Developer Showcase

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Si Chen, president of Open Source Strategies, Inc.

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

We’re building an “operating system” that links together data, transactions, and user engagement and can be used for climate action at any scale, from supra-national cap and trade programs to community-scale energy or nature-based projects. 

I got into blockchain because I saw that while there was a lot of new innovation for tackling climate change, it was difficult to get our existing centralized institutions to adopt them. Blockchain lets us build collaboration even when there are no central authorities available.

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

We’ve worked with Fabric and Besu and are looking at Cactus and a Hyperledger Labs project called TrustID.

Overall the experience with Hyperledger has been great! It’s a large community that has helped us learn a lot about this emerging field, and there’s a lot of developer support available.

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

Bringing different projects together to address a few complete application-scale use cases so that we can see there is a Hyperledger solution to building full-fledged applications.

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

Skip the hype. Blockchain is not just bitcoin trading. It’s a lot more mature than you realize. It’ll probably transform on your field, so get ahead of the game by really learning how it works.

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?

Ownership of Data. 

Today your financial ratings are owned by your banks, your health records are owned by your doctor, your online credibility is owned by social networks, and your climate records are owned by, well, nobody. Important data is spread out across many different “silos,” and it becomes impossible to piece them all back again.

Imagine a future where users own their data by storing them immutably on blockchains–financial, health, social, climate, etc.–and grant access to them to providers in return for services. This could solve a lot of interesting problems: Providing credit to the unbanked. Better health care and public health management. Useful collective action. A solution to climate change.

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

Collaboration. Climate change is just one (huge) problem that results from lack of collaboration due to a lack of coordinating authorities. Blockchain is the technology for building collaboration networks and could solve a lot of big problems.

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

I’d like to see Hyperledger being a key part of the blockchain ecosystem that brings together people all over the world to collaborate together.

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

Make it Easy for Your Users.

What technology could you not live without?

Agriculture? Electricity? Computers? The Internet? This is a very humbling question and makes me realize how much we depend on each other.

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Arun S M, Senior Software Engineer at Walmart.

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

Walmart is a pioneer in technology adoption. This case study offers a comprehensive look at Walmart’s journey in blockchain technology adoption. You might have read about multiple other pilot programs Walmart has either initiated or participated in as well. At Walmart Global Tech, we join hands in powering the next generation retail disruption. Listen to what Archana Sristy, Sr Director, Blockchain Platforms, had to say in the keynote panel at Hyperledger Global Forum 2020. 

While many say their journey into the blockchain started with either Bitcoin or Ethereum, mine started with the Hyperledger projects. I started my journey into this technology at my previous employer Intel. I remember when everybody was excited to see Hyperledger Fabric leaning towards its 0.6 version release. On the other hand, Hyperledger Sawtooth was prepping up to support EVM smart contracts. My first quest on the technology was to provide an option of byzantine fault tolerance to the Hyperledger Fabric project with the help of a trusted execution engine. I found myself digging through source code written in a language I was not familiar with back then. Project source code and logs from the test run served as documentation. It was quite a joyful experience to see a working POC completed in a short period of time.

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

The range of projects in Hyperledger’s greenhouse is sufficient to provide a starting point for any blockchain-based idea. I say that not speaking only for my employer. At Hyperledger I wear multiple hats:

First, and my favorite of all, being a developer! 

Though my journey started with the Hyperledger Fabric and I predominantly use it in my projects, I have spent a considerable amount of time on other Hyperledger technologies. I found myself enjoying the problem statements within Hyperledger Sawtooth and, eventually, became one of its maintainers. I started by fixing bugs in the sawtooth-core and working on consensus engines and then on a Hyperledger Labs project implementing a new protocol for the Proof of Elapsed Time. (Feel free to reach out in case you would like to revive it.) I took on adding missing features on the sabre engine, participating in the 2.0 release planning meetings and supporting Hyperledger Transact’s goal. 

Very recently, I started to find myself interested in the potential benefits of lab projects such as Blockchain Automation Framework. Likewise, Hyperledger Aries has never ceased to impress me. And don’t be surprised if you see me in Hyperledger Ursa meetings. 

Second hat, being a Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee member!

Walmart uses blockchain at scale like nowhere else, and yet we are pioneers in adopting new features. This gives me a great, dual point of view as I have worked extensively on the core protocol layer as well as on realizing potential use cases. On the TSC, this allows me to speak up for what an end user organization would like to prioritize when it comes to the advancement of blockchain technology.

