Your guide to Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon QLDB breakouts, workshops, and chalk talks at AWS re:Invent 2019

AWS re:Invent 2019 is almost here. This post includes a complete list of Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) breakouts, workshops, and chalk talks taking place at AWS re:Invent 2019. This year we have 22 total sessions on Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon QLDB including 7 breakouts, 5 chalk talks, 6 builders sessions, and 4 workshops. Session details and links to register can be found below, make sure to sign up for reserved seating to book a spot!

Why should you consider attending this track?

• Learn about enterprise use cases of blockchain and ledger technology with customers like BMW, DVLA, Nestle, Jinju Beer, Sony Music Entertainment Japan, Sage, Workday, and many others.
• Hear about the innovation and feature details behind Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon QLDB, directly from our product and engineering teams.
• Get hands-on experiences and build sample applications with our experts.

Breakouts

BLC203 – Why you need a ledger database: BMW, DVLA, and Sage discuss their use cases

Why do you need an immutable ledger database? In this session, we dive into the problems that Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) can solve, and we answer your questions about when and why you would use a ledger database. Customers such as BMW, the UK government organization Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, and Sage share their use cases for maintaining data integrity with Amazon QLDB.

DAT380 – Amazon QLDB: An engineer’s deep dive on why this is a game changer

Why did we build Amazon QLDB to be a first-of-its-kind immutable and verifiable ledger database? In this session, join Andrew Certain, AWS senior principal engineer, as he discusses Amazon QLDB’s unique journal-first architecture along with its various innovations. Topics include cryptographic hashing, Merkle trees, Multi-AZ availability, PartiQL support, and much more. Also included is a special focus on how we brought the data integrity benefits of blockchain into a SQL-compatible database.

BLC204 – Enterprise solutions with blockchain: Use cases from Nestlé, Sony Music, and Workday

Blockchain technology is evolving rapidly. Are you ready to take advantage of blockchain for enterprise? In this session, learn about the benefits of blockchain and its use cases for enterprise. You also get to hear directly from Jonathan Fritz, head of Amazon Managed Blockchain, and from such customers as Nestlé, Sony Music Entertainment Japan, and Workday.

BLC301 – Dive deep into Managed Blockchain

Building enterprise blockchain applications on your own infrastructure is often expensive, complicated, and time-consuming. Amazon Managed Blockchain makes it easy to build scalable blockchain applications by eliminating the need to set up and manage infrastructure, allowing you to focus on writing applications for your business. In this technical session, you get an in-depth look at Managed Blockchain’s features, APIs, the Hyperledger Fabric SDK, and how to add new members and join fabric channels. We also show how to build an application on Managed Blockchain with the help of demo applications and sample code.

Note, this session will be repeated. Link for Repeat Session Code

GPSTEC339 – Integrate Managed Blockchain & Amazon QLDB in your solutions portfolio

Although this Global Partner Summit session is open to anyone, it is geared toward current and potential AWS Partner Network (APN) Partners. Blockchain technology is evolving rapidly. In this session, learn the differences between blockchain and ledger technologies and get introduced to Amazon Managed Blockchain and Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB). Along the way, we show how to easily build and manage scalable blockchain networks with Managed Blockchain on AWS and create new ledgers with Amazon QLDB. Our goal is for Consulting and Technology APN Partner attendees to walk away from this session with a working knowledge of how to leverage blockchain and ledger technologies to bring efficiency, security, and auditability to their digital transformation projects.

OPN217 – Enterprise blockchain: AWS’s open-source approach

Blockchain technology is evolving rapidly and organizations are experimenting with this technology across many use cases, including streamlining financial transactions, supply chain transparency, and healthcare data management. In this session, Hyperledger Foundation’s Brian Behlendorf joins AWS’ Tamara Dull to explore how three popular open source blockchain frameworks – Hyperledger Fabric, Hyperledger Sawtooth, and Ethereum – contrast/compare and how they are being used to address our customers’ blockchain needs.

WPS202 – Blockchain for science and research

Blockchain in science is a new data-handling paradigm that offers data privacy and a reward system associated with a blockchain network. In this session, we introduce AWS blockchain technologies and their use across various domains. Learn how blockchain technology can provide an encrypted reward system that is vital for security and transaction integrity.

Workshops

BLC201 – Building your first blockchain application with Managed Blockchain

Learn how to set up a blockchain network and deploy your first application using Amazon Managed Blockchain. In this hands-on workshop, we show you how to build a blockchain network for a nonprofit organization to allow it to distribute funds without an intermediary, ensuring immutable transactions and full transparency to donors. Using Hyperledger Fabric on Managed Blockchain, you then create a peer node and connect it to the nonprofit blockchain network. In this example, donors register their profiles, review the causes the nonprofit supports, and donate funds. Using smart contracts, the nonprofit distributes the funds, and the network tracks how each donation is allocated.

BLC202 – Amazon QLDB fundamentals

In this workshop, learn how to use the features and core functionality of Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB), including writing queries to track your data’s complete history, cryptographically verifying documents, and designing a data model. You also learn about the new open-source PartiQL and the Amazon Ion format. No prior experience required.

BLC302 – Build an interbank asset-transfer application with blockchain

Blockchain networks afford us the ability to build decentralized applications that can be cheaper, faster, and more trustworthy than traditional centralized architectures. Amazon Managed Blockchain allows us to deploy managed, scalable Hyperledger Fabric networks that can help foster decentralized applications from experimentation to production. In this workshop, we create our own banks and build a consortium to provide interbank transfers and other services in a decentralized fashion. We explore the concepts behind blockchain and examine the features that you can leverage to build effective decentralized applications.

