Hyperledger

Last updated
Hyperledger Foundation
Formation2015;9 years ago (2015)
Founded at United States
Legal statusFoundation
Purpose Blockchains
Headquarters1 Letterman Drive
Location
Official language
English
Owner The Linux Foundation
Staff51–200
Website www.hyperledger.org

Hyperledger (or the Hyperledger Project) is an umbrella project of open source blockchains and related tools that the Linux Foundation [1] started in December 2015. IBM, Intel, and SAP Ariba have contributed to support the collaborative development of blockchain-based distributed ledgers. It was renamed the Hyperledger Foundation in October 2021.

Contents

History and aims

In December 2015, the Linux Foundation announced the creation of the Hyperledger Project. The founding project members were announced in February 2016, with ten further members and the governing board announced a month later on March 29. [2] On May 19, Brian Behlendorf was appointed the project’s executive director. [3]

The project’s objective is to advance cross-industry collaboration by developing blockchains and distributed ledgers, focusing on improving the systems’ performance and reliability (compared to cryptocurrency designs) so they can support global business transactions by major technological, financial, and supply chain companies. [4] The project integrates independent open protocols and standards in a framework for use-specific modules, including blockchains with their own consensus and storage routines, and services for identity, access control and smart contracts. There was some debate about whether the Hyperledger would develop its own bitcoin-type cryptocurrency, but Behlendorf clearly stated the Hyperledger Project would never build its own cryptocurrency. [5]

In early 2016, the project began accepting proposals for incubation of codebases and other technologies as core elements. One of the first proposals was for a codebase combining previous work by Digital Asset, Blockstream's libconsensus and IBM's OpenBlockchain. [6] This codebase was later named Fabric [7] and the foundation was renamed Hyperledger, a trademark contributed by one of Hyperledger's founding members, Digital Asset, following their acquisition of a company called Hyperledger. [8] [9] In May, Intel's distributed ledger, named Sawtooth, [10] was incubated. [11]

In January 2018, Hyperledger released the production-ready Sawtooth 1.0. [12] In January 2019, the first long-term-support version of Hyperledger Fabric (v1.4) was announced. [13]

Daniela Barbosa was named executive director of Hyperledger Foundation in October 2021. [14]

Hart Montgomery was named Hyperledger Foundation first CTO in February 2022. [15]

Members and governance

Early members of the initiative included blockchain ISVs, (Blockchain, ConsenSys, Digital Asset, R3, Onchain), well-known technology platform companies (Cisco, Fujitsu, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, NEC, NTT DATA, Red Hat, VMware), financial services firms (ABN AMRO, ANZ Bank, BNY Mellon, CLS Group, CME Group, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Deutsche Börse Group, J.P. Morgan, State Street, SWIFT, Wells Fargo, Sberbank), business software companies like SAP, academic institutions (Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance, Blockchain at Columbia, UCLA Blockchain Lab), systems integrators and others (Accenture, Calastone, Wipro, Credits, Guardtime, IntellectEU, Nxt Foundation, Symbiont, Smart Block Laboratory). [16]

The governing board of the Hyperledger Project consists of ten members chaired by Robert Palatnick, (managing director and chief technology architect for DTCC), and a fifteen-member Technical Steering Committee chaired by Tracy Kuhrt, Associate Director, Blockchain and Multiparty Systems Architecture, at Accenture. [17]

Notable frameworks

Hyperledger Besu

Besu is an enterprise-grade Ethereum codebase. [18]

Hyperledger Fabric

Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned blockchain infrastructure, originally contributed by IBM and Digital Asset, providing a modular architecture with a delineation of roles between the nodes in the infrastructure, execution of Smart Contracts (called "chaincode" in Fabric) and configurable consensus and membership services. A Fabric Network comprises (1) "Peer nodes", which execute chaincode, access ledger data, endorse transactions and interface with applications; (2) "Orderer nodes" which ensure the consistency of the blockchain and deliver the endorsed transactions to the peers of the network; and (3) Membership Service Providers (MSPs), each generally implemented as a Certificate Authority, managing X.509 certificates which are used to authenticate member identity and roles. [19] Hyperledger Fabric allows for use of different consensus algorithms, but the consensus algorithm that is most commonly used with the platform is Practical Byzantine Fault Tolerance (PBFT). [20]

Fabric is primarily aimed at integration projects, in which a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is required, offering no user facing services other than an SDK for Node.js, Java and Go.