Out in the community, I enjoy speaking at Hyperledger Global Forum and other conferences. From the time I started to help the community based in India, it has been my pleasure to meet several tech enthusiasts. It is amazing to see how people are willing to join and contribute back once they understand the technology. Oftentimes, lack of awareness is often what makes people think contributing to Hyperledger projects is out of their reach. Being a TSC representative has helped me be a bridge and bring in new perspectives. 

Third hat, leading the Hyperledger India Chapter and other speaking engagements! 

The idea of Hyperledger India Chapter was conceptualized by Amol Kulkarni in early 2018. The chapter was inaugurated in January, 2019. The chapter’s goal was to build a bridge between the global community and India. In the initial days, we spent time answering technical questions, running project specific developer forums and organizing national meetup events.

Since taking the baton from earlier chapter leads in 2020, I’ve had the pleasure of proposing and running multiple other modes of engagements. Our hackathons, a multi-week blockchain story sharing series and a technical deep-dive fest have all contributed to increased participation by the community in India. It’s been satisfying hearing the positive impact these engagements have created. It is evident in the feedback we receive from the community in India but also in the rest of the Asia Pacific, Europe, Africa, and, sometimes, the Americas regions. The latest approach has been to identify more community leaders, delegate responsibility and encourage smaller circle engagements to gradually build the community participation. Hyperledger staff members (so as not to miss out any names, let’s say everybody) have supported all the initiatives proposed by the Hyperledger India Chapter. There never was a no for anything. 

Having mentioned these, let me know if you have an idea. I am ready for the next hat 😉

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

Hyperledger is doing great with community participation and diversity. Technical diversity is what I can focus on here. These are the points I would pick up in no particular order:

1. Encouraging projects up the protocol stack that are aimed towards easier and faster adoption to production. These could include ready-to-use tools and libraries such as deployment tools or core protocol management libraries/tools.    
2. Prototyping possible interoperability patterns to integrate multiple blockchain protocols.
3. Paving the way towards plug-and-play style, reusable modules development across protocols.
   

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

If you are thinking about using blockchain technology and/or if you’re new to blockchain technology and this happens to be your first read about the technology, then you’re in good hands. Do not always overfit your problem statement. It could be just digitization of data that you want to solve your problem. Use of blockchain for the sole purpose of integrity protection amongst the trusted nodes can be debated. I am happy to help you in your blockchain journey! I’ve shared some background and advice for getting started below. 

Blockchain is a technology. As you know, any technology defines a well known process of achieving an outcome for a given problem statement. Blockchain technology is aimed towards removing intermediaries (many a times unnecessary) in transactions and establishing a high level of trust on the data exchanged between the involved participants.

Blockchain technology achieves this by the use of distributed, decentralized, digital ledger technology. You all might be aware of distributed databases. Now let’s add decentralization to it. As an example, what if multiple instances of the database (having the same copy of data) are maintained by different parties. Each of those involved parties don’t trust each other generally without a trusted agent making sure everything is rightly copied. Now, what if we remove the unnecessary third party agent and let the distrusting parties trust each other using a mechanism? The digital ledger is that mechanism.

Let’s break the myths and understand commonly used terms:

1. Blockchain (often used as the name of the technology as well): Imagine it to be a linked list that is cryptographically protected so that you cannot change the position of the list nodes or the contents stored in it. This makes it an immutable ledger of data. 
2. Smart Contract: If you have worked on database applications, you know about CRUD operations. How would you control how CRUD operations are performed and by whom in a distributed system? This is taken care of by the smart contracts.    
3. Consensus: Just by controlling who and how can one perform CRUD operations may not be sufficient for making sure every participant in the network has the same copy of the data. This is not a totally new concept. Consensus in simple terms is getting agreement. You can follow multiple approaches to get different participants to agree to a common data point. RAFT, PBFT, PoET, etc. are examples.

To get started on developing or supporting blockchain applications, your first step is to decide what you want to do. It is quite uncommon that you need to understand how Fabric/Sawtooth is implemented if your goal is to develop an application. Similarly, if you would like to be an expert DevOps/administrator of the network, then you would learn how to maintain the application with the available options. Hyperledger projects have abstracted low-level handling from you. There are CLI or SDK options for you to interact with the running ledger.

