger Quilt which aims to achieve interoperability in blockchains. I’d also like to see a solution within the Hyperledger project that enables seamless integration of blockchain application with the existing infrastructure.

Jan 17
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Developer showcase series: John Greenhow, Peloton Blockchain

By Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Composer, Hyperledger Fabric

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is John Greenhow of Peloton Blockchain.

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

To anyone that wants to get started working on blockchain, my advice is to just start. As we set out, our team had to go through a headspace change similar to moving from assembly to object-oriented.

We picked a platform, picked a simple goal and ran through the installation and a test. More than once if necessary (I installed and setup Fabric twice). As soon as you physically can, look at the files on disk or in the database to see how they change – it will demystify things much more quickly.

We started off with Hyperledger Composer. This was a fantastic way in for us. It allowed us to model the business network we had envisioned and to write and test the necessary logic very quickly, all while going back to check bytes-on-disk to see how things worked under the hood.

My other piece of advice starts with an old saying, “when you’re holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. There will be use cases out there to which blockchain is not well suited as a solution, and that’s OK.  Spend time looking thinking about eco-systems and business networks and where the cost of a decentralized solution is really going to make a difference to everyone in the network.  It will pay off in the long run.

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

Peloton Blockchain has developed software and a network for the tokenisation, issuance, discovery, listing, secondary trading and redemption of financial instruments and non-financial assets – in a way that is compliant with regulatory jurisdictions around the world.   

We can offer efficiencies in primary markets, new distribution channels for issuers and a whole new class of products for exchanges. We have 1 patent pending with 2 further patents in the pipe. Exciting times!

We’ve developed 3 products:

  • Issuer/Arranger System – this SaaS supports the tokenisation of products and publishing of new tokens or securities to a blockchain network; no development or scripting is required for new securities.
  • Blockchain Network – based on Hyperledger Fabric, this is a private, secure and scalable network designed to provide unparalleled breadth of distribution to issuers and lead arrangers; chain-code manages compliance and the full security lifecycle – we’ve built RESTful APIs to facilitate connectivity into crypto-exchanges and secure “nodes” for deployment.
  • Exchange System – an exchange trading platform designed for primary and secondary market trading of tokens and securities; we don’t (and won’t!) run a market ourselves, but we do provide the software and expertise if it’s needed to setup secondary markets.

Blockchain in general, and specifically Hyperledger Fabric, provided the best platform upon which we could build. The ability to deploy software to many different organizations and yet retain a trusted view of a ledger of security transactions and ownership opens a utopian vision for many in the capital markets. Blockchain is simply the perfect tool for this job.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

We initially started on Composer and then moved to Fabric as we moved towards a production deployment model. We were sorry to leave Composer behind as it has so many great features – the modeling language and API generation chief among them.

Moving to Fabric involved a re-write into Golang, and we were really surprised by just how much code was needed to port what had been a fairly small project in Composer. I don’t say this to denigrate Fabric but to accentuate the power of Composer.

Our focus now is building out a production network. As well as deploying nodes to participating market operators, issuers and arrangers, we are hosting several nodes around the world to form a reliable back-bone to the network. To do this, we’ve utilized the AWS Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) and this has been a powerful tool in ensuring scalability.

We’re also looking ahead to production operations, and building web services and management consoles to automate and coordinate everything from upgrades to onboarding new network participants.

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

There are several routes available by which Hyperledger can continue to lower barriers to entry for new teams and projects. These include:

  1. A move to commoditization – installation, configuration and operation of databases, message buses, caches and many other complex software packages is out-of-the-box today. Experience in the field will contribute to incremental releases that continually shorten the time taken to be productive.
  2. Best of breed flagship – rolling together the (stable) killer features of different Hyperledger projects into a commodity enterprise project could reduce the risk stemming from dependency upon a single project and provide a single point of entry into the Hyperledger world for teams focused on solutions rather than platform evaluation. An example might include Fabric support for Composer models (or perhaps better, Composer cross-compilation to Fabric-ready Golang) packaged with Cello features pre-configured for particular use-cases.

Ongoing community out-reach, profile pieces and education remain invaluable and the more the better!

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

What really fascinates me about blockchain is that it rarely seems to be the most efficient or low-cost solution available. I’ve had endless conversations with technologists who see a simple, centralized solution as faster…easier…cheaper!

From the perspective of a single organization, this is true. Where the technology comes into its own is in making whole eco-systems of organizations more effective. Blockchain isn’t growing the one slice, it’s growing the whole damn pie.

How successful blockchain projects (in terms of adoption) are seems to depend on the benefits brought to all participants, rather than to a central orchestrator. To the central orchestrator, data is the new oil. Is that still the case if everyone has a copy of that data?

