Hyperledger Fabric Functionalities

Hyperledger Fabric is an implementation of distributed ledger technology (DLT) that delivers enterprise-ready network security, scalability, confidentiality and performance, in a modular blockchain architecture. Hyperledger Fabric delivers the following blockchain network functionalities:

Identity management

To enable permissioned networks, Hyperledger Fabric provides a membership identity service that manages user IDs and authenticates all participants on the network. Access control lists can be used to provide additional layers of permission through authorization of specific network operations. For example, a specific user ID could be permitted to invoke a chaincode application, but be blocked from deploying new chaincode.

Privacy and confidentiality

Hyperledger Fabric enables competing business interests, and any groups that require private, confidential transactions, to coexist on the same permissioned network. Private channels are restricted messaging paths that can be used to provide transaction privacy and confidentiality for specific subsets of network members. All data, including transaction, member and channel information, on a channel are invisible and inaccessible to any network members not explicitly granted access to that channel.

Efficient processing

Hyperledger Fabric assigns network roles by node type. To provide concurrency and parallelism to the network, transaction execution is separated from transaction ordering and commitment. Executing transactions prior to ordering them enables each peer node to process multiple transactions simultaneously. This concurrent execution increases processing efficiency on each peer and accelerates delivery of transactions to the ordering service.

In addition to enabling parallel processing, the division of labor unburdens ordering nodes from the demands of transaction execution and ledger maintenance, while peer nodes are freed from ordering (consensus) workloads. This bifurcation of roles also limits the processing required for authorization and authentication; all peer nodes do not have to trust all ordering nodes, and vice versa, so processes on one can run independently of verification by the other.

Chaincode functionality

Chaincode applications encode logic that is invoked by specific types of transactions on the channel. Chaincode that defines parameters for a change of asset ownership, for example, ensures that all transactions that transfer ownership are subject to the same rules and requirements. System chaincode is distinguished as chaincode that defines operating parameters for the entire channel. Lifecycle and configuration system chaincode defines the rules for the channel; endorsement and validation system chaincode defines the requirements for endorsing and validating transactions.

Modular design

Hyperledger Fabric implements a modular architecture to provide functional choice to network designers. Specific algorithms for identity, ordering (consensus) and encryption, for example, can be plugged in to any Hyperledger Fabric network. The result is a universal blockchain architecture that any industry or public domain can adopt, with the assurance that its networks will be interoperable across market, regulatory and geographic boundaries.