Hyperledger Fabric Archives – Page 2 of 30

Jan 04

Solution Brief: Self-Assessing Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in Telecom

By Nikos Kapsoulis and Gordon Graham Blog, Hyperledger Fabric, Research, Special Interest Group, Telecom

The Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group, in collaboration with LF Networking, has just published a solution brief on the self-assessment of Service Level Agreements (SLAs) in telecom.

An SLA defines the services delivered by a provider to a client and the metrics for measuring those services. If the actual services received by the client do not meet the SLA guarantees promised by the provider, the agreement has been violated. In that case, the provider may owe the client a refund or whatever penalty is defined in the SLA.

The solution brief includes a high-level overview of a proposed solution for self-assessing SLAs. This proposed solution uses Hyperledger Fabric blockchain technology to tackle the gray areas of conventional SLA assessment.

This unique architecture provides a trusted and privacy-preserving network that can precisely monitor and compute SLA metrics, with full transparency for both provider and client.

Achieving effective SLA self-assessments will benefit everyone in the ecosystem by building trust, removing friction, streamlining processes, and saving costs.

The Problem: Lack of transparency

An effective SLA clearly defines all performance metrics and parameters.

But in most conventional SLAs, the provider assesses their own performance using their own tools and frameworks. The client generally has no way to see how these metrics are monitored or calculated. This increases the risk of biased results that favor the provider.

This lack of transparency means the client could well suffer from misunderstandings, missed violations, and insufficient refunds. All this undermines trust between the provider and the client.

The Solution: Using blockchain for transparent self-assessment

This solution brief proposes a novel architecture that is based on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework and Hyperledger Fabric Private Chaincode (FPC). As shown in the figure below, the installed Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) provides secure and private monitoring, and computation of all performance metrics governed by the SLA.

Both client and provider benefit from the presented solution, which builds trust where little previously existed. More details are provided in the full white paper.

The scientific research performed on SLA Self-Assessment and applied to the telecom context adheres to work accomplished under the Pledger project.

The full paper is available to download here.

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Get Involved with the Group

To learn more about the Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group, check out the group’s wiki and mailing list. If you have questions, comments or suggestions, feel free to post messages to the list. And you’re welcome to join any of the group’s upcoming calls to meet group members and learn how to get involved. On February 9 at 9:00 am PT, the authors will be presenting the paper during the Telecom Special Interest Group call. All are welcome to join.

Acknowledgements

The Hyperledger Telecom Special Interest Group would like to thank the following people who contributed to this solution brief: Nima Afraz, David Boswell, Gordon Graham, Nikolaos Kapsoulis, Antonios Litke, Alexandros Psychas, Vipin Rathi, and Theodora Varvarigou.

Dec 20

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#HyperledgerAsia: A Sampling of the Many Hyperledger-Powered Solutions in Action Across Asia

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Iroha

Hyperledger technologies are serving as the open source foundation for a rapidly growing range of production solutions and applications. Companies across Asia are putting Hyperledger technologies to work to boost trade, fight fraud, streamline financial transactions, authenticate data, verify identities and more.

As part of our spotlight on #HyperledgerAsia, we’ve collected a sampling of the many Hyperledger-powered solutions reshaping how business is done in markets across Asia. Read on for details:

Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN)

GSBN was founded by eight global shipping lines and terminal operators as a not-for-profit consortium to provide one standardized source of immutable data to all users in real-time. Built using the Oracle Blockchain Platform implementation of Hyperledger Fabric in multi-cloud deployment, GSBN supports modern and efficient global trade through data exchange. GSBN rolled out its first use case, Cargo Release, over several months, beginning in China and Southeast Asia in August 2021. After the initial deployment, GSBN gained support from terminals across the globe. Cargo Release expanded its footprint into Rotterdam, the Netherlands, in March 2022. Four months later, Cargo Release launched in Latin America, starting with ports across Mexico and Panama.

