Blockchain Consultants

Blockchain Transformations Done Here

storage

How NFTs, DeFi and Web 3.0 are intertwined

by

While blockchain itself provides the technology constructs to facilitate exchange, ownership and trust in the network, it is in the digitization of value elements where asset tokenization is essential. Tokenization is the process of converting the assets and rights to a property into a digital representation, or token, on a blockchain network. 

Distinguishing between cryptocurrency and tokenized assets is important in understanding exchange vehicles, valuation models and fungibility across the various value networks that are emerging and posing interoperability challenges. These are not just technical challenges, but also business challenges around equitable swaps.

Asset tokenization can lead to the creation of a business model that fuels fractional ownership, the ability to own an instance of a large asset. While discussing asset tokenization in a previous article, I also mentioned the value of an instance economy in democratizing finance, commerce and global access, as well as in creating a broader global marketplace at a scale never before seen.

With digital assets and their fungibility in a blockchain ecosystem, there are various drivers of valuation. These include: 1) tokens based on crypto economic models that are driven by supply and demand, and the utility of the network; 2) nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, which have an intrinsic value such as identification, diplomas and healthcare records — essentially, tokens that are simple proof validations of the existence, authenticity and ownership of digital assets; and 3) fungible tokens that are valued on various bases, such as the sum total of economic activity in the network (cryptocurrency), its utility (smart contracts and transaction network processing), assigned values (stable coins and security tokens), and so on.

In this article, I address the complex issue of the hyperbolic and rapid rise of NFTs, after a similarly meteoric rise of decentralized finance, or DeFi, creating amazing innovations — with immense promise of democratization, new business models and global marketplaces with global access — all fueled by the basic premise of decentralization and fundamental constructs of tokenization and wallets. While NFTs may be characterized as one-of-a-kind cryptographic tokens with some intrinsic value to a holder or to a market (art, collectibles), the NFT movement is indicative of a larger token revolution that will not only fuel massive innovation and growth in Web 3.0 protocols but also test the resolve of the DeFi movement, along with its ability to intersect and provide platforms and an exchange vehicle for all token types.

Growth in Web 3.0 protocols

The first two generations of web protocols were largely about disseminating information and connecting people. They fueled a massive growth in information and collaboration, and did wonders for connecting the world. However, those web protocols were never designed to move things of value. Also, as the Web 2.0 era reached its fullest potential, vulnerabilities such as “fake news” and the “batched relay” of the movement of assets via a series of intermediaries emerged. Threats to the commerce and financial infrastructure of the system risk destabilizing it.

Web 3.0 promises to safeguard all things we value: information, truth and digital assets — both fungible and nonfungible. Whereas Web 2.0 was driven by the advent of social, mobile and the cloud, Web 3.0 is largely built on three new layers of technological innovation: edge computing, decentralized data networks and artificial intelligence.

The growth of NFTs has not only empowered the ability for artists, skilled professionals and entrepreneurs to encapsulate innovation in a tokenized form but has also fueled the democratization of the platform as one of the promises of blockchain technology. The underlying infrastructure includes decentralized storage technologies, efficient consensus protocols, off-chain computing, and oracle networks to provide connectivity and validation to existing systems.

Collectively, the Web 3.0 set of technologies envisions a connected, trustless, accountable network for efficiently delivering value, thus crafting an infrastructure for things of worth. NFTs represent both transferable entities and nontransferable tokens that we value. The latter include things such as our identification, healthcare records and passports, things that represent us and allow us to participate in the digital economy with our own unique, digital identities.

As we dare to envision a shift toward a world with decentralized control, governance based on distributed technology that challenges every business model, and governance structure built upon centralized business frameworks, we do have to ponder some things. Not only the shift itself, but the motivation, incentive and monetization elements that fuel and power the economic infrastructure to move things that have value — thereby keeping up with our changing perception and subsequent realization of that value.

Intersecting with finance — DeFi

DeFi is the movement in the blockchain applications space that leverages decentralized network technology to disrupt and force a transformation of old financial products into trustless, transparent protocols, facilitating digital value creation and dissemination with few to no intermediaries. It is widely understood and accepted that — due to new synergies and co-creation via new digital interactions and value-exchange mechanisms — blockchain technology lays the foundation for a trusted digital transactional network that, as a disintermediated platform, fuels the growth of marketplaces and secondary markets.