Fabric supports chaincode in Go and JavaScript (via Hyperledger Composer, or natively since v1.1) out-of-the-box, and other languages such as Java by installing appropriate modules. It is therefore potentially more flexible than competitors that only support a closed Smart Contract language.

Hyperledger Sawtooth

Originally contributed by Intel, Sawtooth includes a dynamic consensus feature enabling hot swapping consensus algorithms in a running network. Among the consensus options is a novel consensus protocol known as "Proof of Elapsed Time," a lottery-design consensus protocol that optionally builds on trusted execution environments provided by Intel's Software Guard Extensions (SGX). [21] Sawtooth supports Ethereum smart contracts via "seth" (a Sawtooth transaction processor integrating the Hyperledger Burrow EVM). [22] [23] In addition to Solidity support, Sawtooth includes SDKs for Python, Go, Javascript, Rust, Java, and C++. [24]

Tools

Hyperledger Aries

Hyperledger Aries is a toolkit for decentralized identity solutions. It supports issuance, storage, and presentations of verifiable credentials, providing the functionality to create and manage decentralized, self-sovereign identities. It supports secure, peer-to-peer messaging using a variety of protocols. Aries includes implementations in Python, Go, .NET, and JavaScript. Hyperledger Aries interacts with other Hyperledger projects like Indy and Ursa. Indy provides the ledger technology, and Ursa provides shared cryptographic functions. [25]

Hyperledger Caliper

Hyperledger Caliper is a blockchain benchmark tool and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Caliper allows users to measure the performance of a specific blockchain implementation with a set of predefined use cases. Hyperledger Caliper will produce reports containing a number of performance indicators, such as TPS (Transactions Per Second), transaction latency, resource utilization etc. The intent is for Caliper results to be used by other Hyperledger projects as they build out their frameworks, and as a reference in supporting the choice of a blockchain implementation suitable for a user's specific needs. Hyperledger Caliper was initially contributed by developers from Huawei, Hyperchain, Oracle, Bitwise, Soramitsu, IBM and the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. [26]

Hyperledger Cello

Hyperledger Cello is a blockchain module toolkit and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Cello aims to bring the on-demand "as-a-service" deployment model to the blockchain ecosystem to reduce the effort required for creating, managing and terminating blockchains. It provides a multi-tenant chain service efficiently and automatically on top of various infrastructures, e.g., baremetal, virtual machine, and more container platforms. Hyperledger Cello was initially contributed by IBM, with sponsors from Soramitsu, Huawei and Intel. [27]

Baohua Yang and Haitao Yue from IBM Research are committed part-time to developing and maintaining the project.

Hyperledger Composer

Hyperledger Composer was a set of collaboration tools for building blockchain business networks that make it simple and fast for business owners and developers to create smart contracts and blockchain applications to solve business problems. Built with JavaScript, leveraging modern tools including node.js, npm, CLI and popular editors, Composer offered business-centric abstractions as well as sample apps with easy to test DevOps processes to create robust blockchain solutions that drive alignment across business requirements with technical development. [28]

Blockchain package management tooling contributed by IBM. Composer was a user-facing rapid prototyping tooling, running on top of Hyperledger Fabric, which allows the easy management of Assets (data stored on the blockchain), Participants (identity management, or member services) and Transactions (Chaincode, a.k.a. Smart Contracts, which operate on Assets on the behalf of a Participant). The resulting application can be exported as a package (a BNA file) which may be executed on a Hyperledger Fabric instance, with the support of a Node.js application (based on the Loopback application framework) and provide a REST interface to external applications.

Composer provided a GUI user interface "Playground" for the creation of applications, and therefore represents an excellent starting point for Proof of Concept work.