GSBN is using a permissioned blockchain with strong data governance where only authorized parties are granted the right to contribute and consume shipping related data. By leveraging immutability of the blockchain and data field level privacy through cryptography, participants in the supply chain such as Terminals, Carriers, Shippers, Freight Forwarders, Truckers, Customs and Financial Institution now also access Trade Finance and Electronic Bill of Lading applications, as well as Cargo Release, all enabled by trusted shipping data. Read the details in this case study.

marketsN

marketsN is a secure B2B platform from KoineArth built on the Oracle Blockchain Platform, which is powered by Hyperledger Fabric. It has been deployed by Hindalco Industries Ltd. (a subsidiary of the Aditya Birla Group) for monitoring the supply chain for outsourcing operations, including contract manufacturing with 25+ vendors (tollers) in a 4-tier supply chain network. marketsN enables them to see the inventory available at each vendor at any given point in time, replacing a three day manual process using Excel spreadsheets, many phone calls, and on-site visits, while avoiding the need for subsequent reconciliation since the data comes directly from the vendors. The solution also helps vendors to plan their own production based on shipment info to Hindalco clients, balance quantity, lower-tier supplier information, and other data on blockchain which allows them to better optimize their resources. They plan to also enable online invoice generation to automate the billing and payments cycle.

MDL (Medium Distributed Ledger)

Medium has developed an enterprise-type, high-performance blockchain solution, “MDL,”’ with an advanced core blockchain based on Hyperledger Fabric that can achieve speeds of up to 15,000 TPS. Its usability is maximized through the “MDL Manager,” which allows users to easily install, manage and monitor the blockchain.

MDL is currently being supplied to the Korea Expressway Corporation as a mutual settlement system for the tolls collected on the public and private highways in the country. Before the adoption of the blockchain-based mutual settlement system, there were more than 20,000 complaints a year about payment mismatches. Now, as a result of the new system, not only are data errors and omissions prevented but the processing performance of the system has increased. Settlement data, even in areas with high traffic volume, is now stably handled, reducing the amount of overpayment, manpower, and complaints.

Open Trade Blockchain (OTB)

Open Trade Blockchain is a cross-border trade documentation blockchain from Global eTrade Services (GeTS) that connects China & ASEAN economies It’s built on the Hyperledger Fabric-based Oracle Blockchain Platform and is used to provide security and visibility across all trade documents – helping to contain investment risk and facilitate growing trade with simplified verification procedures and data harmonization. Single-Windows or Single-Window Front-end Services can integrate with OTB to provide more value-added services for the local trade community.

This cross border blockchain-based trade platform has been extended to support collaboration across Taiwan, Singapore and New Zealand with the aim of improving the efficiency of cargoes under their Free Trade Agreement. For example, 3M Taiwan Ltd. reports that the cross border blockchain solution not only helps to reduce time for preparing and transmitting customs clearance documents from half a day to five minutes but has also solved documentation preparation challenges for Singapore exporters working remotely.

RAG Fraud Blockchain

The RAG Wangiri Blockchain was launched in March 2020 as a partnership of telcos and vendors created by Risk & Assurance Group (RAG) and Orillion Solutions with a common aim of reducing the number of wangiri fraud calls received by phone users. SORAMITSU recently joined the partnership and created a new Hyperledger Iroha-based infrastructure that can work with an expanded range of frauds. Renamed RAG Fraud Blockchain, this next-generation blockchain ledger serves as a fraud intelligence exchange where members that contribute data earn the right to access others’ data. The telcos that actively contribute their data will earn the right for continued free access, while other firms and organizations, including software vendors and law enforcement agencies, may pay for access or else be granted visibility of strictly limited subsets of the common ledger.

Secure Logistics Document Exchange (SLDE)

The Secure Logistics Document Exchange was facilitated by the Government of India and the Ministry of Commerce & Industry with an aim to replace the physical exchange of trade documents with a secure digital platform for generation, storage and exchange of documents. Built using Aadhaar-based authentication mechanism and the Hyperledger Fabric-based Oracle Blockchain Platform as a secure ledger, it offers an audit trail for the title of ownership/authenticity of documents and provides end-to-end visibility on transfer of documents.

The SLDE platform, developed by CargoExchange, supports an end-to-end digital trade ecosystem that includes banks, shippers, customs, freight forwarders, and export and import companies and aims to address the issues related to physical movement of logistics related documents such as slow speed, limited transparency and lack of audit trails. Using SLDE, Axis Bank has successfully executed industry-first blockchain-enabled domestic trade transactions with ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India and Lalit Pipes & Pipes Ltd. YES BANK used the system to support a deal involving Mukka Proteins, a Mangaluru-based marine product manufacturer and exporter, and Golden Beach Line (importer), an Oman-based trading company, with the forwarding agent Shipwaves Ltd.