While DeFi aims to deliver the promise of finance democratization, NFTs test the resolve of DeFi by delivering a competitive yet inclusive asset class, plus avenues to provide a medium of exchange, fungibility by other fungible asset classes, and liquidity to a traditionally illiquid market.

Asset classes resulting from DeFi protocols and NFTs avail themselves of the advantages of fractional ownership of the assets, blurring the lines between asset classes and using constructs like digital wallets as a receptacle for them. This is all supported by underlying layers of Web 3.0 that provide security and availability via decentralization, as well as trust and immutability via consensus, extending these principles to basic computer infrastructure like storage and interconnect.

Commercialization of Web 3.0 protocols, which manifest as fungible utility tokens, further blurs the lines with diverse financial innovation products introduced by DeFi (such as base assets and derivatives), products that are also tokenized. So, while decentralization is the underlying theme — and the wallet and the token are fundamental constructs — these blurring lines are quite profound.

This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Nitin Gaur is the founder and director of IBM Digital Asset Labs, where he devises industry standards and use cases and works toward making blockchain for the enterprise a reality. He previously served as chief technology officer of IBM World Wire and of IBM Mobile Payments and Enterprise Mobile Solutions, and he founded IBM Blockchain Labs where he led the effort in establishing the blockchain practice for the enterprise. Nitin is also an IBM Distinguished Engineer and an IBM Master Inventor with a rich patent portfolio. Additionally, he serves as research and portfolio manager for Portal Asset Management, a multi-manager fund specializing in digital assets and DeFi investment strategies.

How NFTs, DeFi and Web 3.0 are intertwined

Source

DeFi’s money markets are finally luring in institutional investors

by

Bitcoin’s bull run from last year has caused even some of its biggest skeptics to soften their stance. From economists to hedge fund managers, the world is opening itself up to technology, and at the center of this movement is decentralized finance, or DeFi. While the market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies has hit $2 trillion, worth as much as Apple, it’s the promise of DeFi — a small corner of the blockchain industry today — that’s grabbing the attention of institutional investors.

As Bitcoin’s (BTC) bullish trend persists, interest-bearing crypto products have become all the rage. Some services offer up to 8% returns on Bitcoin holdings. For investors who are already expecting a rise in value, this can be incredibly useful for maintaining cash flow without selling any assets.

The three main factors solidifying institutional interest in Bitcoin are the current historically low interest rates, the inflation rate and geopolitical instability. With near-zero interest rates expected for the foreseeable future, investors are gearing up to move their funds into alternative locations for securing wealth.

The United States Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target has incited concern in investors fearing devaluation, and with tensions between the U.S. and China on a precarious edge, portfolios denominated in U.S. dollars are becoming riskier by the day.

A market for money

Buying, storing and using cryptocurrencies securely is still quite a complex ordeal — far more involved than setting up a bank account. However, according to Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock — a global investment management fund with nearly $9 trillion in assets under management — Bitcoin could evolve into a global market asset and achieve new highs in the upcoming years.

In the traditional financial system, money markets are parts of the economy that issue short-term funds. They usually deal with loans for periods of a year or less, and offer services like borrowing and lending, buying and selling, with wholesale trading taking place over the counter. Money markets are composed of short-term, highly liquid assets and are part of the broader financial markets system.

Money markets are traditionally very complicated, with expensive overheads and hidden fees pushing most investors to hire a fund manager. However, their existence is paramount to operating a modern financial economy. They incentivize people to lend money in the short term and allocate capital toward productive use. This improves the overall market’s efficiency while helping financial institutions meet their goals. Basically, anyone with extra cash on hand can earn interest on deposits.

Money markets are composed of different kinds of securities, such as short-term treasuries, certificates of deposits, repurchase agreements and mutual funds, among others. These funds generally consist of shares that cost $1.

On the other hand, capital markets are dedicated to the trade of long-term debt and equity instruments, and point to the entire stock and bond market. Using a computer, anyone can purchase or sell assets in mere seconds, but companies issuing the stock do so to raise funds for more long-term operations. These stocks fluctuate, and unlike money market products, they have no expiration date.

Since money market investments are virtually risk-free, they often come with meager interest rates as well. This means that they will not produce huge gains or display substantial growth, compared with riskier assets like stocks and bonds.

DeFi vs. the world?

