As a starting point I would like to highlight that Hyperledger Foundation https://wiki.hyperledger.org/ which created and maintain Fabric is now a part of LF Decentralized Trust https://www.lfdecentralizedtrust.org/ organization that support decentralized technologies. Linux Foundation has under it’s umbrella many interesting projects that’s why I think it is worth to consider Fabric when creating a permissioned blockchain. Fabric was as well appreciated by IBM https://www.ibm.com/topics/hyperledger, visit the website and read about use cases maybe one of them is close to what you try to build.
As you may know already blockchain is a distributed ledger (DLT) composed of multiple decentralized nodes that share and synchronize data without the central authority. Each ledger contain multiple blocks and each block is referencing previous block by a hash value produced by cryptographic function based on the previous block’s data.
First wide adoption and usage of blockchain technology was done by Bitcoin and Ethereum both of them are permissionless blockchains where participants are anonymous.
Both Bitcoin and Ethereum operate without central governance, relying on consensus mechanisms like Proof of Work to ensure that participants (miners or validators) can verify and secure transactions. The permissionless nature of these blockchains ensures that the system is open to anyone globally, promoting transparency, censorship resistance, and decentralization.
In comparison to permissioneless blockchain Hyperledger Fabric introduce permissioned blockchain where participants must be authenticated by a central authority or consortium. These networks are often used by businesses and industries where controlled access, privacy, and compliance are critical.
In a permissioned blockchain, every actor who wants to interact with the network needs an identity, this identity is issued by an authority trusted by the system. In Fabric the role of trusted authority is done by a membership service provider (MSP) which allow all participants to prove their identity to the rest of the network. MSP does not directly create identities. Instead, it works alongside a Certificate Authority (CA), which is responsible for generating identities.
Fabric provides a built-in CA component called Fabric CA which acts as a private root CA for managing participants’ digital identities using X.509 certificates. In a Fabric network, Fabric CA can be used to manage identities, although organizations are free to use public or commercial CAs for identity management if needed.
Prior to Hyperledger Fabric, most blockchain systems, whether permissioned or permissionless, relied on a fixed consensus mechanism that could not be altered. Fabric was the first blockchain platform to introduce pluggable consensus, allowing users to choose the best-suited consensus protocol for their needs. Decades of research have demonstrated that no single consensus method is optimal for every use case, highlighting the need for flexibility.
Hyperledger Fabric’s modularity is key to its plug-and-play nature. Users can configure various components independently, from consensus mechanisms to privacy controls and storage options. This flexibility ensures that the platform can be adapted to fit a wide range of industries and use cases, making it highly customizable compared to other blockchain solutions.
At Techs we are focused on designing resilient and thoroughly planned systems, blockchain is one of the technologies which we can adapt for your needs.
Hyperledger Fabric source code is publicly available https://github.com/hyperledger/fabric.
References:
https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-2.5/whatis.html Hyperledger Fabric introduction
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3190508.3190538 Hyperledger Fabric review and comparison with permissionless blockchains
https://hyperledger-fabric.readthedocs.io/en/release-2.5/identity/identity.html Central Authority and Digital Identity in Hyperledger Fabric
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