Seen through this filter, there is an implication of more broadly available efficiencies to many industries. This can only be good for economic growth in both developed and high potential markets.

Our project at Peloton Blockchain focuses directly on this, building highly connected networks of issuers, arrangers and exchanges to the benefit of all.

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

Ultimately blockchain is an application infrastructure layer, much like an RDBMS or messaging bus.

While there is (quite rightly) a lot of research and energy going into blockchain today, the hope is that the layer will become commoditized and that the focus will shift to the solutions that this enables for business networks.

Hyperledger already has projects that are well on the way to making this a reality and we’re really excited to see this continue.

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

Test your code!

Jan 08
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Developer showcase series: Arielle Telesmanic, Scroll

By Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Composer, Hyperledger Fabric

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Arielle Telesmanic of Scroll.

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

Blockchain is quite different from its centralized information system’s counterparts. It is very important to understand the fundamentals of Blockchain Technology and design a Blockchain ecosystem that is both cost effective and efficient to provide the favorable conditions needed to support industry migration or a public user base depending on intended use. Before getting to carried away at the drawing board learn about smart contracts, consensus models, blockchain states and the nature of the peer to peer distribution of data within a blockchain system. Ask yourself, “Can this scale? Is this a better alternative to traditional systems? What information do I need to record and how is this information being distilled to the right participants?

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

Currently, I am working on the logistics and system design of three blockchain projects focused on ensuring data integrity in supply chains and streamlining data recovery in the advent of a data breach or leak. To complement the data recovery project, we are also developing a main net to strengthen the modularity and ease of use in migrating to a Blockchain. Our efforts include optimizing transaction speeds, side chain communication and a method to promote efficient change-management.

My interest in blockchain peaked as I noticed the advancements in quantum computing have been Signiant. Quantum computing’s ability to decrypt cryptosystems used in industry is concerning and there needs to be more development on quantum-resistant encryption and data verification/handling.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

Currently, we are working with Hyperledger Fabric and Composer. Hyperledger’s framework uses chaincode which allows us to work with different states of the blockchain per transactions triggers by different applications. Out of the box, Hyperledger has promise in aiding the permissioned access to states of the ledger which is not typically supported in traditional Blockchain solutions. More information to follow on our integration efforts and contribution to the Hyperledger framework on Https://scroll.network

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

Although Blockchain technology originated as a fintech solution, I am more interested in identity management and data quality assurance use cases (specifically data validity). The world is data-driven. Whether data is used to report manufacturing defects, drive patient care plans or execute a transaction that involves Personally Identifiable Information, it is of utmost importance that data is accurate.

Oct 24
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Developer Showcase Series: Tian Chen, ArcBlock

By 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 Tian Chen of ArcBlock.

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

First, get the concept and basic ideas right – read the white paper twice and think about it. Do not read the superficial blogs from the internet, which may lead you to a wrong direction. Then get your hands dirty with the node and RPC, look at the data, think about how things are working and then try to use the RPC to create small apps. After that, you will find which direction you’d like to go in – build the apps or build the infrastructure.

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

At ArcBlock, we’re building tools that try to make developer’s lives easier. Our goal is to create an ecosystem around building dApps that is easy and joyful, not hard and tedious. We believe that blockchain technology could lead to the next revolution, and even move the entire human society. However the technology is still pretty immature -like the early internet, or pre web 2.0 internet, and building complicated apps are pretty hard. We would like to improve it. That’s why we got into blockchain.

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

The usability of Hyperledger project is a major issue to me.

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

We hope the usability issue could be solved in near future. It is not an outside world issue but the issue rooted in blockchain tech itself. We hope there becomes an easier way to use token assets without having to be super technical. 

What technology could you not live without?

Internet. of course.

      

 

Aug 31
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Developer Showcase Series: Ian Costanzo, Anon Solutions Inc

By Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Composer, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy

We return back to our Developer Showcase blog! This series serves to highlight the work and motivations of developers, users and researchers collaborating on Hyperledger’s projects. Next up is Ian Costanzo from Anon Solutions Inc. Let’s dig in!

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

Learn the fundamentals, and then get involved in an interesting open source project.

Working with Bitcoin is one of the best ways to learn the fundamentals of blockchain. The original white paper lays the groundwork in a clear and concise way, and there is a significant amount of documentation and examples available. Once you have a good understanding of the basic cryptography, merkle trees, proof of work, etc, it is much easier to work with more complex frameworks, which tend to layer on additional functionality (and complexity).

Then find an open source project and get involved. No matter what your interest there is probably a existing project in with a need for contributions in a number of areas. Documentation, introductory tutorials and testing are common needs. I’ve been involved in a few projects, and I’ve found there is always enthusiastic support (via slack, rocketchat, telegram, etc.) for new participants.