On the 27th of April, 2020 the Hyperledger Technical Steering Committee has moved the Hyperledger Composer to the "End of Life" lifecycle stage, ending new development. [29]

Hyperledger Explorer

Hyperledger Explorer is a blockchain module and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Designed to create a user-friendly Web application, Hyperledger Explorer can view, invoke, deploy or query blocks, transactions and associated data, network information (name, status, list of nodes), chain codes and transaction families, as well as any other relevant information stored in the ledger. Hyperledger Explorer was initially contributed by IBM, Intel and DTCC. [30]

Hyperledger Quilt

Hyperledger Quilt is a business blockchain tool and one of the Hyperledger projects hosted by The Linux Foundation. Hyperledger Quilt offers interoperability between ledger systems by implementing the Interledger protocol (also known as ILP), which is primarily a payments protocol and is designed to transfer value across distributed ledgers and non-distributed ledgers. The Interledger protocol provides atomic swaps between ledgers (even non-blockchain or distributed ledgers) and a single account namespace for accounts within each ledger. With the addition of Quilt to Hyperledger, The Linux Foundation now hosts both the Java (Quilt) and JavaScript (Interledger.js) Interledger implementations. Hyperledger Quilt was initially contributed by NTT Data and Ripple. [31]

See also

Related Research Articles

A smart contract is a computer program or a transaction protocol that is intended to automatically execute, control or document events and actions according to the terms of a contract or an agreement. The objectives of smart contracts are the reduction of need for trusted intermediators, arbitration costs, and fraud losses, as well as the reduction of malicious and accidental exceptions. Smart contracts are commonly associated with cryptocurrencies, and the smart contracts introduced by Ethereum are generally considered a fundamental building block for decentralized finance (DeFi) and non-fungible token (NFT) applications.

Solidity is a programming language for implementing smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, most notably, Ethereum. Solidity is licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0. Solidity was designed by Gavin Wood and developed by Christian Reitwiessner, Alex Beregszaszi, and several former Ethereum core contributors. Programs in Solidity run on Ethereum Virtual Machine or on compatible virtual machines.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethereum</span> Open-source blockchain computing platform

Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain with smart contract functionality. Ether is the native cryptocurrency of the platform. Among cryptocurrencies, ether is second only to bitcoin in market capitalization. It is open-source software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Counterparty (platform)</span> Cryptocurrency platform

Counterparty is a peer-to-peer financial platform and a distributed, open source protocol built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain and network. It was one of the most well-known "Bitcoin 2.0" platforms in 2014, along with Mastercoin, Ethereum, Colored Coins, Ripple and BitShares.

A blockchain is a distributed ledger with growing lists of records (blocks) that are securely linked together via cryptographic hashes. Each block contains a cryptographic hash of the previous block, a timestamp, and transaction data. Since each block contains information about the previous block, they effectively form a chain, with each additional block linking to the ones before it. Consequently, blockchain transactions are irreversible in that, once they are recorded, the data in any given block cannot be altered retroactively without altering all subsequent blocks.

A decentralised application is an application that can operate autonomously, typically through the use of smart contracts, that run on a decentralized computing, blockchain or other distributed ledger system. Like traditional applications, DApps provide some function or utility to its users. However, unlike traditional applications, DApps operate without human intervention and are not owned by any one entity, rather DApps distribute tokens that represent ownership. These tokens are distributed according to a programmed algorithm to the users of the system, diluting ownership and control of the DApp. Without any one entity controlling the system, the application is therefore decentralised.

A distributed ledger is a system whereby replicated, shared, and synchronized digital data is geographically spread (distributed) across many sites, countries, or institutions. In contrast to a centralized database, a distributed ledger does not require a central administrator, and consequently does not have a single (central) point-of-failure.

