Key Points
- Key blockchain alternatives to Hyperledger include: Ethereum, Quorum, Corda
- Hyperledger Fabric has implemented EEA ( Ethereum Enterprise Architecture ) Enterprise stack and can call Ethereum smart contracts now
- Biser Dimitrov's EBC newsletter: https://enterpriseblockchain.substack.com/
- Good news is Ethereum continues to evolve filling in gaps and expanding the use cases it can fit better than most other crypto platforms overall. Bigger than crypto is clearly the growing use of Asset Tokenization and DLT impacting many domains now. Automated governance with Sybal is another expanding focus in 2024.
References
| Reference_description_with_linked_URLs________________________________ | Notes_______________________________________________________________ |
|---|---|
| _compare-fabric-v-ethereum-v-corda-180914122948.pdf | _compare-fabric-v-ethereum-v-corda-180914122948.pdf |
| m Ethereum Smart Contract Concepts | |
| Ethereum Cheat Sheet - 2023 | |
| Ethereum Cheat Sheet code concepts - github | |
| https://www.ethereum.org/beginners/ | Ethereum for beginners |
| https://www.ethereum.org/ | Ethereum |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethereum | Ethereum |
| https://medium.com/blockchannel/life-cycle-of-an-ethereum-transaction-e5c66bae0f6e | Ethereum transaction concepts |
| https://bitfalls.com/2018/05/31/what-is-an-ethereum-testnet-and-how-is-it-used/ | How to use Ethereum testnets |
Ethereum changes coming: POS, shards, lower gas, burn ether pdf | Ethereum changes coming: POS, shards, lower gas, burn ether |
| Ethereum improvements needed - 2023 - p1 - Vitalik Buterin | |
| https://hackernoon.com/costs-of-a-real-world-ethereum-contract-2033511b3214 | Estimated costs of an Ethereum contract - 2017 |
https://www.slideshare.net/Synerzip/blockchain-application-development-101 blockchain-application-development-webinar-sweetbridge-190905082233.pdf | Blockchain App Development Concepts 101 - slideshare - sweetbridge |
| https://ethgasstation.info/ | Gas station - current gas prices to run a transaction ... expensive |
| https://hackernoon.com/costs-of-a-real-world-ethereum-contract-2033511b3214 | calculating gas prices |
| https://ethereum.stackexchange.com/questions/35539/what-is-the-real-price-of- deploying-a-contract-on-the-mainnet | Costs of a contract deployment |
| https://entethalliance.org/enterprise-ethereum-alliance-advances-web-3-0-era-public-release-enterprise-ethereum-architecture-stack/ | EEA |
| https://entethalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/EEA-Architecture-Stack-Spring-2018.pdf | EEA stack |
| https://entethalliance.github.io/trusted-computing/spec.html | EEA Off-Chain Trusted Computing Spec |
| testnets | |
| https://www.anyblockanalytics.com/networks/ethereum/ropsten/#:~: text=Description, Morden%2C%20the%20first%20Ethereum%20Testnet. | Ropsten testnet about for blockchain development testing before deployment |
| https://ropsten.etherscan.io/ | Ropsten testnet console |
| https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/networks/ | Networks are different Ethereum environments you can access for development, testing, or production use cases. Your Ethereum account will work across the different networks but your account balance and transaction history won't carry over from the main Ethereum network. For testing purposes, it's useful to know which networks are available and how to get testnet ETH so you can play around with it. |
| https://umbria.network/connect/ethereum-testnet-ropsten | Connect metamask to Ropsten testnet |
| Wallets and tokens | |
| https://drive.google.com/open?id=16YzIZpOCFDTR4E0SW5EZ31sdQViWJhE7 | a redeemable bitcoin token for ERC-20 wallets w transaction interop |
| EEA - Ethereum Enterprise Alliance - permissioned Ethereum | |
| https://entethalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/EEA_ Ethereum_Business_Readiness_Report_2022_v1.1_June_29_2022.pdf | EEA readiness report 2022 |
| AWS | |
| QLDB slides - 2019 | QLDB slides - 2019 |
| AWS Hosted Fabric BAAS | |
| Facebook Libra cryptocurrency | |
| https://libra.org/en-US/white-paper/#introduction | Libra whitepaper |
| https://libra.org/en-US/ | Libra home |
| https://libra.org/en-US/about-currency-reserve/#the_reserve | LIbra Reserve Management |
| https://developers.libra.org/docs/the-libra-blockchain-paper | Libra Blockchain |
| https://libra.org/en-US/association-council-principles/#overview | Libra Governance Organization |
| the DPOS Merge 2022 | |
| https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ethereum-ropsten-merge-incoming-where-235242836.html | Ropsten testnet to DPOS in June 2022 - mainnet merge later merge would combine pow and pos chains |
| Ethereum scaling beyond the Merge | sharding would have been welcomed by users rollup-centric roadmap users can “bridge” Token A to a sidechain, swap it for Token B (quickly and cheaply), and then “bridge” Token B back to Ethereum. A series of transactions that costs thousands of dollars on Ethereum can be done for pennies on Polygon sidechains tend to make compromises to centralization and security in the name of convenience. Rollups, like sidechains, take the stress off of Ethereum by executing transactions on a separate blockchain. Transactions are “settled” on the rollup chain, bundled up, and then “posted” to Ethereum |
Key Concepts
Ethereum Key Features
Anthony Day IBM
One for my Basic Blockers: A great summary of the Ethereum Blockchain - how it works, what a 'block' is, and why decentralised networks and applications can be so powerful...