To hedge against currency risk, institutions have started using Bitcoin, and retail investors are following their lead. More than 60% of Bitcoin’s circulating supply hasn’t moved since 2018, and BTC is predicted to push well above $100,000 in the next 24 months.

If the current trend carries forward, investors will continue to stockpile BTC. However, while much of the supply of the world’s first cryptocurrency remains in storage, the DeFi industry is constantly producing alternative platforms for interest-bearing payments through smart contracts, which increases transparency by allowing investors to view and track on-chain funds.

The average return for DeFi products is also much higher than in traditional money markets, with some platforms even offering double-digit annual percentage yields on deposits. From asset management to auditing smart contracts, the DeFi space is creating decentralized infrastructure for scalable money markets.

According to Stani Kulechov, co-founder of the Aave DeFi protocol, rates are high during bull markets because the funds are used to leverage more capital, with the cost of margin pushing up the yield. “New innovation in DeFi is consuming more stablecoins, which further increases the yield. Unless there is a new capital injection — these rates might stick for a while,” he said.

The Ethereum network currently hosts most of the DeFi applications, and this has barred tokens that aren’t available on the network from participating in decentralized finance. Bitcoin, for example, despite being the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has only recently found its way onto DeFi platforms.

Related: DeFi yield farming, explained

With Kava’s Hard Protocol, investors can yield farm using Bitcoin and other non-ERC-20 tokens like XRP and Binance Coin (BNB). Backed by some prominent names (Ripple, Arrington XRP Capital and Digital Asset Capital Management, among others), the platforms allow users to stake their cryptocurrencies into a pool of assets, which is lent out to borrowers to generate interest.

The team also plans to add support for Ethereum-based tokens in the near future. The network’s upgrade to Kava 5.1, which was postponed to April 8 after failing to reach the required quorum, will also introduce the Hard Protocol V2, bringing powerful incentivization schemes and enhancements to its governance model.

Most loans in DeFi are overcollateralized, meaning the pool always has more money than it lends out. In case the value of the issued token drops, funds in the pool are liquidated to compensate.

According to Anton Bukov, co-founder of decentralized exchange aggregator 1inch, blockchains are the first-ever unbiased executors in human history — very limited, but ultimately fair — and could deliver new services and new flows of interactions in future. “Developers are doing their best to solve potential dishonesty issues of existing flows and invent new flows by replacing intermediaries,” he said.

By creating an automated platform to borrow and lend assets, decentralized finance enables money markets without intermediaries, custodians or the high fees that stem from high infrastructural costs.

Honest work

Of the many trends DeFi has set into motion over the last few years, yield farming has attracted quite a lot of attention. Yield farming is when the network rewards liquidity providers with tokens that can be further invested into other platforms to generate more liquidity tokens.

Simple in concept, yield farmers are some of the most vigilant traders out there, constantly switching up their strategies to maximize their yield and tracking rates across all platforms to ensure they’re getting the sweetest deal. The potential rate of return can become obscenely high, but it’s still unclear whether yield farming is just a fad or a phenomenon in the making. Kulechov added:

“Yield farming is simply a way to distribute governance power to users and stakeholders. What actually matters is whether the product itself would find protocol market/fit. Most successful governance power distributions with yield farming have been with protocols that have found protocol market/fit before such programs.”

Yield farming has an incredibly positive feedback loop, with an increase in participation pushing the value of its governance token up, driving further growth. According to Kava CEO Brian Kerr, while this feedback loop can produce very positive results in bull markets, it can have entirely the opposite effects in falling markets:

“It will be up to the governance groups of the various projects to navigate bear markets effectively, by ratcheting back rewards before a full-on death spiral occurs. Regardless of bull or bear markets, yield farming will be a mainstay in blockchain projects for years to come.”

Money markets are the pillars of our global financial system, but most of its transactions occur between financial institutions like banks and other companies in time deposit markets. However, some of these transactions do find their way to consumers through money market mutual funds and other investment vehicles.

Decentralization is the next frontier for finance, and as prominent investors continue to engage with the DeFi space, a decentralized economy seems all but inevitable. Participating in the burgeoning environment may be a risky bet today, but what decentralized finance platforms learn now will be the foundation of the robust DeFi applications of the future. According to Bukov, the higher interest rates of DeFi platforms are “absolutely sustainable.” He added:

“Higher profits are usually involved with higher risks. So the risk-profit model of all these opportunities is always nearly balanced. Normalizing risks would decrease profits because more participants will join to share the rewards.”