 The following steps should make you an expert on a given project:

1.  Familiarize yourself with one of the protocols.    
2.  Understand how a framework is architected and the flow of data in it.
3. Read through the documents and note down all possible configuration options. How well your production deployment will work will come down to how well you understand available options.    
4. Write sample code to use the provided SDKs for smart contract and client application development.

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?

Here are my top five picks, considering the needs of the hour:

1. Tracking COVID-19 vaccinations: Creating blockchain-backed ledger verifiable credentials to provide greater confidence on the issued credential and open up international collaboration that gets things back to normal while maintaining individuals’ privacy. Similarly, enabling safer vaccine track and trace by making sure every process is followed as expected in the supply chain for effective progress. Blockchain can also play a vital role in future health emergencies in a range of ways such as increasing trust in the research data in the early stages and improving collaborating with parties in far places.
2. Leveling the field in education: I am a strong supporter of education for all. Use of blockchain in eradicating the indifferences and providing quality education to the needy would be an excellent use case if somebody can come up with one.
3. Federating learning: Use of blockchain in federated learning to achieve trust is something to be explored further. 
4. Enabling the concept of global citizen: A person graduating in university from a far away place should be able to prove the knowledge and degree to get a job elsewhere. 
5. Enabling eGovernance: Blockchain has a role to play in a range of areas, including the electoral process, security lending, property buying, government reach out programs, digital credential issuance, reducing corruption and legal processes.

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

After this set of intense answers, I will answer slightly comically (who knows it could be reality in future). I wish blockchain could become backbone technology to end the misinformation on the internet, eventually becoming the single source of truth for a peaceful humanity!

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

Blockchain technologies are evolving at supersonic speed. Even as we speak now there could be someone thinking of a new feature or capability. 

• I hope to see interoperability becoming not just an advantage but a necessary parameter for adoption. Another analogy is that, in the near future, it would be great to have the option to switch between multiple blockchain frameworks like we switch the databases today. With standards governing how to transfer the data across blockchains and still maintain integrity.
• I hope to see design patterns being defined for blockchain technology, eventually helping scale the network or overcome the limitations of today. 
• I hope to see blockchain networks talking to each other, not just from the protocol perspective but at the domain level. This will open up a range of new use cases.
• I hope to see techniques that would optimize the storage and compute requirements for running a blockchain network.

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

It’s hard to pick on one thing! The best piece of advice that I received as a freshman from my mentor Mark Chung back then is “do not give up because the code is complex; stare at the code until it breaks up and surrenders to you. Code will tell you more truths the more you stare at it.” Another recent from one of my ex-boss Ansuya Negi is “do not be upset because your project didn’t go beyond the POC. The learnings you got through the process is more important than the outcome.”

What technology could you not live without?

To be honest, I would prefer a life not surrounded by technology and would rather go out into nature’s serenity. But, to logically answer this question, I think the evolution of the computer system has accelerated and uplifted the human standard of living in many ways making it is difficult to live without a computer.

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Jim Sullivan of DC Web Makers.

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

Blockchain is the Internet of Value as opposed to today’s Internet of Information. Building blockchain applications is no different from any other application. Regard blockchain applications as transaction applications. Blockchain applications permanently record asset transfer and asset ownership.

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?

In my work as a software engineer, I have had the opportunity to see how blockchain can rewrite rules for everyday interactions. For example, in the not too distant future, we will use blockchain to manage cellular numbers. Cellular numbers are assets, and similar to any other asset, these numbers can be modeled on a blockchain. Blockchain will allow cellular, and all phone,  numbers to be more easily and securely managed, and less subject to fraud.   

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

We are building an application for a cross-border secure supply chain. The Hyperledger channels provide suppliers a path for interacting with the end customer, while ensuring that their data is only visible to the end customer. The channels ensure that no supplier’s data is visible to the other suppliers.

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

While working at DC Web Makers, I often have to follow a client’s requirements especially their blockchain platform choice for development. However, I personally enjoy writing codes for both Hyperledger and Ethereum platforms. My favorite Hyperledger framework is Hyperledger Fabric and my favorite Ethereum framework and tool are Remix and the Truffle Suite. There is no doubt about it.

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

The most important thing Hyperledger can focus on is increasing the number of transactions per second. 

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

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

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

Blockchain is going to solve many problems. However, I am looking forward to seeing blockchain secure the supply chain. This will add to the quality of products and make products safer. This will enhance the quality of life for all people, everywhere. 