💡 Imagine a computer system that is always running, doesn't go down, on which you can store data or run applications that anyone [[AUTHORIZED]] can interact with, and on which the code is predominantly open source and visible to everyone [[AUTHORIZED]] ...
🌔 While Ethereum may not be the most performant, user friendly, or developer friendly Blockchain out there; it certainly has the strongest 'gravitational pull' in terms of attracting capital, projects and developers at this time.
⚡️The 'Merge' (or ETH 2.0) changed the way consensus on the network is reached, moving from a computationally-expensive 'Proof of Work' approach, to a less-energy-intensive 'Proof of Stake' approach, where the validators of the network put capital at risk to support the integrity of the chain and its data.
❓Will it still be the largest, most attractive Blockchain 5-years from now? There are many competitors out there who would say 'no'. However, there are many other legacy systems running today that are slow, expensive, hard to maintain and old; and they have managed to create lock-in and stand the test of time.
Ethereum Cheat Sheet - 2023
Ethereum Proof of Stake and Liquidity Pools
POS Proof of Stake and Liquidity Pools
Ethereum improvements needed - 2023 - p1 - Vitalik Buterin
Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum Network has published a fresh blog post with the title "The Three Transitions" outlining a strategic plan for the blockchain, focused on improvements in scaling, privacy, and wallet security.
So, let's explore the plan that Vitalik has laid out. 📊
🔒 Crypto Wallet Security: Wallet security enhancement includes moving all user wallets to smart contract wallets. This is needed for users to confidently store crypto payments and data on-chain.
🔏 Privacy: Buterin highlights privacy's importance, stating that without it, "Ethereum fails" as on-chain activities would be public. The interaction with Ethereum also needs significant changes.
🌐 Layer 2 Scaling: Buterin emphasizes the need for layer 2 scaling to prevent a shift towards centralized solutions. Growth in layer 2 networks like Polygon and Matter Labs' ZK rollups is noted. The upcoming upgrade, Dencun, will introduce cost-effective proto-danksharding.
Securing scalability, wallet safety, and user privacy is essential for Ethereum's future. It's not only about technology, but real user accessibility. Vitalik points out that it is vital to overcome these challenges.
Find Vitalik`s full blog post here, worth the read: https://lnkd.in/euQgptU3
Side note: being an Ethereum enthusiast myself, I cannot agree more with Vitalik... the only point he did not mention is emerging need for blockchain modularity
Vitalik Buterin - The 3 Transitions ( for Ethereum )
ethereum-payments-concepts-2023-vitalik.eth.limo-The Three Transitions.pdf. link
ethereum-payments-concepts-2023-vitalik.eth.limo-The Three Transitions.pdf file
there are three major technical transitions that the stack needs to undergo, roughly simultaneously:
- The L2 scaling transition - everyone moving to rollups
- The wallet security transition - everyone moving to smart contract wallets
- The privacy transition - making sure privacy-preserving funds transfers are available, and making sure all of the other gadgets that are being developed (social recovery, identity, reputation) are privacy-preserving
The ecosystem transition triangle. You can only pick 3 out of 3
Ethereum status 2022 - Vitalik Buterin
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vitalik-buterin-speaks-ethereum-future-143224991.html
Vitalik also shared his views on the subject of decentralization. He said that the concept doesn’t imply that there are no leaders. It implies that those leaders cannot make a sole decision but have to earn everybody’s input. Moreover, new leaders can also emerge. He believes that Ethereum has gotten more and more decentralized over time.
According to Vitalik, DAOs are now finally ready to happen. He predicted the surging of the popular Ethereum Name Service (ENS). He mentioned his new roadmap and its named phases: the verge, the purge, the surge, the splurge, and the merge.
”If Ethereum fails to scale, then Ethereum definitely failed.
If Ethereum succeeds at scaling, but it turns into something centralized, then I think it also failed.
If Ethereum succeeds at scaling and at being decentralized as a blockchain, but nothing interesting gets to build on top of it and no one actually gets any value from it, then it also fails.”
Vitalik predictions 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/vitalik-buterin-reviews-past-crypto-161741276.html
Buterin also believes that the coin’s decentralization allows it to survive but not thrive in a harsh regulatory environment. He added that for a successful censorship resistance strategy to work, such a project must be technologically robust and have public legitimacy
Buterin also acknowledged that his whitepaper predicted DeFi but wholly missed seeing the development of NFTs. He also described himself as naive for not considering the social and political hindrances of BTC, but now he has learned a lot.