A smart bond is a specific type of an automated bond contract that uses the capabilities of blockchain databases that can operate as cryptographically-secure yet open and transparent general ledgers. This is sometimes referred to as Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). It is one of a class of financial instruments known as a smart contract, "a computerized transaction protocol that executes the terms of a contract."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ethereum Classic</span> Blockchain computing platform

Ethereum Classic is a blockchain-based distributed computing platform that offers smart contract (scripting) functionality. It is open source and supports a modified version of Nakamoto consensus via transaction-based state transitions executed on a public Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cardano (blockchain platform)</span> Public blockchain platform

Cardano is a public blockchain platform. It is open-source and decentralized, with consensus achieved using proof of stake. It can facilitate peer-to-peer transactions with its internal cryptocurrency, ADA.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filecoin</span> Open-source, public cryptocurrency

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Distributed ledger technology law is not yet defined and recognized but an emerging field of law due to the recent dissemination of distributed ledger technology application in business and governance environment. Those smart contracts which were created through interaction of lawyers and developers and are intended to also be enforceable legal contracts are called smart legal contracts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">IOTA (technology)</span> Open-source distributed ledger and cryptocurrency

IOTA is an open-source distributed ledger and cryptocurrency designed for the Internet of things (IoT). It uses a directed acyclic graph to store transactions on its ledger, motivated by a potentially higher scalability over blockchain based distributed ledgers. IOTA does not use miners to validate transactions, instead, nodes that issue a new transaction on the network must approve two previous transactions. Transactions can therefore be issued without fees, facilitating microtransactions. The network currently achieves consensus through a coordinator node, operated by the IOTA Foundation. As the coordinator is a single point of failure, the network is currently centralized.

Hashgraph is a distributed ledger technology that has been described as an alternative to blockchains. The hashgraph technology is currently patented, is used by the public ledger Hedera, and there is a grant to implement the patent as a result of the Apache 2.0's Grant of Patent License so long as the implementation conforms to the terms of the Apache license. The native cryptocurrency of the Hedera Hashgraph system is HBAR.

Christopher (Chris) Ferris is a computer scientist, best known for co-leading the Hyperledger Fabric project where he chaired the Technical Steering Committee from 2016 to 2018 and was a member of the Governing Board of the foremost blockchain project of the Linux Foundation. Hyperledger has been one of the fastest-growing open community projects, with over 200 corporate and associate members. Ferris has a history of open-source software contributions to other technologies, including web services and cloud. Ferris is currently an IBM Fellow, and CTO Open Technologies.

Originally developed in 2019 by Microsoft under the name Coco and later rebranded to Confidential Consortium Framework (CCF), it is an open-source framework for developing of a new category of performant applications that focuses on the optimization of secure multi-party computation and data availability. Intended to accelerate the adoption of blockchain technology by enterprises, CCF can enable a variety of high-scale, confidential, permissioned distributed ledger networks that meet key enterprise requirements.

In blockchain technology, a testnet is an instance of a blockchain powered by the same or a newer version of the underlying software, to be used for testing and experimentation without risk to real funds or the main chain. Testnet coins are separate and distinct from the official (mainnet) coins, don't have value, and can be obtained freely from faucets.

Algorand is a proof-of-stake blockchain and cryptocurrency. Algorand's native cryptocurrency is called ALGO.

Chainlink is a decentralized blockchain oracle network. Chainlink's token is on Ethereum. The network is intended to be used to facilitate the transfer of tamper-proof data from off-chain sources to on-chain smart contracts.

