By Pete Harris, Principal, Lighthouse Partners, Inc. and WSBA Perspectives Blog Curator
When it comes to choosing a blockchain/distributed ledger platform to build on, the number of choices seems to be growing all the time.
Even if one restricts the choice to just open source platforms - which are probably a good way to go for those at the experimentation stage - the options are increasing, and include:
* Hyperledger Fabric - the most popular of Hyperledger's blockchain projects, with backing from IBM and several others. Indeed, Fabric underpins IBM's proprietary offering. V1 is in alpha test.
* Hyperledger Sawtooth Lake - Spearheaded by Intel and already used for a couple of PoC applications, Sawtooth Lake incorporates an alternative consensus algorithm called Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET), which "targets large distributed validator populations with minimal resource consumption."
* Hyperledger Iroha - A project headed by Colu and a number of Japanese vendors, with an emphasis on mobile application development.
* Chain Chain Core - A developer version of the blockchain code that Chain has built for projects with Nasdaq and Visa is available as open source.
* R3 Corda - Don't call it a blockchain, because it's a distributed ledger! R3 has open sourced the platform that it created specifically for financial service use, and is currently working to have the open source governance handled by Hyperledger.
* Quorum - J.P. Morgan's spin on Ethereum, which can work in either public or private blockchain configurations, and with improved scalability and security.
* Enterprise Ethereum - Very much a work in progress, with underpinnings in the public Ethereum blockchain but also likely to incorporate elements of Quorum.
To the above, expect to add Axoni's AxCore, which will be open sourced (probably via Hyperledger) at some point in the future, as per it's deal with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Have I missed any? Let me know!
Of course, you may have already decided that a proprietary platform is a better bet for your project. In which case, products from a dozen or more companies, including IBM, should be on your list. We'll look at proprietary options in my next post.
Even if one restricts the choice to just open source platforms - which are probably a good way to go for those at the experimentation stage - the options are increasing, and include:
* Hyperledger Fabric - the most popular of Hyperledger's blockchain projects, with backing from IBM and several others. Indeed, Fabric underpins IBM's proprietary offering. V1 is in alpha test.
* Hyperledger Sawtooth Lake - Spearheaded by Intel and already used for a couple of PoC applications, Sawtooth Lake incorporates an alternative consensus algorithm called Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET), which "targets large distributed validator populations with minimal resource consumption."
* Hyperledger Iroha - A project headed by Colu and a number of Japanese vendors, with an emphasis on mobile application development.
* Chain Chain Core - A developer version of the blockchain code that Chain has built for projects with Nasdaq and Visa is available as open source.
* R3 Corda - Don't call it a blockchain, because it's a distributed ledger! R3 has open sourced the platform that it created specifically for financial service use, and is currently working to have the open source governance handled by Hyperledger.
* Quorum - J.P. Morgan's spin on Ethereum, which can work in either public or private blockchain configurations, and with improved scalability and security.
* Enterprise Ethereum - Very much a work in progress, with underpinnings in the public Ethereum blockchain but also likely to incorporate elements of Quorum.
To the above, expect to add Axoni's AxCore, which will be open sourced (probably via Hyperledger) at some point in the future, as per it's deal with the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.
Have I missed any? Let me know!
Of course, you may have already decided that a proprietary platform is a better bet for your project. In which case, products from a dozen or more companies, including IBM, should be on your list. We'll look at proprietary options in my next post.