Vitalik highlighted how he was an apologist for the overwhelming power consumption of PoW in 2012
Regarding PoS and Sharding, he said that he accepts that he made a wrong timing of when these innovations could be live on ETH’s network.
He also said that if developers want stablecoins to remain strong amid the collapse of the USD, they must have good governance.
his vision of the Internet of Money. According to him, this innovation should have transaction fees not exceeding 5 cents for every transaction. ETH is experiencing scalability difficulties, but he explained that his DEV team works around the clock to make solutions.
Ethereum After the Merge Before the Surge
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/citi-ethereum-merge-several-consequences-105135910.html
lower energy intensity, the transition into a deflationary asset and a “potential roadmap to a more scalable future through sharding,” the bank said.
may only increase transaction speeds by 10% by reducing block times, according to the report. It, however, lays the path for the “Surge,” which is the next planned upgrade for the network and promises to bring 100,000 transactions-per-second (TPS) capability to the blockchain
with ether (ETH) eventually becoming deflationary, this may improve the case for the token as a store of value.
The move to PoS turns ETH into a “yield-bearing asset” with cash flows, the bank said, which may be interpreted as a form of revenue for the network. Having potential cash flows would allow the use of a range of valuation methods that are not currently available for the blockchain
Given its “enhanced store of value properties,” it is more likely to be where a growing amount of total value locked (TVL) is secured and transacted
Builders are more important than Miners after Merge - 2022
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ethereum-overhaul-risks-creating-class-155911993.html
Ethereum Merge to POS moving forward - 2022
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ethereum-2-0-project-enters-174440315.html
The Ethereum 2.0 project will boost the transactions per second (TPS) capability of the top blockchain for both centralized and decentralized finance, or DeFI, projects — as well as gaming, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), metaverses and pretty much everything else — from its current 12 to 15 TPS limit to 100,000 TPS, developers claim. It will also end its environmental problems
The March 15 launch of the Klin testnet marks the last “test” blockchain before the Ethereum 2.0 Merge that shifts transactions of Ethereum from its current Bitcoin-style proof-of-work consensus mechanism to the newer proof-of-stake (PoS) that competing “Ethereum-killer” blockchain like Polkadot, Cosmos and Solana have been using to steal developers and projects.
When Buterin talked about “the limits on making block time faster” in a recent Reddit discussion thread — which he reposted on Twitter — he was referring to how fast new blocks of transactions are added to the Ethereum blockchain. And that’s a matter that’s more about security than scalability.
Ethereum’s block time is currently about 13 seconds. And while that’s a whole lot better than Bitcoin’s 10 minutes, Solana, one of the current “Ethereum killer” blockchains seeking to steal away developers and projects, has a 400 millisecond block time — so a new block is added every 0.4 seconds. It also can handle 50,000 TPS.
Read more: PYMNTS Blockchain Series: What Is Solana?
But the ongoing project to convert Ethereum into Ethereum 2.0, built on the greener and far more scalable proof-of-stake consensus mechanism (as opposed to Bitcoin-style proof-of-work mining) will enable it to reach 100,000 TPS.
Aside from scalability that will end the overtaxed blockchain’s staggeringly high transaction fees — generally $2 to $4 but spiking as high as $70 — Eth 2.0 will deal with the transaction delays that occur when the number of transactions outpaces it ability to add new transactions to the immutable blockchain.
2 layer architecture separates contract execution from consensus
The Eth 2.0 blockchain differs from Ethereum in one key fashion: Instead of a single “Layer 1” blockchain that handles everything, Eth 2.0 will have an execution layer, on which all smart contracts run, and a consensus layer, which only records transactions. That takes a lot of pressure off, allowing the consensus layer to scale massively without interfering with — or interference from — the smart contracts running DeFI exchanges, games, metaverses, supply chain management projects and all the rest.
Much lower GAS fees with POS?
Some than 10 million ETH tokens, worth more than $26 billion, have been staked — locked into a contract that replaces mining as the means of securing the blockchain and adding new transaction data in exchange for newly minted ETH tokens.
The final merge, which will bring all Ethereum transactions past and future onto the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain, is planned for the end of the second quarter — likely between June and July.
Ethereum losing ground with delayed POS phase 3 migration to shards
- The final "sharding" stage in the upgrade to ethereum 2.0 is at least a year away, JPMorgan analysts said.
- That gives solana and terra and other rivals a chance to take more DeFi market share, they said Wednesday.
- The final phase of ethereum's transition to a proof-of-stake mechanism "might arrive too late," they said.
Ethereum short-term impacts with delayed merge to Q4 2022
https://time.com/nextadvisor/investing/cryptocurrency/ethereum-hits-new-all-time-high-price/
until that ( the Merge ) happens, experts are waiting to see how investors and companies building their tech on Ethereum’s platform respond to the changes.