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

We hope to see robust widely accepted Hyperledger DLT applications. We need to see the number of transactions per second increase to compete against other financial systems.

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

Use the Scrum process, or a variation, and demo work back to the customer.

What technology could you not live without?

The Internet.

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Mark Anthony Morris from Tarantula Technology.

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

Focus on Hyperledger projects because Hyperledger is all about blockchain in the enterprise. The interest and use of enterprise blockchain is rapidly growing. In the next couple of years, skills in enterprise blockchain will be in great demand.

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 work in blockchain is multifaceted. I enjoy lecturing on, writing about, training on, hosting meetups for, designing, and developing blockchain technology. Currently, I am working on launching a blockchain-based startup company, which is developing a SaaS for enterprise and government solutions. I am co-authoring a book for O’Reilly Media titled, “Hands-on Smart Contract Development with Hyperledger Fabric V2,” and author and conduct a 90-minutes to Hyperledger Fabric online training through O’Reilly Media. I host monthly Hyperledger meetups and consult for select clients in need of expertise and guidance on blockchain technology, as well as cybersecurity and advanced enterprise and cloud computing.

I became enthralled with blockchain on a quiet Saturday in early 2015 when I downloaded and began reading the C/C++ source code for Bitcoin. I was not excited about the cryptocurrency use case, Bitcoin, because I had already invented a peer-to-peer funds exchange solution. When I reached the blockchain code, everything changed. I immediately saw the potential use in enterprise and government. I realized it had the capability for ushering in a transformational change to process and collaboration. From that moment I could not get blockchain out of my head. I began reading, studying, learning everything I could find on blockchain, including the use case cryptocurrency, which I see as evolutionary for token use, and eventually a replacement for fiat, manifesting the epoch in the historical evolution of money. I armed myself with the knowledge I needed to design, develop, invent, consult, and teach blockchain technology, which I vigorously continue to pursue.

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

I design and develop enterprise and government SaaS solutions powered by Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Sawtooth. I am currently developing Fabric and Sawtooth interoperability software while integrating a suite of enterprise applications, like ERP, CRM, CMS, ECOMM, HR, and MRP, as well as AI, AR, IoT, and robotics. My aim is to build a complete enterprise and government SaaS solution targeting complex, diverse, and simple supply chains and marketplaces.

The future for large-scale Hyperledger blockchain technology is bright. I see great interest in the type of SaaS blockchain platform I am developing. For example, I am in early talks and beginning to work with two governments. In one case, the discussions are around a blockchain solution for ecommerce and tax collection. In the other, the focus is on industrial hemp regulation, an agricultural co-op for industrial hemp processing, and a Class 1 railroad consulting company for rail automation. The use cases for blockchain are very diverse, and interest for blockchain solutions will only grow as more and more solutions demonstrate a profitable ROI with a production status.

My experience with Hyperledger began in 2016 when the Linux Foundation first created the project. I immediately founded a meetup I called Austin Hyperledger. It was renamed Hyperledger Austin six months later when the Hyperledger Foundation reached out to me, asking me if I would be interested in running one of the first official Hyperledger Meetups in the world. I graciously accepted, and we now have 750+ members. I was ready because, in 2015 shortly after founding the meetup called Austin Blockchain Technology (2,200+ members), I publicly predicted IBM would announce its formation of an enterprise blockchain initiative within a year or sooner. It was my gut instinct, garnered from a career as independent hired-gun for IBM, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, and the Big 6. Since 2016, I have been lecturing, presenting, developing, consulting, and educating audiences, companies, and entrepreneurs on Hyperledger technology and projects with a strong focus on using Hyperledger Fabric and Hyperledger Sawtooth in the enterprise and government.

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

While teaching, I often get lots of questions from students that help me in looking at blockchain development differently. The differences between teaching Hyperledger and developing Hyperledger are contextual. Teaching Hyperledger is all about the fundamentals of blockchain with a focus on how to use blockchain technology in the context of enterprise solutions. Developing Hyperledger is all about applying those fundamentals and extending them to solve problems that only surface in the context of developing real world enterprise solutions. This requires moving far beyond the fundamental and extending the technologies to meet the demands and expectations of stakeholders that will use the Hyperledger solutions.

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

I think Hyperledger should continue doing a great job promoting enterprise and government blockchain visibility and benefits to the world.

