Hyperledger

Hyperledger is an umbrella project, which offers the necessary framework, standards, guidelines and tools, to build open source blockchains and related applications for use across various industries. Using the available artifacts under the Hypeledger project, a business can apply various available blockchain solutions and services to significantly improve the performance of their operations and the efficiency of their business processes.

The Hyperledger project was created in December 2015 by the San Francisco, California-based Linux Foundation. It started with 10 member firms, and has more than 100 member companies today.

Hyperledger was set up with the aim of accelerating industry-wide collaboration for developing high performance and reliable blockchain and distributed ledger-based technology framework, that could be used across the various industry sectors to enhance the efficiency, performance and transactions of the various business processes.

Hyperledger is a global collaboration that includes leading businesses from the fields of finance, banking, Internet of Things (IoT), supply chain management, manufacturing and production, and technology. They include big names like Airbus, Daimler, IBM, Samsung, Nokia, Deutsche Börse, American Express, JP Morgan and Well Fargo, in addition to a host of blockchain-based startups like Blockstream and Cosensys.

Essentially, Hyperledger is not an organization, a cryptocurrency network, or a blockchain system. It does not support a cryptocurrency like bitcoin, but it works by providing the necessary infrastructure and standards for developing 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 include the following:

• Hyperledger Fabric - a platform for building various blockchain-based products, solutions and applications for business use
• Hyperledger Composer - a set of tools that allows users to easily build, test and operate their own blockchain
• Hyperledger Cello - allows blockchain to be used through an on-demand “as-a-service” deployment model (Blockchain-as-a-Service)
• Hyperledger Explorer - a dashboard utility that allows for the monitoring, searching, and maintenance of blockchain developments and related data
• Hyperledger Burrow - a permissioned Ethereum smart contract blockchain node that handles transactions and executes smart contract code on the EVM
• Hyperledger Sawtooth - an enterprise-level, permissioned, modular blockchain platform which uses an innovative Proof of Elapsed Time consensus algorithm
• Hyperledger Caliper - a blockchain benchmark tool that is used 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, though a user can create one as required.

In terms of the architecture, Hyperledger uses the following key business components:

• Consensus Layer – takes care of creating an agreement on the order and confirming the correctness of the set of transactions that constitute a block
• Smart Contract Layer - responsible for processing transaction requests and authorizing only valid transactions
• Communication Layer – takes care of peer-to-peer message transport
• Identity Management Service –the necessary function for maintaining and validating identities of users and systems and establishing trust on blockchain
• API – or application programming interface, enable external applications and clients to interface with the blockchain