Ethereum has bounced up and down in recent weeks, following an immediate drop below $2,400 on Feb. 23 after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine. Experts also point to other factors like the crypto market tracking the stock market, more mainstream adoption, and slumping prices in recent months as contributing to what we’re seeing with crypto prices right now.
US CBDC impacts?
Government officials have also continued to show an interest in more crypto regulation and even the possibility of creating a government-issued digital currency. Bitcoin’s price has had a similarly rough stretch lately.
Ethereum price volatility
Ethereum has ranged between $2,100 and $4,000 in the days since. Despite the slow start to 2022, many experts are still bullish, predicting Ethereum’s price could potentially hit and exceed $12,000 this year. In January 2021, Ethereum’s price was just a little over $1,000.
“The real question is, owning these coins, are they going to continue to experience compound, exponential growth? Nothing in the fundamentals of cryptocurrency tells me that answer is yes,” says Jeremy Schnieder, the investing expert behind Personal Finance Club.
Crypto price forecasts - 2022
A veteran trader and analyst, Peter Brandt has predicted a drop in Bitcoin, Ethereum and most other altcoins, comparing it to the 2018 crash.
Brandt became popular in the crypto community with his 80% BTC price drop prediction in 2018.
Analysts observing a 2018-like bearish structure in the Bitcoin price chart, set a downside target at $27,000.
Analysts believe Bitcoin price is at risk of close to a 50% drop, and $25,000 is the downside target for BTC.
Ethereum crashes on Bored Ape trades
https://fortune.com/2022/05/01/bored-ape-metaverse-frenzy-raises-millions-crashes-ethereum/
Yuga Labs, the creator of the popular Bored Apes Yacht Club collection of NFTs, launched a sale Saturday of virtual land related to its highly anticipated metaverse project, raising about $320 million worth of cryptocurrency in the largest offering of its kind. Demand was so strong that activity related to the event caused ripple effects across the entire Ethereum blockchain, disrupting activity and sending transaction fees soaring.
Each plot cost a buyer around $5,800 based on ApeCoin’s price of $19 as of Saturday, plus transaction costs, or “gas fees,” in Ether, which skyrocketed after the sale went live at 9 p.m. New York time as the land grab attracted heavy demand. Transaction costs just to mint Otherdeed NFTs after the launch reached $123 million, with each Otherdeed requiring about $6,000, or 2 Ether, in transaction fees to mint, according to data from Etherscan -- or more than the price of the deed itself.
Should transaction fees on a blockchain be fixed or based on short-term supply and demand?
Ether price driven by: the Merge timing, NFT volume, competitive platforms
in theory, after the Merge and full staking levels for POS consensus, Ethereum will have:
- high scalability
- lower, stable platform fees ( gas )
- climate friendly environment
Ethereum POS fork hacked 220919
https://blockworks.co/ethereum-pow-fork-suffers-its-first-smart-contract-hack/
An attacker has raided ETHW from a smart contract on the Ethereum proof-of-work fork
Cybersecurity researchers warn similar attacks could occur on other ETHW smart contracts
Ethereum POS may violate the Howey test since staking provides a proft
https://gizmodo.com/ethereum-bitcoin-price-plunges-sec-chair-merge-security-1849551695
Ethereum Centralization: is it an issue?
how Ethereum can be both decentralized with points of centralization at the same time
It’s impossible to trust the applications we use everyday without trusting the underlying institutions which ensure that every implicit and explicit agreement is honored.
For example, if a DApp’s server is infiltrated, it may be possible to populate the web interface with false information. This could cause users to make decisions they otherwise wouldn’t have. Or maybe a user’s wallet provider is overtaken. It would be possible to cut the wallet provider off from the network and not propagate user transactions to miners, thereby censoring their ability to transact with the chain.
It’s clear that if DApps simply didn’t rely on Infura, the impact from the chain split would’ve been reduced drastically. So why do most DApp interfaces not get their data from Ethereum nodes directly?
First of all, most users don’t run their own nodes. Running a node is costly and requires experience to setup correctly, especially in a production environment. Therefore, the burden is shouldered by DApps.
DApps to routinely use Infura as their single source of truth.
API that allows any developer to write software that interfaces with the Ethereum network. The product they’ve built is excellent, and is often more economical than being self-sufficient. This causes DApps to routinely use Infura as their single source of truth.
Ethereum clients need 3rd party advanced services
Ethereum clients are only good at answering simple queries such as “What is Alice’s balance?”. More complicated queries are prohibitively expensive to answer using only an Ethereum client. Even if users did have their own local node, they still wouldn’t be able to get the answer to queries like “How much did Alice spend between March and April?”
DApps often rely on these rich queries, and are therefore relegated to maintaining their own off-chain databases to support their application
MetaMask wallet has security risks
users connect to Infura by default via the MetaMask wallet
Although Infura is a prominent example of centralization in the Ethereum ecosystem, it’s far from the only one. Etherscan, oracles, DApp APIs — even a singular connection to the internet — are all susceptible to coercion. Relying on any one of these services for information would result in completely trusting that operator.