SnapCert

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

SnapCert is built on Hyperledger Fabric and interoperable with non-Oracle Hyperledger instances that may be deployed on third-party clouds. It uses cloud infrastructure and REST APIs to build powerful products. The platform issues SSI (self-sovereign identity) credentials that follow W3C’s DID (decentralized identity) and verifiable credentials standard. It is also compliant with privacy and security compliance mandates (e.g., GDPR).

SnapCert offers secure digitization, generation, authentication, sharing, and verification of any kind of academic certificate as well as digital credentials for enterprises.

Trust Your Supplier

Trust Your Supplier (TYS) is a next-generation cloud-based supplier management platform built on Hyperledger Fabric that accelerates supplier onboarding, lowers procurement operating costs, ensures global regulatory compliance, and provides real-time visibility of supply chain risk across an encrypted blockchain environment.

TYS continues to expand the solution, allowing network participants to manage and monitor their suppliers across the globe. TYS was recently deployed into China and Japan, which brings the count of countries where TYS is available in Asia to 36. Additionally, suppliers in China can work in the TYS app using Simplified Chinese.

View the full country list here: Globalization – Trust Your Supplier

Join the conversation about the adoption and development of Hyperledger technologies across Asia on social channels with #HyperledgerAsia.

Nov 16

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GSBN Builds Global Trade Operating Platform with Hyperledger Fabric as the Foundation

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Fabric, Supply Chain

Read the full case study here.

Global trade is systemically important to the world’s economy. In 2021, it represented $28.5 trillion. Yet, it hasn’t evolved along with the digital transformation of other industries.

Perhaps that’s because evolution seems like an insurmountable task. Processes are complex. Documents and information flow continuously — but asynchronously — between parties across the globe. Many processes still rely on paper and legacy systems.

This lack of digital, on-demand data makes it difficult for the shipping sector to respond to global events, like the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 or the supply chain disruptions in 2021. In short, existing global trade processes aren’t efficient nor resilient enough.

GSBN, a not-for-profit backed (and governed) by a collection of major shipping lines and global terminal operators, set out to create the trusted data sharing infrastructure needed for efficient, digital and resilient global trade. To do so, GSBN built a new global trade operating platform using Hyperledger Fabric as the foundation.

The initial launch of GSBN centered around a Cargo Release offering aimed at improving shipping container turn-around time, reducing port congestion and pollution. Since its launch in March of 2021, more than 10,000 customers have used Cargo Release to get real-time updates on over 1 million shipments.

In September 2021, GSBN formed the Trade Finance Advisory Group with Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited (BOCHK), DBS Bank and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) to develop digital solutions to help improve the financing process for banks. To break barriers in data sharing that were hindering financing approvals for trade companies, especially SMEs, GSBN created an application for consent collection. It allows banks to source data directly from shipping lines so they can verify information based on a single source of truth.

The third application for GSBN is electronic bills of lading (eBL). In June 2022, IQAX eBL application, built on top of GSBN, obtained approval by the International Group of P&I Clubs. The eBL application provides a digital channel for all parties to access real-time data on the shipping process. It also guarantees the security, accuracy, and authenticity of data. And it ensures the data on the blockchain network is traceable to a single source. This application has already been adopted by three shipping lines and one bank.

The Hyperledger Foundation team worked with GSBN on a case study that details the business and technical drivers and decisions that went into the creation of GSBN as well as key results to date. It also lays out how GSBN, as CTO Edmund To puts it, “will expand the global trade ecosystem by creating bridges to new market participants like banks, FinTech’s, and other consortia and launching new solutions.”

Read the full case study here.

Nov 10

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Process Transformation for Public Services Driven by Blockchain

By Gopikrishnan Konnanath, Senior Vice President, Global Head – Engineering Services and Blockchain, Infosys, and Srikanth Challa, Senior Director, Blockchain, Infosys Blog, Hyperledger Aries, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy

Several government departments around the world are keen to offer their citizens seamless interactions and engaging experiences, akin to those in the private sector.

The public sector is often riddled with manual processes, time-consuming verifications, legacy systems leading to low transparency and high costs. Over the years, digitalization has alleviated some of the challenges, but rising threats on privacy, data security coupled with the increasing legislations that enshrine the right-to-be-forgotten such as Europe’s GDPR or California’s CCPA pose new challenges for leaders serving in the public sector.