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?

I think blockchain interoperability is the most interesting and important work incubating in Hyperledger because we are at a stage of maturity where it is vital for continued growth that blockchain platforms develop the capability to interoperate.

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

I hope the promise of blockchain brings transparency, provenance, and trust to our government at the local, state, and national level.

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

I hope blockchain becomes ubiquitous like the Internet, a network of networks, and is demanded and utilized by all enterprises and governments across the world.

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

The best developer advice I ever received was from my first mentor, who told me, “write software that reads like a novel. The reader should never have to turn back to a page. Keep your methods, functions, and routines to no more than one page, two pages maximum.”

What technology could you not live without?

I am a software developer and architect, so I could not live without software languages. I need at least one software language, but the more the merry to live the life I enjoy, which is designing and developing software and systems solutions for enterprises and governments.

Added note from Mark: I would love to hear your feedback. If you want to share your questions or comments with me, you can reach me directly via Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/markmorrissupergeek/

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Arisht Jain, Software Engineer, Xooa Inc.

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

I am working on the Xooa platform, which makes adoption of blockchain easy. Xooa is focused on reducing barriers for enterprise blockchain adoption by making blockchain app development easier and faster, which enables higher quality projects. My fascination for blockchain developed when Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies were gaining massive hype in 2018. That period in time made me dig deeper into the technology and discover that the scope of blockchain technology extends beyond just cryptocurrencies.

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 am working on Hyperledger Fabric as a DLT, primarily. Also, Hyperledger Explorer has been part and parcel since I have been developing applications running on Fabric. It is quite a user-friendly application that we, at Xooa, have also integrated with our platform. The Hyperledger community has been very encouraging and supportive. I have seen personally how close knit its community has become over time and how great the tools and products it’s churned out have been.

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

I think that Hyperledger should have more projects like Hyperledger Indy that focus on specific use cases that blockchain can help with. It would allow the penetration of blockchain and Hyperledger technologies into mass adoption across various industries.

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

I would tell them to get their hands dirty and start creating smart contracts. Don’t be overwhelmed by the complexities that blockchain brings with it. An overview is good enough to understand the system in broad terms and to begin creating blockchain apps. Once you start working on a project, you will gradually understand its complexities, learn on the go, and be able to build on this experience in the future.

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 could see KYC as well as numerous use cases in the telecom industry, such as mobile number portability and roaming in the different telecom circles, being quite successful. Multi organizations are part of such use cases and so the workflow can be translated very well into blockchain applications.

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

I would wish to see the transparency and accountability that blockchain can bring put to use in  government and legislative processes. It could help in stifling corruption and fostering more confidence in the government.

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

I see blockchain being used across industries and verticals for a majority of processes as well as a go-to technology for establishing trust.

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

For any software development, make it work, make it correct, make it fast – in that order. The result should be proven first, then worked on in order to make it perfect. This advice has saved me countless hours while working on projects.

What technology could you not live without?

GPS. I tend to travel frequently, and this is one technology that has helped me in exploring new cities, navigating my way around , and finding the best places to eat or hang out at. I couldn’t imagine ever traveling without it and relying solely on local resources.

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Tomisin Jenrola, Software Engineer at SecureKey Technologies, Inc.

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

I am working on a service that makes it easier for companies to share data and digital assets amongst themselves in a secure and private way enabling consumers to quickly get access to the services and products they want online, in person and on the phone. I got started in blockchain about three years ago. I actually heard about it five years ago, and it took me a while to involve myself with the technology. I did a lot of research and jumped into it because I thought it was such a promising new technology. I ended up going to the University of Waterloo in 2017 for the first Ethereum Blockchain Hackathon, and my team ended up winning one of the top prizes. From there, I did some consulting and decided to start a community around the technology while beginning to work full time in this space.

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 using Fabric VS Code ID extension and heavily using the Hyperledger Fabric SDK Go, which was mostly developed here at SecureKey Technologies. I also have used a few other command line interfaces. In terms of new developments, SecureKey is actively contributing to Hyperledger Aries, which is a tool that allows individuals to create and share verifiable digital credentials and do much more with their digital identity. I have mostly been involved with architecting and building out these blockchain networks and, more importantly, turning business logic and intentions into code that eventually runs on the network. These are more commonly known as smart contracts or chain code.