It’s surprisingly difficult to be self-sovereign using a technology whose primary goal is self-sovereignty. So don’t trust, verify.
Fixing decentralization on Ethereum
The goal is to allow everyone to interact with applications, without needing to trust any institution — to do that, the tooling must improve.
The status quo is to use a single source of truth when interacting with the chain. This inherently centralizes the flow of information and requires trust in that source. It is also in great contrast to full nodes, which connect with 25-50 unique peers. Full nodes can maintain an accurate view of the network even if only one of their peers are honest
There are many techniques that will make this easier, including light clients, block witnesses, state proofs, data retrieval networks and zero-knowledge proofs.
In the meantime, it’s important to be aware of the points of failure that exist today.
Do we want decentralization or just the benefits of decentralization?
Ethereum Platform Roadmap from 2022
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/cryptoverse-merge-ether-heads-20-052422868.html
The next significant upgrade for Ethereum is the "Shanghai", expected by market participants in around six months' time, which is aimed at reducing its high transaction costs.
It would allow validators, who have deposited ether tokens on the blockchain in exchange for a yield, to withdraw their staked coins, to hold or sell.
The staked ether crypto coin - viewed as a bet on Ethereum's long-term success as it cannot be redeemed until Shanghai happens - is trading at nearly parity with ether at 0.989 ether, according to CoinMarketCap data, indicating confidence in future upgrades.
Paul Brody, global blockchain leader at EY, said: "Ethereum's future needs to, and will, scale to hundreds of millions of transactions a day."
The Merge and future upgrades also dent the investment appeal of so-called "Ethereum killer" blockchains like Solana and Polkadot, said Adam Struck, CEO of venture capital firm Struck Crypto.
Longer-term, though, the switch to PoS is expected to decrease the rate at which ether tokens are issued - potentially by up to 90% - which should drive up prices.
Additionally, annual yields of 4.1% for staking ether tokens to validate transactions could prove tempting for investors.
However, while the proof-of-stake method allows for these lucrative yields, many crypto purists point out that it moves Ethereum away from a purely decentralized model as the biggest validators could exercise greater influence over the blockchain.
Ethereum Concepts
Ethereum Layer 2 roadmap
https://cointelegraph.com/news/vitalik-buterin-outlines-endgame-roadmap-for-eth-2-0
layer2-Vitalik Buterin outlines endgame roadmap for ETH 20.pdf
both optimistic and zero knowledge proof rollups
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ethereum-no-longer-one-chain-123000149.html
Ethereum is no longer a one-chain ecosystem. In order to achieve scalability, the Ethereum community will need to offer layer 2 technologies capable of handling transactions from billions of users. 2021 proved to be the first step in experimentation with both optimistic and zero knowledge proof rollups, and the two finally began to take significant market share in daily transactions away from Ethereum L1.
Ethereum Enterprise Architecture - #EEA
Hyperledger Fabric has implemented all Enterprise features in the Ethereum Enterprise Architecture in version 2.1x
EEA Readiness report - 2022
EEA_Ethereum_Business_Readiness_Report_2022_v1.1_June_29_2022.pdf file
Ethereum as a Settlement Platform
There is little doubt that Ethereum has evolved into a globally significant settlement layer. Last year ( 2021 ), the Ethereum blockchain settled over 11.6 trillion U.S. dollars worth of transactions. This is more than Visa (10.4 trillion) and Bitcoin (4.6 trillion).6 It is interesting to note that about half of this activity is connected to stablecoins, which themselves are tied to fiat currency. That means that about half of Ethereum’s transactions are connected in some way to real-world financial activity. This is significant as it indicates not only that the Ethereum blockchain works, but that it is a robust, trustworthy platform for holding value.
EEA ecosystem
Web3 frameworks for Ethereum
https://web3js.readthedocs.io/en/v1.2.0/getting-started.html
The web3.js library is a collection of modules which contain specific functionality for the ethereum ecosystem.
- The
web3-ethis for the ethereum blockchain and smart contracts - The
web3-shhis for the whisper protocol to communicate p2p and broadcast - The
web3-bzzis for the swarm protocol, the decentralized file storage - The
web3-utilscontains useful helper functions for Dapp developers.
Adding web3.js
First you need to get web3.js into your project. This can be done using the following methods:
- npm:
npm install web3 - meteor:
meteor add ethereum:web3 - pure js: link the
dist/web3.min.js
After that you need to create a web3 instance and set a provider. Ethereum supported Browsers like Mist or MetaMask will have a ethereumProvider or web3.currentProvider available. For web3.js, check Web3.givenProvider. If this property is null you should connect to a remote/local node.
// in node.js use: var Web3 = require('web3');
var web3 = new Web3(Web3.givenProvider || "ws://localhost:8546");
That’s it! now you can use the web3 object.
EEA Off-Chain Trusted Computing Spec
https://entethalliance.github.io/trusted-computing/spec.html
This document specifies APIs that enable off-chain Trusted Computing for Enterprise Ethereum. In this release, The Trusted Computing specification enables privacy in blockchain translations, moving intensive processing from a main blockchain to improve scalability and latency, and support of attested Oracles
This specification has four objectives:
- Support private transactions on a blockchain between mutually-untrusting parties without disclosing transaction details to other parties who also have access to the blockchain.