In the future, we will witness a monumental shift in what citizens will come to expect from their governments – nothing short of how they experience retail or banking in their life. While this digital transformation has already begun in the public sector, technologies such as blockchain are essential foundations that will power the next generation of citizen experiences. Blockchain and, more broadly, distributed ledger technologies will create a core of trust, transparency, and immutability that breaks down information silos, reducing cost all while vastly enriching the citizen experiences.

Infosys is proud to have been part of the transformation that is driving change in the public sector. We are happy to share a couple of examples where Infosys brought our strong capabilities in blockchain to help clients reimagine citizen experiences.

Blockchain helps reimagine public records validation for Riverside County California

Riverside County California relied heavily on security paper and wet signatures to establish ‘trust’ and authenticate records. Citizens often had to wait for the physical copies of verified documents to reach them by post, which led to delays. In addition, easy access to numerous online tools increased the incidence of fraud, making it challenging to verify proof-of-records and physical documents, which was done manually.

Infosys Public Services helped create a blockchain-based digital records fulfillment solution for Riverside County’s Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder Office. Built on the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain framework, the new platform can seamlessly verify and authenticate several types of digital records (like land records, births, marriages, and deaths). The solution also bypasses physical paper records by issuing digital documents when a citizen or entity requests them, thereby providing an e-commerce-like experience. The blockchain solution will help Riverside County California achieve cost savings, faster turnaround time, and enhanced customer service.

Read the full case study to see how Riverside County authenticates and delivers digital records with 100% trust to citizens.

Blockchain streamlines professional license issuance and verification for the State of Rhode Island

The Department of Business Regulation (DBR) in the State of Rhode Island chose to pilot a blockchain solution for identity validation, which is a pre-requisite for issuing licenses. The department used paper-based applications to issue nearly 200,000 licenses annually. This led to high operational inefficiencies, greater costs, and a poor citizen experience.

DBR partnered with Infosys Public Services (Infosys) for its proven expertise in transforming government processes and implementing blockchain technology. Infosys implemented a blockchain-based identity and credential management solution using Hyperledger Indy and Hyperledger Aries that can quickly and securely validate an individual’s credentials. The solution is built on the Self-Sovereign Identity Model where citizens are the custodians of their data (i.e., personal data is stored on citizen mobile wallets, not on the blockchain). Instead, the blockchain stores the information needed to cryptographically validate the citizen’s credentials, which is shared with other parties. This solution can be easily adopted by other departments within the state paving the way for greater adoption across the entire state.

Read the complete case study to see why blockchain was the right solution for the State of Rhode Island.

Beyond the buzz, blockchain is proving to be a beneficial technology in the real world across banking, insurance, retail and other industries. Governments around the world are not sitting on the sidelines but jumping mainstream into this disruptive technology to drive citizen-centered governance.

To learn more about how Infosys leverages blockchain technologies to build reliable, trusted and sustainable ecosystems for governments and other organizations, go here.

Oct 05

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Climate Action and Accounting Special Interest Group (CA2SIG) wins The Hyperledger Challenge 2022!

By Hyperledger Blog, Climate, Hyperledger Besu, Hyperledger Bevel, Hyperledger Cacti, Hyperledger Fabric, Special Interest Group

The Hyperledger Climate Action and Accounting Special Interest Group (CA2SIG) has just taken first place in the Hyperledger Challenge 2022 for its prototype for Reducing Methane Leakage and Flaring with Supply Chain Tokens.

The Hyperledger Challenge 2022 took into careful consideration the following factors:

1. Technology advancement and research objectives
2. Impact to the blockchain ecosystem
3. Value addition through social benefits
4. Process followed to build an open-source community around the proposed project
5. Activities outside the Hyperledger community to build the ecosystem
6. Bring in innovation in the marketplace
7. Headway into the community that is not represented well within the ecosystem.

This Hyperledger Challenge 2022 award follows the recent announcement of another award from IBM’s 2022 Call for Code Green Practices Accelerator, where the CA2SIG team also took first place for its prototype.

“The team would like to thank the Hyperledger Challenge 2022 team for supporting our project. These recent wins/awards provide our team with added momentum and validation for the solution we are developing and the larger problem we seek to solve. Moving forward our focus is on marketing our solution to the energy industry and helping to scale auditing services, crucial to achieving climate targets by mid century. ” – Bertrand Rioux, Director, Two Ravens Energy & Climate Consulting

This prototype, which is built using Hyperledger Besu, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Bevel and Hyperledger Cactus, represents an important step towards creating an open climate accounting system that can be used to decarbonize corporate supply chains. By building a solution that can provide a free flow of trusted environmental data, we can create a more efficient marketplace that can unlock the power of green finance, consumer demand and government regulation to work together to decarbonize corporate supply chains. `

Click the CA2SIG One-Pager to learn more. We also invite you to visit the Climate Action and Accounting Wiki or join one of our bi-monthly meetings to learn about the different opportunities to get involved!

