Alibaba Cloud has officially launched Blockchain as a Service (BaaS), which is an enterprise-level technology platform based on mainstream Blockchain technology. Hyperledger Fabric, a BaaS that is responsible for blockchain development, deployment, operation and management, provides a fast track for business blockchainization and can be used to implement blockchain applications across enterprises and regions.
Alibaba Cloud blockchain service is an enterprise-level PaaS platform based on mainstream open source Hyperledger Fabric and ant blockchain technology. Users can quickly build and run blockchain using Alibaba Cloud blockchain service, eliminating the heavy work burden of blockchain deployment, operation and management. At the same time, it focuses on core business innovation and realizes fast business upchain, which is used in scenarios such as commodity traceability, supply chain finance, data asset transaction, digital content copyright protection and so on.
Alibaba Cloud blockchain service module can be deployed in private cloud, public cloud and cross-enterprise hybrid cloud environment, supporting customized creation of private blockchain and alliance blockchain, and will provide blockchain related services to different types of blockchain participants, covering from the platform layer of open source technology to the support of the upper application layer.
Blockchain is a distributed shared ledger technology that uses smart contracts to automatically execute transactions. Participants on the chain agree on transactions through consensus algorithms. Transaction data is shared among business participants and the transaction history is guaranteed to be immutable.
Ali Cloud BaaS service has many outstanding advantages, including high availability/performance, open sharing, simplicity and existing basic capabilities of Ali Cloud, etc. Besides, it also boasts a lot of outstanding advantages, including outstanding security performance, which not only meets the national secret algorithm, but also the world’s first SGX chip-level security Fabric blockchain product. The BaaS solution, which applies to financial cloud computing, meets financial standards in terms of security compliance rooms, high-level security protection, high availability and multi-center DISASTER recovery, and secure and flexible network access. Virtual Alliance — BaaS is currently available nationwide, allowing user organisations to create coalitions in north, East or south China, depending on the situation. Alibaba Cloud BaaS supports Ant Blockchain — In addition to open source Hyperledger Fabric, Alibaba Cloud BaaS also supports Ant blockchain, which topped the 2017 Global Blockchain Enterprise Patent Rankings with 49 patents. And participated in the preparation of the National Blockchain and Distributed accounting Technology Standardization Technical Committee. Ant blockchain standard is enhanced in privacy protection, state secret support and other aspects, and provides financial high performance, high reliability and cross-chain compatibility.
Among them, it is worth mentioning that SGX chip level security is of great significance. Ali Cloud is the first public cloud vendor in Asia to support Intel SGX encryption computing. If users choose BaaS service based on elastic bare metal server (Citron), they can obtain the trusted execution environment on a chip (Intel SGX) to ensure that encrypted data can only be calculated in a secure and trusted environment. In addition to the chip-level hardware security, users can control the entire process of data encryption and key protection. In addition, BaaS service uses container technology to strengthen application security and resource isolation, and carries out double isolation protection at physical level and software application level.
In the enterprise scenario, blockchain is primarily used to build trusted business alliances across enterprises. In the blockchain system, the most critical thing is the protection of the key. If the key is leaked or stolen by attack, it will not only threaten the current enterprise, but even bring huge risks to the data and business security of the entire business alliance. Ali Cloud blockchain service is the world’s first in Hyperledger Fabric to achieve Intel SGX based on the chip level key protection function, the key generation, storage, use (such as signature) in the chip security structure, even if the hacker broke through numerous security protection to obtain the administrator authority of the host machine, There’s no way to steal the key. In addition, blockchain services also support state secret algorithms to meet the standardization requirements of national enterprises, public institutions and governments at all levels for information security.
As early as last September, Ali Cloud launched a container-based blockchain solution that allows users to build Hyperledger Fabric environments by mirroring. The solution is suitable for development testing and individual blockchain enthusiasts. Today’s BaaS tends to be a production deployment and is a highly effective tool for enterprises to carry out blockchain business innovation. It is reported that Ali Cloud blockchain solution has several enterprise users in Internet finance, industry and publishing industry.
In addition, the 2018 Global Blockchain Contest hosted by AliYun attracted more than 600 teams. The contest was aimed at blockchain technology geeks around the world, setting scenarios in multiple fields such as data asset business, supply chain finance, commodity/public welfare traceability and Fabric underlying technology. It has entered the semi-finals.
“This is the best time to be a developer. Open source technology, the Internet makes it easier to innovate. Based on the Internet, developers around the world can collaborate on innovation and interact directly with customers. And blockchain technology is the core technology driving the next generation of Internet transformation, from the information Internet to the value Internet.” “Cloud computing not only provides distributed computing, network connectivity, mass storage and elastic scaling support for blockchain applications, but also accelerates the development of blockchain ecology and value implementation,” said Yi Li, senior expert of Ali Cloud. Blockchain brings to cloud computing a new model of peer-to-peer business networks for enterprises to achieve autonomy, and it is an infrastructure that is recognized by all parties and trusted across enterprises. Cloud computing works well with blockchain to accelerate the development of ecology and technology value.”