- Support disclosure of selected information to chosen parties on a blockchain, while maintaining the secrecy of other information from those same chosen parties ("selective Privacy").
- Move intensive processing from a main blockchain to an off-chain Trusted Compute capability thereby improving throughput and scalability.
- Support Attested Oracles.
These objectives are achieved by executing some parts of a blockchain transaction off the main chain in off-chain trusted computing. There are currently three types of Trusted Compute that are supported by this specification:
- Trusted Execution Environments (Hardware based)
- Zero-Knowledge Proofs (Software based)
- Trusted Multi-Party-Compute (MPC) (Software/Hardware based)
The APIs are grouped in registration, invocation and receipt handing sections. Attested Oracles are considered a special application of Trusted Compute used to create increased trust in an Oracle, and can be implemented using the defined APIs.
Article on EEA TCE
Blockchains can greatly enhance their capacity to meet enterprise requirements around privacy and scalability by using Chainlink oracles to route transactional computation off-chain to the Trusted Computation Framework (TCF).
advantages and limitations of public blockchains, as well as outline the TCF architecture and how attested oracles via Chainlink can enable bi-directional connectivity between on-chain and off-chain environments. To demonstrate how this system works, we detail three industry uses cases in finance, insurance, and global trade in which TCF, Chainlink, and underlying blockchains can work in unison to improve backend business processes and reduce costs for both enterprises and consumers.
Key Points on Ethereum Public Blockchains
- the infrastructure that powers multi-party transactional contracts. They offer a shared computational platform that stores, maintains, executes, and settles the contract for all parties involved. Participating parties can neither decommit from their obligations nor tamper with the process once the contract is set in motion on the blockchain
- No need to trust counterparty or trusted 3rd party
- Data-driven Contract deliverables can automatically be confirmed in many cases ( eg payment, shipments, receipts etc )
- Lower cost, friction, time to settle with smart contracts
- Better transparency and traceability ( provenance ) on origins ( eg Food Trust network tracks lots )
- KYC compliance possible with Self-Sovreign Identities and Zero-Trust Knowledge proofs on public chains where supported
Challenges to overcome on public blockchains
- Scalability ( to fit specific use cases )
- Privacy
- On-chain data scope
Off-chain data, privacy and execution needed to meet these challenges.
Integration with smart contracts needed via trusted agents or oracles.
Trusted agents option
- Trusted agent is invoked by client apps or services
- Agent executes in trusted environment and can access both off-chain data and services as well as on-chain contracts and data
- Agent executes at top level, invokes contract as a service passing required data to the contract including
Oracles option
Hyperledger Avalon - EEA TCF implementation
New Confidential Computing Solutions Emerge on the Hyperledger Avalon Trusted Compute Framework
https://www.hyperledger.org/use/avalon
Hyperledger Avalon is a ledger independent implementation of the Trusted Compute Specifications published by the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance. It aims to enable the secure movement of blockchain processing off the main chain to dedicated computing resources. Avalon is designed to help developers gain the benefits of computational trust and mitigate its drawbacks.
Avalon Notes gdoc
Avalon Overview lessons
Avalon extends computational trust to off-chain execution enabling.
- Improved blockchain throughput and scalability
- Improved transaction privacy
- Attested Oracles, trusted reporters of data generated outside of the blockchain.
https://lists.hyperledger.org/g/avalon/topic/71882826
There are a couple of key challenges with blockchain that probably don’t surprise any reader of this blog: scalability and confidentiality. One approach to both of these limitations is to perform some operations “off-chain.” In a traditional view of a blockchain, the data and validation logic for every transaction takes place on every node of the blockchain network or “on-chain.” It’s this redundancy and transparency that provides a network with its integrity but also comes at the cost of performance and confidentiality. By offloading some work, participants can trade off resiliency and integrity for performance and confidentiality. Of course, everyone wants to have their cake and eat it too, and so the use of the use of “trusted computing” is intended to maintain resiliency and integrity guarantees as much as possible while affording the additional performance and confidentiality. Trusted computing includes a variety of techniques to ensure that computation was done correctly and secretly. Hyperledger Avalon will realize these as different Worker types and include TEE (Trusted Execution Environments like Intel® SGX), MPC (multi-party compute), and ZK (zero-knowledge proofs).
For example, IBM prototyped this Hyperledger Fabric integration with Avalon [2 links: https://github.com/jeffgarratt/hyperledger-member-summit-2019-tcf-demo-app and https://github.com/jeffgarratt/fabric-prototype].