Sep 28

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#HyperledgerIdentity round-up: A cross section of production digital identity solutions built using Hyperledger technologies

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Aries, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Indy, Hyperledger Ursa, Identity

Verifying identities and information in a digital world is critical for establishing trust. But there are issues of privacy as well as efficiency, scale and accuracy in models that rely on centralized data collectors and databases.

The adoption of a new generation of digital identity solutions that leverage decentralized technologies such as distributed ledgers and verifiable credentials is accelerating. And Hyperledger technologies are playing a major role in this transformation.

Read on for a cross section of the many Hyperledger-powered solutions that are in production now. For other examples, check out these past #HyperledgerIdentity round-ups:

IBM Digital Health Pass

IBM Digital Health Pass, built on Hyperledger Fabric, offers a multi-credential verifier that organizations can use to manage and execute their verification policies for COVID-19 and vaccination status in a way that balances the privacy of the individual with the requirements set by the organization and local health authorities. With IBM Digital Health Pass, organizations can verify multiple types of health credentials, such as Good Health Pass, IBM Digital Health Pass, Smart Health Card and EU Digital COVID Certificate. Privacy is central to the solution, where the verifier application minimizes the personal data that is ever displayed to the user through the execution of business rules and it never lets any personal data leave, or be stored in, the verifier app.

Indicio Network

The Indicio Network is a collection of four professionally-staffed, enterprise-grade public-permissioned ledgers that provide a neutral, independent, and reliable network for the exchange of verifiable credentials. MainNet, DemoNet, TestNet, and TempNet are all Hyperledger Indy-based networks with nodes operating on five continents—and a growing number of node operators. The Indicio Network is one of the networks that can support Indicio Proven, a complete suite of decentralized identity components for authenticating and sharing high value data in a privacy-preserving way using verifiable digital credentials. Built on Hyperledger Aries and Hyperledger Ursa, as well as AnonCreds and DIDComm, Proven is designed to make implementing and using these open source codebases simple, providing users with a fully-owned solution that’s easy to integrate with existing systems, to innovate on, and to scale.

IDUnion

IDUnion, the European identity verification network created as part of the “Secure Digital Identities Showcase” funding project, brings together public institutions, government agencies, private organizations, associations, educational institutions and other stakeholders from various fields to enable a fundamentally new, secure digital infrastructure for the verification of identity information. In August, 2022, IDUnion spun off Sociedad Cooperativa Europea (SCE) to operate the production network for credential verification.

The IDUnion network, which is built on Hyperledger Indy, enables the clear verification of individuals, companies and institutions while allowing people and organizations to manage their identity information by themselves and to decide when they want to share this information and with whom. It has a decentralized structure and stores no personal data – not even as a hash. In order to protect privacy right from the start, all personal data is stored on the user’s end device. Users have a choice of wallets for storing and presenting credentials to third parties as required. Credentials are issued, verified and stored using open standards to ensure interoperability. Hyperledger Aries is the framework for managing the credentials.

NHS Covid-19 Digital Staff Passport

In 2019, the NHS was preparing to pilot a digital passport project that would allow staff to carry their HR and other records as credentials on their phones as a long-term plan to make it easier to transfer from one facility to another. When the pandemic hit, this went from a pilot to a production deployment quickly. The NHS Covid-19 Digital Staff Passport rolled out in summer to support swift and efficient staff movement between NHS organizations in response to the response health emergency. The COVID-19 Digital Staff Passport provided a solid legal framework for staff to be temporarily deployed into other NHS organizations with evidence available that checks have been completed before staff move. As laid out in the pilot, the information was transferred securely by the staff member as verified credentials stored on their own smartphone, putting them in control.

This staff passport used the Sorvin Network, which is built on Hyperledger Indy, to verify the digital credentials, and the Evernym (now Avast) Connect.me digital wallet app, which is powered by Hyperledger Aries, Indy and Ursa, to enable staff to store and share their credentials.

The NHS is now gearing up to roll out the next generation of its Digital Staff Passport, which will streamline transfers and staff movements through the NHS.

