Hyperledger
What Is Hyperledger?
Hyperledger is a global enterprise blockchain project that offers the necessary framework, standards, rules, and tools to build open-source blockchains and related applications for use across various industries. Hyperledger's projects incorporate a variety of enterprise-ready permissioned blockchain platforms, where network participants are known to each other and in this manner have an intrinsic interest in participating in the consensus-making process.
Utilizing the available parts under the Hyperledger umbrella, a business can apply various modular blockchain arrangements and services to significantly work on the performance of their operations and the proficiency of their business processes.
Understanding Hyperledger
The Hyperledger project was created in December 2015 by the San Francisco, California-based Linux Foundation. It started with 30 member firms and has developed to in excess of 120 member companies today.
Hyperledger was set up determined to accelerate far reaching collaboration for growing elite performance and reliable blockchain and distributed record based technology framework that could be utilized across the various industry sectors to enhance the productivity, performance, and transactions of the various business processes.
Hyperledger is a global collaboration that incorporates leading businesses from the fields of finance, banking, Internet of Things (IoT), supply chain management, manufacturing and production, and technology. They incorporate big names like Bosch, Daimler, IBM, Samsung, Microsoft, Hitachi, American Express, JP Morgan, and Visa, in addition to a large group of blockchain-based startups like Blockforce and ConsenSys.
Hyperledger's Organizational Structure
Essentially, Hyperledger isn't an organization, a cryptocurrency network, or a blockchain system. It doesn't support a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, however it works by giving the necessary infrastructure and standards for creating various blockchain-based systems and applications for industrial use. Think of Hyperledger as a hub, where various individual blockchain-based projects and tools that adhere to its defined design philosophy operate under its umbrella.
The various projects incorporate the following:
- Hyperledger Fabric is a platform for building various blockchain-based products, arrangements, and applications for business use. A now-dead layer called Hyperledger Composer has since been merged with Fabric as well.
- Hyperledger Cello allows blockchain to be utilized through an on-demand "as-a-service" sending model (Blockchain-as-a-Service).
- Hyperledger Explorer is a dashboard utility that allows for the monitoring, searching, and maintenance of blockchain improvements and related data.
- Hyperledger Burrow is a permissioned Ethereum smart-contract blockchain node that handles transactions and executes smart contract code on the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM).
- Hyperledger Sawtooth is an enterprise-level, permissioned, modular blockchain platform that utilizes an innovative Proof of Elapsed Time consensus algorithm.
- Hyperledger Caliper is a blockchain benchmark tool that is utilized to evaluate the performance of a specific blockchain implementation.
All such projects under the Hyperledger umbrella follow the design methodology that supports a modular and extensible approach, interoperability, and security features. The projects remain agnostic to a particular token or cryptocurrency, however a client can create one as required.
Hyperledger Technology Layers
In terms of the architecture, Hyperledger utilizes the following key business parts:
- The consensus layer takes care of creating an agreement on the order and affirming the rightness of the set of transactions that comprise a block.
- The smart contract layer is responsible for processing transaction demands and authorizing just valid transactions.
- The communication layer takes care of peer-to-peer message transport.
- The identity management services are the necessary function for maintaining and validating the personalities of users and systems and establishing trust on the blockchain.
- The API, or application programming interface, enables external applications and clients to interface with the blockchain.
Features
- Several sub-projects exist, including Hyperledger Fabric, Sawtooth, Composer, and Cello.
- Hyperledger is an open-source community zeroed in on fostering a set-up of stable frameworks, tools, and libraries for permissioned, enterprise-grade blockchain organizations.
- It is a global collaboration, facilitated by The Linux Foundation, and remembers member organizations that are leaders for finance, banking, Internet of Things, supply chains, manufacturing, and technology.