From smart contract malfunctions to the unauthorized withdrawal of community funds, the DeFi space is a place of both miracles and nightmares. DeFi-based yield farming platforms are still in their very early stages, and while the numbers can be all too tempting at times, it’s crucial to do your own research before investing in any platform or asset.

DeFi’s money markets are finally luring in institutional investors

Source

VORTECS Report: Storage coins rev up gains as Markets Pro rides the green wave

by

It’s been another great week for altcoins as the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies moves within spitting distance of the $2 trillion mark.

And it’s been equally positive for the Cointelegraph Markets Pro platform, which tracks crypto market conditions and real-time headline news in the blockchain industry to deliver market intelligence for every investor.

Markets Pro offers two unique features: The VORTECS™ Score, an algorithmically-derived weighted score that compares current market conditions to historically-similar marketscapes, and NewsQuakes™ — the industry’s most rapid aggregator of market-moving news, analyzed and collated from over a thousand primary sources every minute.

In this weekly report we analyze the most important highlights from the week’s events on Markets Pro.

Top VORTECS™ Score gains this week

Between March 26 and April 1, the three best-performing assets identified by Cointelegraph Markets Pro were Storj (+121%), Filecoin (+115%), and Holochain (+111%). All three rode green waves powered by patterns of trading and social activity that the VORTECS™ model has seen before — as described in our description of how the algorithm works.

Analyzing STORJ

As the graph above demonstrates, the cloud storage token STORJ recorded a streak of high VORTECS™ scores, marked by the first red circle, roughly 60 hours before the price spike on April 1 (first and second red boxes).

This price increase could also be explained by the effect of Storj-USDT margin swaps being listed on Huobi Futures the same day, an announcement captured in a NewsQuake™. Those using Markets Pro intelligence in their market research had the advantage of this powerful dual-validation pointing to both historically auspicious market conditions and favorable news around the asset following its recent listing on Coinbase.

Analyzing Filecoin (FIL) and Holochain (HOT)

Indeed, this has been a good week for storage coins. The second-best performer, Filecoin, pulled off a rally that saw it appreciate from around $125 to $233 in two days.

As seen in the graph above, some 24 hours before the price took off Filecoin’s VORTECS™ Score ventured into the 80+ territory for a few hours, marked by the red circle.

The rise of another big winner of the week, Holochain (seen below), also unfolded following a sequence of strong VORTECS™ scores, ranging from high 60s to high 70s, with a peak of 82 (red circle in the graph) coming around 50 hours before the asset began its ascent from $0.010 to $0.019.

Understanding VORTECS™: The relationship between the score and Newsquakes™

Some users wondered whether NewsQuakes™ are a constituent part of the VORTECS™ score. The short answer is no. These are two completely different functionalities within Markets Pro that can complement each other but can also be used separately.

In fact, some of the NewsQuakes™ feature assets for which the score is not yet generated: One example is this week’s announcement of a partnership between DAFI and DIA saw the latter asset, not yet indexed by the VORTECS™ model, appreciate by almost 22%.

That said, oftentimes the two work in conjunction. The example of Filecoin already mentioned above showcases how a high VORTECS™ score and a subsequent NewsQuake™ can be used to boost users’ confidence that the conditions for a coin are favorable.

In other cases, a positive VORTECS™ score can follow the news: Once a favorable announcement is absorbed by market participants, trading and social conditions can align into a pattern that the model identifies as bullish. And sometimes, the two can be completely unrelated.

Analyzing 0x (ZRX)

The graph above shows the price of 0x starting to climb steadily after the news of the asset’s listing on OKEx went public — all while the VORTECS™ score remained neutral.

Testing results: Week’s top strategies

This week, 17 of the 42 VORTECS™ strategies currently tested outperformed both Bitcoin and an evenly weighted portfolio of all the top 100 altcoins. Of those strategies, 8 were score-based (Buy at VORTECS™ X  / Sell at VORTECS™ Y) and 9 were time-based (Buy at VORTECS™ X / Sell after Y hours).

The table below contains information on ROI that the top-5 strategies of the week have generated up to April 1st 2021. For more context, you can also see these strategies’ monthly and all-time returns (tracked since January 5th 2021). 