OrgBook BC

OrgBook BC is a searchable public directory of organizations registered in British Columbia, Canada, provided by the BC Government’s Ministry of Citizens’ Services. OrgBook BC provides verified data, including legal names and DBA names, business numbers, BC registration status and select licensee and permits, for more than 1.4 million organizations. All of the information in the OrgBookBC is received, stored, verified and displayed using the latest digital trust technologies.

OrgBookBC uses verifiable credentials to ensure that information about organizations are digitally signed by the entity that issues it. Issuers are public sector organizations that hold information about businesses, issue licenses or permits or certify processes. That electronic signature stays with the data throughout its life in OrgBook and is validated before its is display on the website.

OrgBookBC is part of an overall commitment to digital trust technologies by the Government of British Columbia. In addition to deploying Hyperledger Aries, Indy and Ursa, the team there is leading much of the open source development for those projects. Read more on the Government of BC’s investment in verifiable credentials and digital wallet technologies here.

Digital Identity updates from Hyperledger Global Forum

At Hyperledger Global Forum 2022, there was a range of business, technical and demo sessions focused on digital identity, including:

Bringing Trustworthiness in Industrial Device Lifecycle using Verifiable Credentials – Marquart Franz & Saad Bin Shams, Siemens AG

Findy Agency — Highway to Verified Data Networks – Laura Vuorenoja & Harri Lainio, OP Financial Group

Digital Identity Using the vLEI – Christoph Schneider, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF)

Blockchain, Biometrics and Geo-Location: Lessons Learned from the Implementation of Innovative Technologies at the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund – Dino Cataldo Dellaccio, United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund & Shashank Rai, United Nations International Computing Centre (UNICC)

Hosted Discussion: Rhode Island Leads on Digital Identity Solutions with Hyperledger – Liz Tanner, State of Rhode Island & Jim Mason, DTCC

Last Mile Problem in Self-Sovereign Identity – Biometric Authentification and Device Independent Wallet for Hyperledger Indy – Non Kawana & Ken Naganuma, Hitachi, Ltd.

Workshop: How To Build a Self-Sovereign Identity Agent With Hyperledger Aries Framework JavaScript – Timo Glastra & Berend Sliedrecht, ANIMO & Jakub Koci, ABSA

Join the conversation about blockchain-based identity technologies and solutions with #HyperledgerIdentity on social channels. For a hands-on introduction to the market and technologies, join the free four hour Build Your Identity Solution Using Hyperledger Aries workshop. Or, for a more business level introduction, sign up for the free Getting Started with Self-Sovereign Identity (LFS178x) online course from Linux Foundation Training & Certification.

Jun 30

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#HyperledgerPayments: Applications Making Financial Transactions Easier, Faster and More Accessible

By Hyperledger Blog, Finance, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Iroha, Hyperledger Sawtooth

Bitcoin, Ethereum and other altcoins have sparked a range of investments, industries and even emotions. However, there is a fast-growing array of digital currencies and electronic payment systems that are focused specifically on leveraging distributed ledger technologies to make fundamental financial transactions easier, faster and more accessible both at the wholesale and retail level. As this recently released ebook details, central banks around the world are exploring ways to leverage different Hyperledger DLTs to introduce Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). However, there is #HyperledgerPayments action happening on a number of fronts and leveraging a mix of Hyperledger technologies.

Below, we highlight a few of the Hyperledger-based applications that are already in the market, rewriting the rules for how money and value are delivered, stored and spent. This sampling showcases the global reach of both Hyperledger technologies and blockchain payment systems:

Bakong

Sponsored by the National Bank of Cambodia, the country’s central bank, Bakong is the first retail payments system in the world using blockchain technology. Built on Hyperledger Iroha, Bakong delivers value for customers, merchants and banks. Individuals can now transfer money and buy from merchants with a simple smartphone app. Merchants gain a fast, cashless, and secure payments system. And banks can do interbank transfers at much lower cost.

Bakong was developed by Soramitsu and, after a soft launch in 2019, now has nearly 40 financial institutions (and counting) using the system. The project was also designed to promote financial inclusion for the country’s large number of unbanked citizens. Any citizen of the country can open a Bakong account, even if they don’t have a traditional bank account. The more than 500 merchants that accept Bakong can be viewed in a map inside

Byacco

Soramitsu also created a local payment system for the University of Aizu, Japan, based on Hyperledger Iroha – technology that was originally developed within the walls of the University. Byacco is an app that students use to add and access digital money to pay local goods and services, split bills at the university cafeteria and stationary shop and send and receive money with a low (1 ¥) fee.

