In our previous blog, ‘Blockchain Technology Explained’; we had an interesting discussion on Blockchain as a framework and its core pillars. Why Blockchain is so important and every leading company is adopting it for its software development environment?
Well, Blockchain as a decentralized platform offers multiple benefits such as optimum security, data ownership, transparency, etc. When it comes to software development, Blockchain is going to take over the Internet. (so is the prediction)
The Blockchain is a breakthrough in the Cloud computing era with a decentralized database. And that’s why leading companies have already started offering Blockchain as a service (BaaS).
Blockchain as a service (BaaS)
Blockchain as a service or BaaS is the turn-key solution for helping businesses to build Blockchain-based applications. Many leading companies are offering BaaS with the following brand names:
- Amazon Managed Blockchain
- Azure Blockchain Workbench
- HPE Mission Critical Distributed Ledger Technology
- HPE Pointnext
- IBM Blockchain
- Oracle Blockchain Applications Cloud
- Samsung Nexledger
- SAP Cloud Platform Blockchain
Being a turn-key solution, BaaS is perfect for the companies who outsource their technical needs such as developers or services. They don’t need to understand the basics of the technology and can get a secure application or product just by availing the same. This is a highly soaring service market and expected to gain a CAGR of more than 15% for the forecasting period (2018-2023).
When we understand the Blockchain’s benefits, it’s become easier to understand how it can be beneficial for your application.
Although for avant-garde and independent transaction like cryptocurrencies and total security, Blockchain is repulsive to the financial sector. However, all industry verticals like healthcare, travel, manufacturing, supply chain, etc. are embracing this holy grail at a rapid pace.
With the evolution of Blockchain technology, the information industry is not lagging behind and has already created legitimized frameworks for software development. We are discussing the core element of such framework below.
Hyperledger Project
Hyperledger Project is a permitted Blockchain open source umbrella project embracing Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Burrow, Hyperledger Iroha, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Hyperledger Indy. These are permitted Blockchain infrastructures and projects to create empowered applications as well as products.
The Hyperledger project is supported by IBM, Intel, SAP Ariba, etc.
Let’s understand the core meaning of these legitimized frameworks:
- Hyperledger Fabric: IBM is the original contributor of Hyperledger Fabric and Linux Foundation is hosting it. It’s a permitted Blockchain infrastructure. It helps in the development of commercial Blockchain-based applications and is a global collaborative effort.
- Hyperledger Burrow: It is an Apache 2.0 licensed EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine) Smart contract machine. You can deploy Burrow in any environment.
- Hyperledger Iroha: It’s an open source legal Blockchain platform to manage digital assets & identity and serialized data. You can use Hyperledger Iroha for building applications for central bank digital currencies, national IDs, logistics, and inter-bank settlements.
- Hyperledger Sawtooth: It is a modular platform where you can build distributed ledger applications. The Hyperledger Sawtooth is used as a validator, RestAPI, and transaction processor.
- Hyperledger Indy: It helps in building decentralized digital identities with reusable components, libraries, and tools.
Blockchain File Storage Protocols
Various innovative file storage protocols are the blessings of Blockchain. Like HTTP, it has InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) which exactly works like a Torrent! In a nutshell, it’s a legalized Blockchain torrent. With this protocol, you can download multiple files from various systems in a decentralized platform. However, with HTTP, you can download a file within a single time frame. It offers client libraries for C++, Python, Swift, and JavaScript.
Closure
To sum up we can say that Blockchain is bringing forth radical changes to the field of software development in terms of decentralized database, more flexible framework, complete security, and an independent payment platform without the absence of third parties like banks. If we plan and adopt Blockchain in our application development environment, it will change the whole database storage, current software development standards, and the entire software development cycle in a better note.