Avalon Architecture Overview
https://github.com/hyperledger/avalon/blob/main/docs/avalon-arch.pdf
Avalon Intro Video - 1 hr
Avalon project proposal
https://github.com/hyperledger/avalon
https://hyperledger.github.io/avalon/
Avalon Introductory Blog - 2019
https://www.hyperledger.org/blog/2019/10/03/introducing-hyperledger-avalon
ZeroMQ - the messaging framework for Avalon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZeroMQ
The ZeroMQ API provides sockets (a kind of generalization over the traditional IP and Unix domain sockets), each of which can represent a many-to-many connection between endpoints. Operating with a message-wise granularity, they require that a messaging pattern be used, and are particularly optimized for that kind of pattern.
The basic ZeroMQ patterns are:
Request–replyConnects a set of clients to a set of services. This is a remote procedure call and task distribution pattern.Publish–subscribeConnects a set of publishers to a set of subscribers. This is a data distribution pattern.Push–pull (pipeline)Connects nodes in a fan-out / fan-in pattern that can have multiple steps, and loops. This is a parallel task distribution and collection pattern.Exclusive pairConnects two sockets in an exclusive pair. (This is an advanced low-level pattern for specific use cases.)
Each pattern defines a particular network topology. Request-reply defines a so-called "service bus", publish-subscribe defines a "data distribution tree", and push-pull defines "parallelised pipeline". All the patterns are deliberately designed in such a way as to be infinitely scalable and thus usable on Internet scale.[2]
Any message through the socket is treated as an opaque blob of data. Delivery to a subscriber can be automatically filtered by the blob leading string. Available message transports include TCP, PGM (reliable multicast), inter-process communication (IPC) and inter-thread communication (ITC).
The ZeroMQ core library performs very well due to its internal threading model, and can outperform conventional TCP applications in terms of throughput by utilizing an automatic message batching technique.[3][4]
ZeroMQ implements ZMTP, the ZeroMQ Message Transfer Protocol.[5] ZMTP defines rules for backward interoperability, extensible security mechanisms, command and message framing, connection metadata, and other transport-level functionality. A growing number of projects implement ZMTP directly as an alternative to using the full ZeroMQ implementations.[6]
Avalon concepts
- Avalon does off-chain processing
- messages sent to smart contracts to record results
- messages sent to database network to record off-chain database
Avalon enables privacy in blockchain transactions, moving intensive processing from a main blockchain to improve scalability and latency, and to support attested oracles.
It is designed to help developers gain the benefits of computational trust and mitigate its drawbacks. In case of the Avalon a blockchain is used to enforce execution policies and ensure transaction auditability, while associated off-chain trusted compute resources execute transactions. By using trusted off-chain compute resources, a developer can accelerate throughput and improve data privacy.
Preservation of the integrity of execution and the enforcement of confidentiality guarantees come through the use of a Trusted Compute (TC) option, e.g. ZKP (Zero Knowledge Proof), MPC (Multi Party Compute), or HW based TEE (Trusted Execution Environment). While the approach will work with any TC option that guarantees integrity for code and integrity and confidentiality for data, our initial implementation uses Intel@ Software Guard Extensions (SGX). Avalon leverages the existence of a distributed ledger to:
Maintain a registry of the trusted workers (including their attestation info)
Provide a mechanism for submitting work orders from a client(s) to a worker
Preserve a log of work order receipts and acknowledgments
Avalon uses Off-Chain Trusted Compute Specification defined by Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) Trusted Compute Task Force as a starting point to apply a consistent and compatible approach to all supported blockchains.
Figure 1 System Overview
The figure above depicts an example of blockchain with N member enterprises. Each enterprise has Requesters, a blockchain node and one or more Trusted Workers (hosted by a Trusted Compute Service). Requesters submit Work Orders, and Workers execute these Work Orders. Work Order receipts can be recorded on the blockchain. While each of the enterprises in the figure above contains all three major components, this is not necessary. For example, Requesters from Enterprise 1 may send Work Orders to a Worker at Enterprise 2 and vice versa. Ultimately, an enterprise is free to host any combination of the three elements depicted on the figure above (blockchain node, Requester, off-chain Trusted Compute Service). Accessing resources across multiple enterprises increases network resilience, allows more efficient use of resources, and provides access to greater total capacity than most individual enterprises can afford.
Avalon Architecture
Trusted Compute Service (TCS) hosts trusted Workers and makes them available for execution of Work Orders (WO) submitted by Requesters via front end UI or command line tools. Work orders also can be submitted by (Enterprise app specific) smart contracts running on the DLT.
TCS APIs
TCS catalog lists available TCS and provides blockchain address and/or URI where about their corresponding Workers can be discovered
Worker registry that lists Trusted Compute Workers. It includes attestation verification report, public RSA encryption key, and public ECDSA SECP256K1 verification key
Work order processing API that allows submit Work Order requests and receive corresponding responses with data encrypted end-to-end between the Requester the Worker. Both the request and response may include multiple data items independently encrypted by different parties using different keys. The Requester may optionally sign its requests. Even if the Requester doesn’t sign the request (aka an anonymous request), there a mechanism enforcing Work Order request integrity. The enclave always signs its responses.