Kate Coin

KBC bank in Belgium has introduced blockchain-based Kate Coin to customers using its KBC Mobile app. Powered by Hyperledger Fabric, Kate Coins are issued to customers as loyalty rewards. To start, the Kate Coins can be used to pay for banking and insurance services. However, the goal is to scale up its use through partnerships with business customers and other third parties that want to reach KBC Mobile app users, first in Belgium and then across the HBC group.

Twig

To help drive the circular economy, UK-based Twig has created a system that allows consumers to turn their pre-owned electronics, clothes and other goods into cash. Users are paid for their goods via Hyperledger Sawtooth-based Twig Pay, where they can see incoming payments and tap into the cash for purchases and transfers.

Join the conversation about solutions and applications in the financial service market with #HyperledgerPayments on social channels. For a deeper dive, join us at Hyperledger Global Forum 2022, September 12-14 in Dublin, Ireland. Sessions will include:

A Hyperledger Fabric-based Programmable Money Platform – Robert van Donge, IntellectEU & Dirk Hermans, KBC Group

Hosted Discussion: Private Credit on Blockchain – Anshuman Asthana, Marketnode

Saudi Aramco, Procure to Pay Eco-System – Ali Safri, Avanza Innovations & Abdullah M Askari, Saudi Aramco

US Digital Currency: Opportunities, Challenges and Strategies – Jim Mason, DTCC

Hands-on-Workshop: Moving Central Bank Digital Currency from Conception to Reality with Hyperledger Technologies – Elli Androulaki & Angelo De Caro, IBM

Cover photo by mohamed_hassan from PxHere

Jun 07

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Hitachi Shifts to Paperless, Secure Procurement Contracts with Hyperledger Fabric

By Hyperledger Blog, Hyperledger Fabric

Read the full case study here.

Paper pushing. It’s synonymous with tedious, slow processes. Yet often, the pushed paper is vital to a company’s business. And contracts are especially important paper.

But digitizing a contract process isn’t as simple as it sounds. As the contract moves between parties, there’s a risk of tampering. Or mismanaging version control.

Many companies continue to use paper for their contracting processes to maintain security and trust. The procurement divisions of Hitachi, Ltd. were no different.

Hitachi is a Japan-based global technology organization. It focuses on digital innovation in the mobility, smart life, industrial, energy and IT sectors. The company has 873 companies across more than 100 countries with 380,000 employees worldwide.

At such a scale, Hitachi’s procurement divisions process thousands and thousands of contracts every month. That’s a lot of paper. That’s also a lot of time managing that paper.

Hitachi’s Service Delivery Division develops tools to help increase business efficiencies. It saw this as a perfect use case. Ultimately, an improved procurement process would help companies within the Hitachi group and their clients.

The team set about creating a secure contract management system. For eight months, they worked with procurement personnel to develop the solution. First, they needed to understand the paper process as it was working. The team considered how the process could be more efficient while also keeping the security and integrity of the documentation in place.

They chose Hyperledger Fabric, an open source blockchain framework from Hyperledger Foundation. Hitachi had already created blockchain-backed frameworks on Hyperledger Fabric in its financial and industrial areas, so the team members knew it could provide the advanced security needed for critical document processing.

The procurement division of Hitachi’s head office tested the new paperless, blockchain-backed, Electronic Signature Service (ESS). This division manages the contracts with 2,000 business partners.

It began digitally processing all new contracts in July 2021. Under the old paper-pushing method, the division processed about 333 cases per month. Now it is processing at least 400 contract cases per month — a 20% increase. And though they’re processing more cases, they’re doing them in less time than before. Division personnel now have time to focus on other important tasks like investigation, negotiation, and engaging with new contract companies.

The Hyperledger Foundation team worked with Hitachi on a case study that details the goals, approach and results of implementing this blockchain-backed, paperless procurement solution as well as plans to roll it out to all the procurement divisions. These divisions manage the 3,500 companies contracting with the Hitachi Group.

Read the full case study here.

May 09

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Developer showcase series: Matthew B. White, IBM

By Hyperledger Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Fabric

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Matthew B. White, Lead Software Engineer at IBM.