These strategies are designed to represent benchmarks for the VORTECS™ model’s aggregate performance. To discover how these tests are performed, consult the methodology help file.

Testing results: All-time leaders

The table below presents three best all-time strategies in each category (score-based and time-based) and their performance this week. As the table demonstrates, strategies that do well in the long run can have a downward blip in any given week: Buy at 90 / Sell after 168 hours is a particularly conspicuous example this time. At the same time, two of the all-time best have also had a solid showing this week.

New alerts system

A total of 107 VORTECS™ hit Markets Pro users this week, featuring 27 different coins.

One of the most frequent requests we’ve been getting from the community is to enable notifications at different levels of the VORTECS™ score. There are now 12 dedicated Discord channels designed to alert subscribers when an asset goes above or below a specific threshold.

Powerful NewsQuakes™

A total of 86 NewsQuake™ notifications went out to the Cointelegraph Markets Pro community this week, including 44 exchange listings, 25 partnerships, and 17 staking announcements.

Markets Pro also tracks the most consequential news identified by NewsQuakes™ and the price action of various crypto assets following the headline. This week the most consequential news items were followed by significant price gains over the course of the week:

· Storj listing on Coinbase: +161% peak return

· Ankr Network listing on Coinbase: +109% peak return

· Filecoin’s partnership with Chainlink: +48% peak return

Cointelegraph Markets Pro is available exclusively to subscribers on a monthly basis at $99 per month, or annually with two free months included. It carries a 14-day money-back policy to ensure that it fits the crypto trading and investing research needs of subscribers, and members can cancel anytime.

Important disclaimer

Cointelegraph is a publisher of financial information, not an investment adviser. We do not provide personalized or individualized investment advice. Cryptocurrencies are volatile investments and carry significant risk including the risk of permanent and total loss. Past performance is not indicative of future results. Figures and charts are correct at the time of writing. Consult your financial advisor before making financial decisions. Full terms and conditions.

VORTECS Report: Storage coins rev up gains as Markets Pro rides the green wave

Source

Crypto-collateralized loans may soon bring new investors to space

by

Institutional investors will soon be able to receive Bitcoin-collateralized U.S. dollar loans through Silvergate Capital Corporation — the holding company of pro-crypto institution, Silvergate Bank.

According to an announcement from Silvergate, Coinbase Custody will be the custodian for loans funded through the bank’s Silvergate Exchange Network, or SEN. The network will provide access to capital through U.S. dollar loans collateralized by Bitcoin (BTC) while Coinbase holds the crypto in cold storage.

“Traditional lending services generally do not exist in the digital currency industry, which means there aren’t many lenders for investors to choose from,” said Jon Melton, Silvergate director of digital asset lending. “Our relationship with Coinbase Custody offers institutional investors increased access to capital efficiency so they can take advantage of market opportunities in the digital currency industry.”

Silvergate will offer loans starting at $5 million with an initial 12-month term. Such loans could augment or replace traditional funding rounds for firms looking to enter the crypto space.

Since first announcing it would explore offering crypto-collateralized loans in 2019, Silvergate’s annual revenue has more than tripled, from $30 million to $91.5 million. The bank said at the time that its clients had significant interest for Silvergate “to be involved in the custody and transfer of digital assets between customers.”

In the fourth quarter of 2020, CEO Alan Lane said the bank would be expecting “increased demand” for these loans in 2021. Though the number of digital currency deposits grew by $2.9 billion over the same period, the price of Silvergate Capital Corporation stock has been volatile in the first quarter of 2021, reaching an all-time high of $176.27 on Feb. 16 but falling 40% within three weeks. At the time of publication, NYSE:SI is valued at $148.90.

Crypto-collateralized loans may soon bring new investors to space

Source

The Role of Blockchain in Vaccine Shipments

by

The Role of Blockchain in Vaccine Shipments

If you are interested in learning about how Blockchain can help in monitoring the COVID-19 vaccine supply chain, we have got you covered. 

Table of Contents 

  • Overview 
  • Using Blockchain to Monitor COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Chain
  • Concluding Lines 

Overview 

Ever since the pandemic hit the global world, everyone all around the world has been eyeing a vaccine that will combat the virus and will bring their life back to routine. The demand for the vaccine has demanded Blockchain technology to enter into this domain and provide undeniable benefits. 

