Blockchain platforms can be public or private, depending on the need of the user. This article will provide you details about what a Private Blockchain is and the most used Private Blockchains in the market right now.
Enterprise or private Blockchains are invitation-only networks and a single organization governs them. Private Blockchain platforms let the network authority to place restrictions on the type and number of the members allowed on the network. This is to say, members with an identity can access a private network only. Every transaction made on the network is sent to and from a known member. Using a private Blockchain, any organization can hide certain data from some users and make it visible for others. This is the level of authority and security a Private Blockchain gives you! Law enforcement agencies and the military use Private Blockchains because of the reliability they offer.
Linux foundation hosts an open-source consortium, to facilitate cross-industry Blockchain technologies, named 'Hyperledger'. Hyperledger gives software developers and industries a platform to work in diverse communities. This lets them build Blockchain platforms and frameworks together, that support business transactions. Hyperledger is a global collaboration including leaders in finance, IoT, supply chains and technology. Hyperledger does not have its own cryptocurrency or token. But it sure has possibilities to build non-monetary, highly scalable, industrial decentralized applications. Hyperledger aims to educate the public about Blockchain technology by building communities within its community. It incubates a variety of industrial-scale Blockchain technologies, including smart contract engines, libraries, applications, and decentralized frameworks. Hyperledger Fabric is one of those projects.
IBM founded Hyperledger Fabric. It is an enterprise-grade, permissioned, decentralized ledger platform in the Hyperledger consortium. Fabric, just like most other Blockchain platforms, uses smart contracts and helps its members send assets and perform their transactions. But unlike the permissionless platforms, Hyperledger Fabric members are required to enroll in the network through a trusted Membership Service Provider (MSP). Also, in order to get on the ledger, the transactions have to pass a transaction endorsement policy. Then once they are on the network, every peer rechecks the transactions in his validation step. Businesses want some of their member data to be private and others to be public, they want to maintain different sort of relationships on one network, rather than an open permissionless network. Hyperledger Fabric offers a modular, safe and scalable platform that supports confidential contracts.
Some use case examples of Hyperledger Fabric:
Fabric is a secure, high performing, scalable Blockchain network. Go, JavaScript, or Java, SDKs in Node.js, Java, Go, REST and Python support Fabric. It uses 'Chaincode' as its smart contract. Chaincode is a software that defines assets and transactions. Hyeperledger Fabric uses Byzantine Fault Tolerance as it's consensus algorithm.
Hyperledger Sawtooth was an Intel initiative and now the Sawtooth community takes care of it. It is a highly flexible and modular enterprise Blockchain platform that helps developers to build, deploy and run distributed digital ledgers. Hyperledger Sawtooth supports permissionless and permissioned infrastructure. Sawtooth has an architecture that makes sure the ledgers are distributed and smart contracts on the network are safe and specifically for enterprise use. Using this architecture, developers can create decentralized applications in various programming languages that can be operated and deployed on the system. Sawtooth works on Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET) consensus algorithm that is run by a validator. PoET is a consensus algorithm that avoids high resources and energy consumption. This keeps the process more efficient. It has the Sawtooth Validator and a transaction processor for transactions. The validator of the process handles all the processes like validating the transactions and distributing the transaction to the peer nodes. Hyperledger Sawtooth performs parallel transaction execution that divides transactions into parallel flows, unlike the traditional serial execution.
Some use case examples of Hyperledger Sawtooth:
Sawtooth supports multiple languages, such as Rust, Python, Go, or JavaScript. It works on PoET that chooses validator by targetting largely distributed validator populations with very little resource utilization. Sawtooth supports unpluggable consensus, which means you can switch to different consensus algorithms according to your needs. And while changing, it won't start over with a new genesis block, or you won't have to stop the validators. This is Dynamic Consensus. Hence, Sawtooth supports multiple consensus algorithms, Devmode, PBFT, PoET, and Raft.