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

Can’t really recall when I first heard of blockchain or indeed cryptocurrency; but it was the new thing that obviously was creating interest. My natural curiosity wanted to know more about this.

There were a couple of internal staff briefings I listened into to get some background; plus the people who were involved were ones I’d worked with previously and respected. This wasn’t some random idea that had no real benefit. As luck would have it, I saw an opening to move into a newly created team at IBM focusing on blockchain and went for it.

Since that point I’ve not looked back and have worked on a number of aspects of Hyperledger Fabric and IBM’s offerings.

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

Currently it’s as a contributor and maintainer of Hyperledger Fabric. It’s been a really enjoyable time working with open source.

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

There are two big challenges I believe. Collaboration and applicability

Blockchain requires a collaboration between ‘entities,’ companies, people, etc. A collaboration that many previously wouldn’t have thought of. For example, the many companies that form a supply chain. It’s this collaboration that is key to blockchain and needs to remain a focus as Hyperledger technologies are adopted more widely. For example, how do multiple companies adopt Hyperledger Fabric for supply chain solutions?

There are many use cases, from the token space (tracking both assets & currency) to supply chain tracking and auditing to distributed identity, where the concepts and features offered by a blockchain can help. Likewise, there are many Hyperledger projects and labs. That leads to the applicability challenge. For the outside user looking in, it can be hard to know how to apply these technologies to real solutions. For example, how does Hyperledger Grid work with Hyperledger Fabric for supply chain solutions? How do I use Hyperledger Indy to get distributed identity linked with my existing systems?

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

Like any new technology, there is the initial “it’s the best invention since the wheel” hype. The key thing to blockchain is that to make it worthwhile requires the collaboration mentioned before. That’s the hard part and the part we need to focus on.

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?

The one we haven’t thought of yet!

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

The lack of trust between parties.

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

As mainstream as, say, a database or a rest server.

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

You’re not writing the code for yourself; you’re writing for either your future self or more likely somebody else. Don’t add a comment saying “this next line calls an array sort function,” but add a comment “why does this array need to be sorted? What is the scale of the data and how did that affect your choice of sort algorithm? Are there controls in the system that would change the assumption about the scale of the data.”

When a problem or change needs to be made in the future, the developer then can see what your thought processes were for writing the code you did.

What technology could you not live without?

Lego

Apr 26

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Developer showcase series: Navil Rodrigues, Coding Bootcamps

By Hyperledger Blog, Developer Showcase, Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Transact

Back to our Developer Showcase Series to learn what developers in the real world are doing with Hyperledger technologies. Next up is Navil Rodrigues of Coding Bootcamps.

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

To the newbies starting out their journey in the blockchain space, I would suggest having a strong grasp on fundamentals like cryptography and data structure like merkle tree to know how blocks are linked with each other. After which I would suggest reading the book “Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas” to enhance your knowledge. Later on you can choose a public or private blockchain that interests you.

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 currently working as a full-time blockchain developer at Mckinley Rice. My most of the time goes architecting and implementing smart contracts for Ethereum and sidechains. I also have experience in developing and designing ICO contracts and bridging solutions to connect different chains. The “State of trust,” “Decentralization” and “Immutable data records” made me fall for this technology.

What Hyperledger project(s) are you working on? Any new developments to share? Can you sum up your experience with Hyperledger technologies?

I have worked on a supply chain finance platform built upon Hyperledger Fabric that was developed to provide a common platform for suppliers, anchors and financial institutions. I keep an eye on what’s new in Hyperledger Fabric to stay updated with the latest developments. I would say the community behind the Hyperledger umbrella development is very active and its industry experts.

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

There are several differences. For instance, the consensus algorithm or architecture of a popular public blockchain like Ethereum or Polygon is very different from Hyperledger Fabric as they serve different purposes. Likewise, when it comes to NFT assets on a public network like Polygon versus a private network like Hyperledger Fabric, public networks allow integration with cross-chain networks and DeFi. For example, RealBig NFT assets are tied into both crypto exchanges and DeFi platforms for staking.

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

The most important thing Hyperledger can focus on is increasing the number of transactions per second. Also, we like to see Hyperledger tools and libraries that are currently at incubation stage become active.

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 being adopted and implemented more by private companies.

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

We hope to see robust widely accepted Hyperledger DLT applications especially among enterprise companies.

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

Spend more time on architecting a solution thoroughly than developing it.

What technology could you not live without?

The Internet.

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