Headlines itself reveals that in recent months, many hospitals have reported that they are leveraging Blockchain to track COVID-19 vaccines. 

Since Blockchain is a decentralized distributed ledger technology, it ensures that it is not owned by anyone and immutable in nature, making it a perfect infrastructure for the supply chain management. 

Want to know more about Blockchain and its use-cases in the supply chain domain? Wait no more! Become a Certified Blockchain and Supply Chain Professional now!

Using Blockchain to Monitor COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Chain

The incorporation of the Blockchain in the supply chain of the COVID-19 vaccine ensures that transparency of standards followed at each step is clear by generating an identical copy of the ledger at each node of the network. Since Blockchain is a decentralized technology, the network’s database is public and managed by all participants, giving each stage a transparent view and a better insight. 

Helps Manufacturers and Distributors 

It enables manufacturers to track whether shipments are delivered on time to their destinations or not and help distributors to know and notify if things go wrong anywhere during the supply chain journey. 

MobiHealthNews talked with Mark Treshock, a global blockchain solutions leader for healthcare and life sciences at IBM, where Treshock mentioned that Blockchain has the potential to track the vaccines and make sure they haven’t been compromised.  

Hospitals to Manage Their Records Efficiently

Apart from manufacturers and distributors, Blockchain can help hospitals as well. By leveraging Blockchain, hospitals could manage their stocks more efficiently, mitigating supply and demand restrictions. Also, hospitals can get guarantees concerning vaccine authenticity and proper storage conditions. 

Blockchain ensures that all vaccines arrive at their destination safely and all relevant information about the vaccines’ integrity is intact and reliable. 

As the demand for vaccines is increasing exponentially, it is believed that logistics companies may need to prove that the legitimacy of doses and guarantee that the vaccine was transported under prescribed conditions. 

Want to know more about how Blockchain helps the healthcare domain? Get enrolled in Blockchain Council and become a Certified Blockchain and Healthcare Professional now! 

Patients to Keep Track of Vaccine Records 

An insecure and opaque supply chain can lead to security vulnerabilities and the creation of the possibility of counterfeit drugs from stolen records, giving patients a serious health danger. Blockchain not only improves the supply chain but only helps patients to keep track of their vaccine records and provide proof of vaccination for travel purposes. 

Blockchain-based immunity passports(risk certificates) that link the individual’s identity with their Covid-19 test status help individuals guarantee that they are immune now and cannot get infected again. 

Treshock also mentioned that with Blockchain, the vaccine dose can be tracked, and records of their dose can be traced. Having a record of which batch of the vaccine the patient took can help recall situations. 

Concluding Lines 

People all around the globe have started realizing the potential benefits of Blockchain technology. In the month of January 2021, it was announced that two British hospitals in Central Englands’ Stratford-upon-Avon and Warwick are employing Blockchain to keep checks on the storage and supply of temperature-sensitive COVID-19 vaccines. 

The bottom line is that it will be a wise option for logistics companies to adopt Blockchain to manage their supply chains efficiently. While it is still unclear how long it will take until the vaccines are available to each one of us, it is almost certain that their supply chain must be closely monitored, which can be efficiently done by Blockchain technology.

Blockchain technology has the power to bring about a major breakthrough in the healthcare industry. If you are interested in learning more about how this technology can revamp the healthcare domain, enroll in a Blockchain Specialization course and become a Certified Blockchain and Healthcare Professional today!

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.  

The Role of Blockchain in Vaccine Shipments

Source

A Comprehensive Guide on Amazon Managed Blockchain

by

A Comprehensive Guide on Amazon Managed Blockchain

This article provides a comprehensive guide on what Amazon Managed Blockchain is, explaining its benefits and AWS availability of Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain.

Table of Contents 

  • What is Amazon Managed Blockchain?
  • Benefits of Amazon Managed Blockchain
  • AWS Availability of Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain
  • Concluding Lines 

What is Amazon Managed Blockchain?

For all Blockchain beginners, Blockchain is a peer-to-peer(P2P) decentralized distributed ledger technology that records transactions in an immutable manner. Technology allows developers to build applications where various parties can carry out transactions in parallel without relying on a central authority.

Although this might sound fascinating, it is important to note that Blockchain’s scalability still remains one of the prime issues. In fact, building a scalable blockchain with existing technologies is a complex task.

