What Is Hyperledger Fabric?
Hyperledger Fabric is a modular blockchain framework designed to support the development of blockchain-based products, solutions, and applications using a plug-and-play structure, specifically aimed at private enterprises.
Key Takeaways
- Hyperledger Fabric is an enterprise-grade open-source distributed ledger platform launched by the Linux Foundation in December 2016.
- Developed by IBM, it’s designed as a highly modular and decentralized ledger technology (DLT) platform for industrial enterprise use.
- Its private, permissioned nature allows businesses to manage sensitive information securely and enhance transaction speeds by reducing the number of participating nodes.
- Fabric 2.0, released in January 2020, introduced faster transactions, updated smart contracts, and better data sharing capabilities.
Originating as a collaboration between Digital Asset and IBM, Hyperledger Fabric has emerged as a cross-industry venture under the Linux Foundation. It was the first Hyperledger project to be released from the “greenhouse,” launching in July 2017.
How Hyperledger Fabric Works
Traditional blockchain networks fall short in supporting private transactions and confidential contracts crucial for businesses. Hyperledger Fabric addresses this gap with its scalable, secure, and modular architecture.
Designed as an open-source engine, Hyperledger Fabric ensures key features for evaluating and utilizing blockchain for business applications. In private industrial networks, a verifiable participant identity is essential. Hyperledger Fabric supports permission-based membership, requiring all network participants to have known identities, aligning with data protection regulations in sectors like healthcare and finance.
Modular Architecture
Hyperledger Fabric’s modular architecture segments the transaction processing workflow into three distinct stages: smart contracts (chaincode) for distributed logic processing, transaction ordering, and transaction validation and commitment. This segmentation offers several benefits:
- Reduced verification levels to streamline network operations
- Enhanced network scalability
- Improved overall performance
With support for plug-and-play components, Hyperledger Fabric enables easy reuse of existing functionalities and seamless module integration. For instance, pre-existing identity verification features can be readily reused.
Participants assume three distinct roles:
- Endorser
- Committer
- Consenter
Transactions are proposed to the endorser peer based on a predefined endorsement policy. Once endorsed, the transactions are sent to the committers for validation and final inclusion in the ledger. Enhanced scalability and performance are achieved as only confirming instructions—such as signatures and read/write sets—are transmitted across the network, limiting access to critical data.
Real-World Example of Hyperledger Fabric
Imagine a chocolate manufacturer wanting to ship products to specific U.S. retailers at a discrete price, without revealing this price to other markets like Chinese retailers. This transaction may involve multiple parties such as customs, shipping companies, and financing banks. Standard blockchain solutions may not support this need for confidentiality. However, Hyperledger Fabric ensures that private transactions remain secure, visible only to the necessary participants.
Criticism and Challenges
The enthusiasm for cryptocurrency waned in 2018, bringing skepticism to related technologies, including Hyperledger Fabric.
Competitors and Comparisons
Hyperledger Fabric faces competition from other Hyperledger projects like Iroha, Indy, and Sawtooth, as well as R3’s Corda, a private DLT. A report by Chainstack noted historical development trends and found that while there are more developers working on Hyperledger Fabric, Corda developers contributed more code.
Critiquing Hyperledger Fabric
Critics argue that Hyperledger Fabric’s complexity and security might fall short compared to other blockchain platforms. Stuart Popejoy critiques its architecture for being cumbersome and less secure against tampering, questioning its scalability and performance.
Researchers from the Sorbonne and CSIRO - Data61 highlighted concerns over Fabric’s resiliency, noting that network delays could undermine its consistency for critical environments.
Hyperledger Fabric 2.0: The Next Step
Released in January 2020, Hyperledger Fabric 2.0 introduced improvements aimed at response to prior criticisms. Key updates involved enhancing decentralized governance, enabling better agreement among parties before data additions to the ledger.
While these updates don’t radically simplify or expand Fabric’s applicability, they signify ongoing progress. As enterprise blockchain applications continue to evolve, the future for Hyperledger Fabric appears promising in finding appropriate, practical uses over the next decade.
Related Terms: Smart Contracts, Permissioned Blockchain, Corda, Chainstack, IBM Blockchain.
References
- Hyperledger Foundation. “About Hyperledger Foundation”.
- IBM. “What Is Hyperledger Fabric?”
- IBM. “Hyperledger Achieves Huge Milestone: Introducing Hyperledger Fabric 2.0”.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “An Introduction to Hyperledger: Whitepaper”, Pages 12, 22-23.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “Hyperledger Architecture, Volume I”, Page 8.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “Hyperledger Fabric”.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “Hyperledger Architecture, Volume II”, Page 10.
- CoinMarketCap. “Bitcoin Historical Data”, Select Date Range: 12/1/2017 to 12/31/2017.
- CoinMarketCap. “Bitcoin”.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “An Introduction to Hyperledger: Whitepaper”, Pages 12-21.
- Chainstack. “Enterprise Blockchain Protocols Evolution Index 2020”, Page 7.
- Chainstack. “Enterprise Blockchain Protocols Evolution Index 2020”, Pages 3-4.
- Cointelegraph. “Why IBM’s Blockchain Isn’t a Real Blockchain”.
- Nguyen, Thanh S. L. and et al. “Impact of Network Delays on Hyperledger Fabric”. IEEE Conference on Computer Communications Workshops, March 2019, pp. 1.
- TechCrunch. “Hyperledger Fabric, the Open-Source Distributed Ledger, Reaches Release 2.0”.
- Hyperledger Foundation. “Use Case Tracker”, Select Filtered by Projects: Hyperledger Fabric.