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

I think there are two main things: scalability and interoperability. Those are not unique to Hyperledger — all blockchains face this issue. For Hyperledger and blockchain in general, scaling is an issue because the data being stored requires validation and endorsement by multiple parties before it gets stored on the network, which takes a while to happen. Interoperability across the networks is an issue and important issue one that needs to be solved because companies would like to move around among between blockchains and move the data and digital assets in that process. SecureKey’s contributions to Hyperledger Aries are working towards that goal.

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

I’d say the most important thing is to not feel intimidated by how complex the system is. It is complex, but not complicated. They should take this as a new opportunity to learn something. They should spend time understanding the basics and utilize the resources from places such as YouTube, media articles and Udemy. Pick one blockchain and build a very simple decentralized application and later try to implement it on a different blockchain. Another tip is to make all of these projects easy to demonstrate so other people can utilize your work.

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?

There is potentially a large amount of data that can be stored in the network. Based on this, I think the most interesting use case is being able to create services and tools that can go into the network, extract the data, churn them and create meaningful interpretations of them. People can then use them for analytics or predictions of their products or really understand how their users behave.

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

I hope to see blockchain and the technology that comes out of it being seamlessly used by several people, companies and governments in production environments without any technical limitations.

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

The best piece of advice I have ever received as a developer is that I don’t need to be an expert or have complete knowledge of how the technology or system works to do something meaningful with it.

What technology could you not live without?

My standing desk! It is a very simple addition to my workstation, but a very impactful one as it helps with ergonomics, my posture and enjoying the whole experience of typing all day.

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Jelle Sturm, DevOps & Backend Engineer at ScanTrust.

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

Start with the basics, watch some explanatory videos and take an online course. Then think about what you want to achieve using blockchain and start looking for the exact right technology to match your goals. Blockchain is still fairly new, but there are solutions popping up every week, some better than others.

If you already know a certain programming language, I would recommend you find a blockchain solution that has drivers/implementations for that existing language to get you started more efficiently. The best way to really get into it is to go to one of the many blockchain events around the world.

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

I work for ScanTrust, a company focused on supply chain traceability and security. Supply chain is a really good use case for blockchain so naturally we had to explore this technology. At the moment we are implementing blockchain in our main software stack. This allows us to decentralize the data in the supply chain. In return, the end consumer will get better and more reliable track & trace data of a certain product.

Recently, we also launched a new initiative “The GoodChain Foundation,” which enables consumers to do good by donating tokens. Each interaction a consumer has with a product will release some tokens on the blockchain that can be donated to good causes or actual actors in the supply chain (e.g., farmers).

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

We use Hyperledger Sawtooth as we needed a very secure and industry-adoptable technology for our solution. My first steps with it were smooth, and it was nice to see that there is a fully dockerized example that works with a few simple commands to get you going.

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

I think 2019 is all about adoption of blockchain solutions. In particular, it will be crucial that there are more live examples of enterprise production use cases to show the value of blockchain. I think Hyperledger has already been doing a great job at familiarizing enterprises with blockchain technology and getting them to adopt it, but I think it’s critical that Hyperledger continues to play that role, especially in 2019.

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?

For us, naturally, use cases around supply chain provenance and transparency are the most interesting applications. With the launch of Hyperledger Grid this year and with the formation of the supply chain working group, we also see that the Hyperledger ecosystem is strategically betting on these applications to be important use cases for the Hyperledger frameworks.

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

At ScanTrust, we are big believers in empowering consumers to trace back the provenance of their goods and check the authenticity of their goods, in particular in the food & beverage space. If there is one problem I could pick, then it would probably be solving the intransparency that we currently have in food supply chains.

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

I hope that five years from now, we will have completed a wave of enterprise adoption of blockchain. I believe that every major industry will have their own public permissioned consortium blockchain for specific use cases.

In parallel, public blockchain infrastructure will have matured a lot and will be more scalable, such that we will also see more and more applications and new decentralized business models built on public blockchains.

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

“A good developer should be lazy.’’ This always reminds me that we, as developers, need to find the most efficient and best suitable tools for the intended solution. Also, you can draw the line through to your coding style to minimize lines, be more efficient, automate tests/releases/deploys and so on. Never do something twice if you can build a loop.

What technology could you not live without?

I’m a big fan of Linux of course. Everything I develop runs on it, and it allows for very fun DIY projects at home. Also, I really couldn’t live without my IDE as coding in notepad is not the way to go in 2019.