Work Order receipts API that can be used for payment processing, auditing, and dispute resolution. The receipts may be submitted and signed by the worker, Requester, or other participants (e.g. data owners). A work order may have zero, one, or more associated receipts
There are two models of operation:
- Proxy model, which relies on the smart contract (Ethereum or Sawtooth with Seth) or chaincode (Fabric) running on the DLT for managing all any subset APIs listed above
- DLT connector on the diagram above depicts components implementing interactions between the DLT and TCS.
- Pluggable connectors abstract DLT specific APIs from the rest of implementation. A single TCS may be connected to multiple DLTs concurrently (not shown on the diagram)
- Requester utilizes an Avalon proxy (aka on-chain) APIs running on the blockchain and implemented using the blockchain specific programming model, e.g. Solidity smart contracts on Ethereum or chaincode on Fabric.
- Direct model, which provides a JSON RPC API for any of the APIs listed above except for the TCS catalog.
- TCS listener on the diagram above depicts entry point for the direct model APIs.
Direct model was introduced as a complement to the proxy model to facilitate specific use cases that are hard to address relying on the proxy model alone, e.g. processing sensor high volume data streams (data filtering and pre-processing for IoT, supply chain), addressing regulation or enterprise policy requirements (e.g. even encrypted PII data cannot be shared outside of the organization managing PII), or aggregating (large volume of) worker receipts.
Avalon Execution Flow
Initially a TCS creates a new worker. During this process its attestation info is generated and published in the worker directory on the blockchain (or/and on an intermediately server). Details of the attestation info are defined in the following section “Worker Attestation Info.”
Later a requester searches the worker directory and finds the worker, verifies its attestation info, and stores this information for further use
During worker order invocation the requester create a worker request and, optionally, a corresponding work order receipt. During the work order execution stage, the TCS retrieves a work order and processes. After the work order is processed – during the stage processing work order response – the TCS puts the work order response on the blockchain and, optionally, updates the work order receipt.
Blockchain App Development Concepts 101 - slideshare - sweetbridge
https://www.slideshare.net/Synerzip/blockchain-application-development-101
blockchain-application-development-webinar-sweetbridge-190905082233.pdf
Potential Value Opportunities
Ethereum Market Trends - 2023 and beyond
Ethereum has struggled along with the wider crypto market since peaking in late 2021, with the collapse of the non-fungible token (NFTNFT 0.0%) market and the evaporation of interest in a decentralized internet built on the ethereum blockchain, known as web3, weighing on prices.
Crypto ?? as designed not going anywhere
DeFi ?? not going anywhere
Web3 ?? no big market
Future value for Ethereum growth areas:
regulated digital asset in regulated funds in traditional exchanges - value store
specific applications where tokens and digital payment forms make sense – value transfer
Ethereum updates 2022 - Gas down but high
- Ethereum new high speed test network starts March 1 2022
NFT sales on Ethereum increased by 36.06% in the last 24 hours, more than any other blockchain with at least US$100,000 in sales over the period.
According to JP Morgan, Ethereum is losing out to rivals like Solana in NFT sales due to exorbitant fees.
Ethereum’s average transaction fee is down to US$11, a near 80% discount from early January, but still expensive compared to Solana’s US$0.00025 average fees.
Learning basic Ethereum Blockchain
Joshua Ellul 09:44 AM
It depends. If you have programming experience, then I would say find tutorials online and just get your hands dirty. You can use remix.ethereum.org which is an easy to use IDE to start trying out some smart contracts. There are also other languages supported by different platforms, e.g. cosmos: golang; substrate/polkadot: Rust; Neo/stratis: .NET; Algorand: Python and many more
If you do not have programming experience, I would recommend starting a programming course in a language like Python.
Joshua Ellul 09:46 AM
I had also written aa tutorial, that I tried to make as easy as possible to follow:
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=2&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=3&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=7&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=9&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=10&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=12&t=1
http://blockchainthings.io/article.aspx?i=13&t=1
Joshua Ellul 09:49 AM
There are also some smart contract platforms that allow for them to be created using templates (e.g. a web based interface), and no-code platforms. As well as some that allow for natural language (English etc) definition of smart contracts
Joshua Ellul 09:53 AM
I haven’t tried this, but it may be something to look into: https://transientnetwork.io/
Potential Challenges
Ethereum has been slow to deliver, losing ground to other platforms
https://cryptopotato.com/ethereum-problems-hinder-its-leadership-defi-world-experts-say/
Faced with the difficulties of delivering a satisfactory user experience, Ethereum developers are beginning to move to rival blockchains that have capitalized on this app migration to expand their reach and increase their own market capitalization.
Blockchains like Solana, Binance Smart Chain, and Avalanche have seen a significant rise during 2021, cementing themselves as more efficient alternatives to Ethereum and its upgrade to Proof of Stake that is not quite there yet.
According to Nicholas Merten, creator of the YouTube channel DataDash, Ethereum’s advantage of being the blockchain used by all is losing ground as time goes on.
Candidate Solutions
Step-by-step guide for Example
sample code block