Managed Blockchain is a completely managed service that empowers users to join public networks and maintain and manage scalable private networks with just a few clicks. Instead of manually installing software, creating and managing certificates for access control, and configuring networking components, continuously monitor the infrastructure, and adapt changes when required, one can rely on Amazon Managed Blockchain as it makes it easy to maintain your Blockchain network. 

The significant benefit of this Blockchain is that it eradicates the overhead that is required to create the network, and, most importantly, it automatically scales in order to meet the requirements of thousands of applications performing millions of transactions. 

Are you looking for futuristic career opportunities in the Blockchain space? Get started today with the best Blockchain Certification courses. 

Benefits of Amazon Managed Blockchain

Let’s have a quick look at the advantages of Amazon Managed Blockchain.

Fully managed

Amazon Managed Blockchain assists in the creation of blockchain networks spanning several AWS accounts, allowing a group of people to perform transactions and exchange data without the need for a central authority. It also removes the need for manual provisioning of hardware, device setup, and networking and security configuration.

Offers two Different Blockchain Platforms

Initially, Managed Blockchain supported only Hyperledger Fabric, but now customers can choose either Hyperledger Fabric or Ethereum, depending on their needs.  

Scalable

This particular Blockchain has the potential to scale your blockchain network depending on the usage of applications on the network. This Blockchain has the ability to scale your blockchain network based  It means that if a network user requires additional capacity for making and validating transactions, he can instantly use Managed Blockchain’s APIs to add a new peer node. 

Reliability

Managed Blockchain aims to improve the reliability of the ordering service, which is a component in the Hyperledger Fabric that ensures delivery of transactions, although it’s difficult to keep track and recover the entire transaction history. Managed Blockchain’s ordering service is built using special Amazon QLDB technology and has an immutable change log, which guarantees that the data is durably saved.

AWS Availability of Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain

Initially, in 2019, Amazon announced the general availability of its fully managed blockchain service, and after two years, recently in March 2021, Amazon announced its extended services, mentioning its general availability of Ethereum on Amazon Managed Blockchain. Thus, with this announcement, Amazon Managed Blockchain presents the selection of two different blockchain platforms including, Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. 

Let’s talk a little bit about Etherum and Hyperledger Fabric here. 

Hyperledger Fabric is an open-source enterprise-grade permissioned DLT platform that is known to provide modularity and versatility for a broad set of industry use cases, including banking, insurance, healthcare, supply chain, human resources, etc. It is well suited for applications with rigorous privacy and access control. 

Talking about Ethereum, it is an open-source platform for decentralized applications and is better suited for highly distributed networks where data transparency is critical. It enables a successful use case, and that is decentralized finance (DeFi) that is gaining a lot of momentum and showing no sign of slowing down. 

But when it comes to operating and managing Ethereum infrastructure, its not easy as there are various concerns, including data reliability, data storage scaling problems, and time-sensitive Ethereum software upgrades.

Now that Amazon has made Ethereum on Managed Blockchain generally available, consumers of AWS can easily provision Ethereum nodes and link to the public Ethereum main network and test networks such as Rinkeby and Ropsten.

Amazon Managed Blockchain helps customers in a number of ways. For instance, they can get:

  • secure and reliable networking 
  • reliable access to the network via standard open-source Ethereum APIs
  • reliable synchronizations to the Ethereum 
  • durable and flexible storage for data. 

Developers building smart contract monitoring tools and fraud detection apps can now reap the benefits from fully managed Ethereum service on Amazon Managed Blockchain. According to Amazon, Ethereum nodes are fully integrated with the AWS management console, which permits the creation or deletion of a node and regains information about running nodes. 

It was explained by Amazon that,

“Ethereum on Managed Blockchain only supports the eth_sendRawTransaction method, which demands that you create and sign the transaction before sending it to the node. Managed Blockchain does not have any way to sign transactions similar to an Ethereum wallet application.”

Concluding Lines 

This has led us to the end of our discussion. Hope you have gained a clear understanding of Amazon Managed Blockchain. 

If the Blockchain domain interests you, you can get enrolled in Blockchain Council and become a Certified Blockchain Expert. 

To get instant updates about Blockchain Technology and to learn more about online Blockchain Certifications, check out Blockchain Council.

A Comprehensive Guide on Amazon Managed Blockchain

Source