DAT352 – Building applications on Amazon QLDB

In this workshop, you build and review a sample Java application leveraging Amazon QLDB. You also learn how to use the different Amazon QLDB APIs and features, including learning how to write, query, and verify documents. Finally, we cover best practices for using this service. For this session, experience with Java is recommended but not required.

Chalk talks

BLC205 – Using Amazon QLDB as a system of record

Data is a strategic asset for organizations. However, as customer data is increasingly getting dispersed across cloud and enterprise applications, the need for a trusted system of record is becoming paramount. In this chalk talk, we show you how to take advantage of Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) to build system-of-record applications.

BLC206 – Smart supply chain management systems based on blockchain, IoT & AI

A variety of business use cases based on blockchain are being showcased on top of cryptocurrency. Particularly, blockchain is used for supply chain management (SCM) in Retail, CPG, Manufacturing, and more. Retail food companies run improved SCM based on Amazon Managed Blockchain. In this session, we talk about the background of service adoption from a customer business perspective and its reference architecture, which consists of not only Amazon Managed Blockchain but also other services like AWS Lambda, AWS IoT core, and more. We also discuss the future of SCM, leveraging AI, IoT, and automation-related services.

BLC207 – Trade finance goes high tech using Amazon Managed Blockchain

Buyers and sellers around the world conduct complex trades with each other using a contract mechanism called letter of credit. This process requires cooperation not just between buyer and seller but also banks and third parties. Learn how Amazon Managed Blockchain allows our customers to focus on improving these complex distributed transactions while spending less time on the complexity of the blockchain network itself.

BLC209 – Asset provenance ledger system based on Amazon QLDB: BMW’s use case

A variety of business use cases based on blockchain technology have emerged. In this chalk talk, BMW showcases its use case and reference architecture on asset provenance. BMW discusses how it uses Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB) to maintain a transparent and immutable history of vehicle data such as owners, maintenance records, and vehicle history. We also discuss the future of blockchain technology in the automobile industry.

DAT375 – How to make your data history immutable and verifiable

Maintaining the integrity of data is top of mind for customers. In this chalk talk, we provide an overview of how Amazon QLDB is purpose-built to help address your data integrity needs. We also explain the architecture of the Amazon QLDB journal and how you can best use it in your applications.

Builders sessions

BLC208 – Build your first blockchain network and invite members

Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that makes it easy to create and manage scalable blockchain networks using the popular open-source framework Hyperledger Fabric. In this builders session, build your first Hyperledger Fabric Network and invite members. Please bring your laptop.

BLC303 – Gain operational understanding of your blockchain application

Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that makes it easy to create and manage scalable blockchain networks using the popular open-source framework Hyperledger Fabric. In this builders session, learn how to use Amazon CloudWatch metrics and Amazon CloudWatch Logs to gain a better understanding of your blockchain application. Please bring your laptop.

DAT351 – Demo: Building a DMV application with Amazon QLDB

Amazon QLDB is a new class of purpose-built ledger database. Join us for this session, and learn how to use Amazon QLDB to build a sample system-of-record DMV application. Please bring your laptop.

DAT378 – Demo: Common PartiQL operations in Amazon QLDB

Amazon QLDB is a new class of purpose-built ledger database that leverages PartiQL, a new, open-source, SQL-compatible query language. With PartiQL, you can easily query, manage, and update your Amazon QLDB data with SQL operators. In this session, learn how to use common PartiQL operations to operate Amazon QLDB. Please bring your laptop.

DAT379 – Demo: Verify the integrity of your application’s data with Amazon QLDB

Amazon QLDB is a new class of purpose-built ledger database. With it, you can trust that the history of changes to your application data is accurate. It uses a cryptographic hash function (SHA-256) to generate a secure output file of your data’s change history. In this session, learn how you can use Amazon QLDB’s verifiability feature to ensure that your data’s integrity is maintained. Please bring your laptop.

FSI407 – Implement a smart contract with Amazon Managed Blockchain

Smart contracts have the potential to solve the inefficiencies inherent to traditional contracts. In this session, we build Hyperledger Fabric networks using Amazon Managed Blockchain, form a trusted consortium with multiple parties, and deploy a smart contract for a settlement use case. While obtaining an access-controlled Hyperledger consortium, we go through Hyperledger Fabric constructs, smart contract application interfaces, real-time transaction analytics, and connections to existing business systems, such as data analytics and reporting services. Please bring your laptop.

Events

Blockchain Pub and Cafe

Join us at the Quad in Aria, and learn how AWS technologies, such as Amazon Managed Blockchain, AWS IoT services, Artificial Intelligence services, and more, can provide the end-to-end visibility that today’s supply chains need to track and trace entire production processes with unprecedented efficiency. You can also learn how these technologies help consumers make sustainable choices that reward small-scale producers and farmers.

AWS Village @ Expo

Come to the AWS Village at the expo hall to meet the team. Learn about our products, see a demo, and get your questions answered directly by AWS engineers and solution architects. Look for the blockchain and ledger technology booth at the AWS Village.

Giveaways

In addition to the branded stickers and pins that you can pick-up at the re:Invent swag desk, we will also have some special t-shirt giveaways. Come find us either at the AWS Village blockchain booth (QLDB swag) or at the Beer Pub and Café (Managed Blockchain swag), answer some trivia questions, and win a free t-shirt!

About the Author

Chirag Dhull is a Sr. Product Marketing Manager for blockchain and ledger technologies at Amazon Web Services.