Creating a channel

In order to create and transfer assets on a Hyperledger Fabric network, an organization needs to join a channel. Channels are a private layer of communication between specific organizations and are invisible to other members of the network. Each channel consists of a separate ledger that can only be read and written to by channel members, who are allowed to join their peers to the channel and receive new blocks of transactions from the ordering service. While the peers, ordering nodes, and Certificate Authorities form the physical infrastructure of the network, channels are the process by which organizations connect with each other and interact.

Because of the fundamental role that channels play in the operation and governance of Fabric, we provide a series of tutorials that cover different aspects of how channels are created. Fabric v2.3 introduces the capability to create a channel without requiring a system channel, removing an extra layer of administration from the process. The Create a channel tutorial introduces the new flow. If you don’t yet have a network and prefer to use the test network, see Create a channel using the test network. The legacy process for creating a channel based on a system channel continues to be supported and is described in the Fabric v2.2 Create a channel tutorial. Each tutorial describes the operational steps that need to be taken by a network administrator to create a channel. For a deeper dive, the Using configtx.yaml to build a channel configuration tutorial introduces the conceptual aspects of creating a channel, followed by a separate discussion of Channel policies.