Also check for local meetups – I’m fortunate that in Vancouver there are a lot of blockchain enthusiasts, many meetups, and I’ve met quite a few interesting characters.

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

I’m working with the BC Government on their Verifiable Organizations Network (VON) project (https://github.com/bcgov/von) using Hyperledger Indy.  I got involved in a roundabout kind of way.

Originally I was working with a homeless shelter in Calgary (https://www.calgarydropin.ca/) – they had recently implemented a new CRM and were looking at ways they could improve service to their clients by (securely) collaborating with other service providers. Their primary concerns were security of personal information, and respect for the sovereignty of individuals to control their own information, where possible. I did a survey of the technology space, and found that the Sovrin network (and Hyperledger Indy) was a clear fit for their requirement. I was lucky enough to get in touch with the BC group who were working with the same technology, and then fortunate to be able to participate in their project.

I’m interested in how blockchain can be used to help protect our personal information, and give us more autonomy and control over how our information is shared and used.

What project in Hyperledger are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger?

I’m working with Hyperledger Indy, with the BC Government. My role has been to scale up the solution to handle enterprise requirements, including large data volumes and transaction throughputs.  It’s been a fascinating experience, because I get to work with a lot of very smart people in the BC Government, as well as at Sovrin, Evernym and the whole Indy community.  The technology is new, which is interesting, but we’re also exploring new ways in how the technology is being applied, which creates lots of challenges and opportunities.

Specifically I’ve been working on an Enterprise Wallet for the central credential “holder.” I’ve updated the wallet to support multiple identities and millions of credentials, and to run in an enterprise micro-services deployment. I’m excited for the next round of SDK wallet development, which is going to introduce wallet meta-data, native encryption and improved search capabilities, which are all going to support functionality the team is planning to add in the coming months.

I’d also like to mention that the BC team is working in partnership with the governments of Ontario and Canada. In Victoria we work out of the government’s “Innovation Center”, which is focussed on public/private partnerships and support for the open source community. All the work we are doing is open source, available for use, and we welcome new collaborators.

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

Ease of use for new developers, as well as scalability. Ease of use is something that Ethereum (for example) has done a very good job with. Solidity is pretty simple to learn, and you can write very sophisticated blockchain applications without having to get too deep into the weeds. This is why Ethereum is one of the most widely used blockchain platforms. The downside of Ethereum is scalability (Crypto Kitties almost brought down the whole network) but that is something they are putting some resources into.

I’ve worked with Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Indy, and I think anyone will agree that these are very complex technologies!  In order to get more widespread adoption documentation, training and tooling are critical. Their strength is that they are more specialized networks, however they come with a very steep learning curve, and this is something that needs to be addressed.

For Hyperledger Fabric, the introduction of Composer for application development was a huge step forward. Hyperledger Indy (what I am mostly working with now) could use similar tooling. There is work in progress on documentation and developer tools, but the more focus in this area the better!

As a private network, Hyperledger Fabric may not suffer from the same scalability concerns as public networks, but Indy supports a public network (Sovrin) so scalability is definitely a concern.

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

I like to think that blockchain can be used for the benefit of humanity, rather than just providing a living for those of us fortunate enough to be working with the technology.

Self sovereign identity has a lot of potential, putting information under the control of the individual rather than large corporations, allowing us to (selectively) share with our friends and colleagues, without having to worry about our information being mined and mis-used.  Also being able to benefit disadvantaged populations, like refugees and the homeless.

Privacy is another potential benefit of blockchain, having the ability to secure personal information, as well as being able to communicate and transact anonymously.

I’ve seen a lot of other really interesting applications proposed or prototyped, like using cryptocurrency to distribute aid directly to recipients (reducing the risk of graft), or using blockchain to track ethically captured tuna. I’m excited (and hopeful) for the future of this technology.

What technology could you not live without?

I resisted getting a smartphone for a long time, because I have a bit of a technology addiction. (I also don’t own a TV because I would just end up watching it all the time.) Now I have an Android phone, and I’m in constant communication. I always know the answer to every question (thanks Google) and where to go for lunch or the best route to get to the ferry. When I get involved in an interesting technology (like blockchain!) I become a bit of a workaholic and spend far too much time on the computer.

So the best technology for me is sometimes no technology at all. Leave the phone behind and go for a walk, to clear my mind. Sit down with a pen and paper to solve some problems, rather than try to work it out at the computer (This forces me to do some actual programming for a change, rather than just cut and pasting from StackExchange.) Read the newspaper rather than my news feed online.

Until the nervous twitching starts and I have to reach for my phone!