Developed by J.P. Morgan, Quorum is an open-source digital ledger platform that combines Ethereum attributes with almost the same architecture as of a permissionless platform, but with more enhancements and advancements to meet enterprise needs. It is more like a permissioned implementation of Ethereum with more confidentiality, transaction and contract privacy. Like every other private Blockchain platform, Quorum has strict privacy constraints that do not broadcast the transaction data to the whole network but rather sends it to the participants involved in the transaction. It can perform hundreds of transactions in a second and the speed of transactions can be configured according to smart contracts and the network configuration. Quorum works on multiple voting-based consensus algorithms, that have a smart contract to govern over the process and who can partake in the consensus. Ethereum's signature feature helps to validate signatures from the maker and voter nodes. Quorum was developed to make the financial industries adopt Blockchain technology in their processes. It manages its secure message transfers on a system called 'Constellation' that is not blockchain-specific but rather a general mechanism. It involves encryption of messages, storage of previous transactions, and authentications.
Some use case examples of Quorum:
Quorum has its own smart contract language, Solidity. It works with various consensus algorithms according to your needs. Options are RAFT, IBFT or Clique POA. Unlike the rest of private Blockchain platforms, Quorum has its token, 'Ether'. Quorum has a cloud feature cloud DRaaS that makes integration easier and more accessible for the end-user. It is a way to recover critical data from the cloud, directly after a system failure. You just have to boot up a snapshot and the recovery will happen in minutes instead of days.
Corda is an open-source, Distributed Ledger Technology founded by r3 in September 2015. Corda aims to make business transactions more efficient and secure. The Corda architecture is designed to automate the real-world transactions in a legal and secure way. Corda allows multiple decentralized applications to interoperate smoothly. A network authority identifies members of Corda DLT and allows them on the network. It provides open governance at it's best. Corda members can share data and assets with other members, and unlike in Bitcoin, where a copy of the transaction is sent to every node on the chain and added to a block, in Corda, the copy of the data is only sent to the members involved in the transaction. It is not added in a block. Hence, the data sent is secure as no one can make changes to it. And the transaction is more scalable and efficient than transactions in Bitcoin or Ethereum. Corda focused on financial organizations initially, but now it aims to focus on different sectors like government, healthcare, trade, and supply chain systems.
Some basic use case examples of R3 Corda can be:
R3 Corda works on pBFT consensus algorithm and has State DB as its smart contract. Corda supports Kotlin programming language.
Openchain is also an open-source DLT suited for organizations that want to secure and scale digital assets. It comes with an instant transaction confirmation property that makes it highly scalable. Each instance has one authority that validates transactions. Instances can connect to each other. Different authorities verify each transaction, depending on the assets exchanged. There is no mining fee in Openchain as there is no miner and the asset administrator directly validates the transactions. Openchain does not use the concept of blocks. But rather it connects the transactions into a chain. Validators on the network validate and store the digital transactions. The ones who are not part of the transaction, the observers, get a read-only copy of it to store. Anyone can join Openchain anonymously, as well as with identity, but the identified and approved users have more rights than the unknown users. An administrator can also define the rules of the ledger and can set permissions in the ledger at any stage. Openchain has an edge over other private Blockchain platforms, as it comes with a web wallet. The Openchain Wallet is an open-source web-based interface that runs in a browser as a client-side application. It can connect to one or many Openchain endpoints at the same time. It can pull and send transactions and information to multiple instances of Openchain.
Some use case examples of Openchain:
Openchain works on a client-server model which is way more efficient than a peer-to-peer system architecture. It regulates on Proof of Elapsed Time consensus algorithm.
Multichain technology is a platform where you can create private Blockchain platforms within an organization or between organizations for financial transactions. You can create assets, send and receive transactions, chains and blocks. Each Blockchain you create on Multichain is as open or as closed as you need. It enables multiple networks to execute on a single server, simultaneously. Multichain comes with an API and a command-line interface that helps in setting up the chain of network. Multichain is based on Bitcoin's Blockchain. But you must configure the Multichain at every node, unlike Bitcoin where anyone can join the network and make transactions. The process of hand-shaking occurs when the nodes connect with each other. Multichain allows customers the management of the privacy of the chain, permissions, the block target time, block size and metadata. In Multichain, transaction fees and block rewards are null by default, but they can be customized, members can also be charged a yearly fee.
Some use cases of Multichain:
Multichain comes with Native multi-currency support. It supports PHP, Python, C#, Ruby, JavaScript. It does not have its own cryptocurrency or smart contract.
If you need more guidance regarding choosing a platform, check our article The Best Blockchain For Your Business.
To learn more about the difference between private and public Blockchain platforms, click here.
Still unsure about which private blockchain platform to choose for your business needs? Talk to a Blockchain expert from Xord here and get FREE consultation.
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