References

  1. ↑ "Linux Foundation Unites Industry Leaders to Advance Blockchain Technology - The Linux Foundation". The Linux Foundation. 2015-12-17. Archived from the original on 2017-07-17. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  2. ↑ "Open Source Blockchain Effort for the Enterprise Elects Leadership Positions and Gains New Investments - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. 2016-03-29. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  3. ↑ "Founder of the Apache Software Foundation Joins Linux Foundation to Lead Hyperledger Project". 2016-05-19. Archived from the original on 2016-06-10.
  4. ↑ "Linux Foundation's Hyperledger Project Announces 30 Founding Members and Code Proposals To Advance Blockchain Technology". 2016-02-09. Archived from the original on 2016-02-25. Retrieved 2016-02-17.
  5. ↑ "Hyperledger Blockchain Project Is Not About Bitcoin". eWEEK. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  6. ↑ "Incubating Project Proposal: Joint DAH/IBM proposal". Tamas Blummer, Christopher Ferris. March 29, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  7. ↑ "hyperledger/fabric". GitHub. Retrieved 2016-06-23.
  8. ↑ "Blythe Masters's Blockchain Startup Makes Two Acquisitions". Bloomberg.com. 2015-06-25. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  9. ↑ "Hyperledger - Digital Assets Platform". 2015-03-31. Archived from the original on 2015-03-31. Retrieved 2024-04-03.
  10. ↑ "hyperledger/sawtooth-core". GitHub. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  11. ↑ "Sawtooth Lake Hyperledger Incubation Proposal". Mic Bowman, Richard Brown. April 14, 2016. Retrieved June 21, 2016.
  12. ↑ "Hyperledger releases Hyperledger Sawtooth 1.0, its second distributed ledger project". TechCrunch. 30 January 2018. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  13. ↑ "Hyperledger Fabric 1.4 marks a very important milestone: First LTS release". JAXenter. 2019-01-11. Retrieved 2019-05-28.
  14. ↑ Bambysheva, Nina. "As Bitcoin, Ethereum Gain Popularity, Hyperledger's Executive Director 'Passes The Baton' To Dow Jones Veteran". Forbes. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  15. ↑ Bambysheva, Nina (9 February 2022). "Hyperledger Foundation names Hart Montgomery as Chief Technology Officer". hyperledger.org/. Retrieved 2023-11-14.
  16. ↑ "Our Corporate Members". The Linux Foundation. Retrieved 2019-03-10.
  17. ↑ "Leadership". Hyperledger Foundation. Archived from the original on 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2022-04-18.
  18. ↑ Castillo, Michael del. "Hyperledger Unanimously Approves First Ethereum Codebase For Enterprises". Forbes. Retrieved 2019-09-26.
  19. ↑ Androulaki, Elli; Barger, Artem; Bortnikov, Vita; Cachin, Christian; Christidis, Konstantinos; De Caro, Angelo; Enyeart, David; Ferris, Christopher; Laventman, Gennady; Manevich, Yacov; Muralidharan, Srinivasan; Murthy, Chet; Nguyen, Binh; Sethi, Manish; Singh, Gari; Smith, Keith; Sorniotti, Alessandro; Stathakopoulou, Chrysoula; Vukolić, Marko; Weed Cocco, Sharon; Yellick, Jason (2018). "Hyperledger Fabric: A Distributed Operating System for Permissioned Blockchains". arXiv: 1801.10228 . doi:10.1145/3190508.3190538. S2CID   3863072.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  20. ↑ Salimitari, Mehrdad; Chatterjee, Mainak; Fallah, Yaser (20 April 2020). "A Survey of Consensus Methods in Blockchain for Resource-Constrained IoT Networks". Procedia Computer Science. doi:10.36227/techrxiv.12152142.v1. S2CID   216652907 . Retrieved 30 October 2020.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  21. ↑ Bucci, Debbie. "Blockchain and Its Emerging Role in Health IT and Health-related research" (PDF). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  22. ↑ Bollen, Benjamin. "Introduce a start for Burrow EVM as Sawtooth Transaction Processor". github.com. Hyperledger. Retrieved 18 May 2017.
  23. ↑ "layerzero airdrop". ETH tokens. Retrieved 11 September 2023.
  24. ↑ "Available SDKs". sawtooth.hyperledger.org. Archived from the original on June 16, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2018.
  25. ↑ "Hyperledger Aries - Hyperledger" . Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Measuring Blockchain Performance with Hyperledger Caliper - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. 2018-03-19. Retrieved 2018-06-16.
  27. ↑ "Hyperledger Cello - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  28. ↑ "Hyperledger Composer - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. Archived from the original on 2020-05-12. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  29. ↑ "Move Composer to End of Life". Hyplerledger Wiki. Retrieved 10 Sep 2021.
  30. ↑ "Hyperledger Explorer - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. Archived from the original on 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
  31. ↑ "Hyperledger Quilt - Hyperledger". Hyperledger. Archived from the original on 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2018-04-28.
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