Amazon Managed Blockchain
Easily create and manage scalable blockchain networks
Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that makes it easy to join public networks or create and manage scalable private networks using the popular open-source frameworks Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum.
Blockchain makes it possible to build applications where multiple parties can execute transactions without the need for a trusted, central authority. Today, building a scalable blockchain network with existing technologies is complex to set up and hard to manage. To create a blockchain network, each network member needs to manually provision hardware, install software, create, and manage certificates for access control, and configure networking components. Once the blockchain network is running, you need to continuously monitor the infrastructure and adapt to changes, such as an increase in transaction requests, or new members joining or leaving the network.
Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service that allows you to provision blockchain infrastructure with just a few clicks. Amazon Managed Blockchain eliminates the overhead required to create a private blockchain network or create node(s) to connect to a public blockchain network.
Enterprises seeking to build a private blockchain network can create a Hyperledger Fabric blockchain on Amazon Managed Blockchain in a matter of minutes, and invite partner organizations to the network via their AWS account ID. Once your network is up and running, Managed Blockchain makes it easy to manage and maintain your blockchain network, automating tasks like managing certificates and maintaining peer node availability. Private Hyperledger Fabric blockchains lend themselves to use cases that demand privacy and access controls in a decentralized network environment, such as supply chain data sharing and traditional finance use cases such as settlement of securities transactions. In addition, Amazon Managed Blockchain Hyperledger Fabric is supported in GovCloud, enabling government agencies and contractors to deploy in environments specifically designed to host sensitive data and address the most stringent U.S. government security and compliance requirements.
For builders in the Web3 area, Managed Blockchain allows you to provision dedicated Ethereum full node(s) to connect to the Ethereum public mainnet and testnets to read data, subscribe to events, and broadcast transactions on the blockchain. Managed Blockchain manages the process of maintaining your Ethereum full node, including automatically upgrading the node client software as updates are released to the community. For example, on September 15th, 2022 06:42:42 UTC, at block 15537393, The Merge was completed, moving the public Ethereum blockchain from Proof of Work (PoW) to Proof of Stake (PoS). Amazon Managed Blockchain's Ethereum Mainnet nodes run on the Ethereum PoS network. We recommend reading the Ethereum foundations' descriptions of the changes introduced by The Merge for additional information. Furthermore, Ethereum nodes deployed using Amazon Managed Blockchain are monitored and automatically replaced if needed to keep your blockchain access available 24/7. Using Ethereum node(s) on Amazon Managed Blockchain, you can build an NFT marketplace or analyze Ethereum blockchain data with your own dedicated node as the main interface to the blockchain.
Get started with Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum using Amazon Managed Blockchain.
Benefits
Fully managed
With Amazon Managed Blockchain, you can quickly create blockchain networks that span multiple AWS accounts, enabling a group of members to execute transactions and share data without a central authority. Unlike self-hosting your blockchain infrastructure, Amazon Managed Blockchain eliminates the need for manually provisioning hardware, configuring software, and setting up networking and security components. With Managed Blockchain’s voting API, network participants can vote to add or remove members. Once a new member is added, Managed Blockchain lets that member launch and configure multiple blockchain peer nodes to process transaction requests and store a copy of the ledger. Managed Blockchain also monitors the network and automatically replaces poorly performing nodes.
Choice of Hyperledger Fabric or Ethereum
Amazon Managed Blockchain supports two popular blockchain frameworks, Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum. Hyperledger Fabric is well-suited for applications that require stringent privacy and permission controls with a known set of members, for example, a financial application where certain trade-related data is only shared with select banks. Ethereum is well suited for highly distributed blockchain networks where transparency of data for all members is important, for example, a customer loyalty blockchain network that allows any retailer in the network to independently verify a user's activity across all members to redeem benefits. Alternatively, Ethereum can also be used for joining a public Ethereum blockchain network.
Scalable and Secure
Amazon Managed Blockchain can easily scale your blockchain network as the usage of applications on the network grows over time. When a network member requires additional capacity for creating and validating transactions, the member can quickly add a new peer node using Managed Blockchain's APIs. Managed Blockchain provides a selection of instance types that comprise varying combinations of CPU and memory to give you the flexibility to choose the appropriate mix of resources for your workload. Additionally, Managed Blockchain secures your network’s certificates with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) technology, eliminating the need for you to set up your own secure key storage.
Reliability
Amazon Managed Blockchain improves the reliability of the “ordering service,” a component in the Hyperledger Fabric framework that ensures delivery of transactions across the blockchain network. Hyperledger Fabric’s default ordering service does not store a complete history of transactions, making it hard to keep track of and recover transaction history when needed. Managed Blockchain's ordering service is built using Amazon QLDB technology and has an immutable change log that accurately maintains the complete history of all transactions in the blockchain network, ensuring that you durably save this data.
How it works
Managed Blockchain use cases
Trading and Asset Transfer
Trading requires many organizations such as importers, exporters, banks, shipping companies, and customs departments, to work with one another. Using Amazon Managed Blockchain, financial and trading consortiums can easily create a blockchain network where all parties can transact and process trade-related paperwork electronically, without the need for a central trusted authority. Unlike other processes that require trade-related paperwork to go back and forth between the stakeholders, taking 5-10 days to complete, transactions in a blockchain network built using Managed Blockchain can process instantly.
Retail
Retailers are often looking to improve customer loyalty programs by partnering with other retailers, banks, and third-parties to offer a more comprehensive selection of customer rewards that can be redeemed across an extensive network of partners. Using a central agency as an intermediary for processing reward transactions can often slow down the process, taking 5-7 days. With Amazon Managed Blockchain, a group of retailers can easily implement a blockchain network that allows them to share and validate rewards information quickly and transparently, without needing a central authority that processes rewards transactions between retailers.
Supply Chain
Small businesses often rely on distributed supply chain networks where no single entity controls the end-to-end movement of goods across the network. As an example, jewelry stores often need to track the provenance of gemstones to ensure their authenticity and value. Using Amazon Managed Blockchain, such businesses can quickly implement a blockchain across their supply chain network, providing greater transparency, and real-time recording and tracking of goods from one party to another. Each supplier or distributor can be a member of the blockchain network, maintain their own distributed ledger, and independently track all information related to the movement of the goods such as timestamp, port of entry, and volume of goods received. Given that all members maintain an independent copy of the distributed ledger, all parties can trust the true origin and touchpoints of the goods, without relying on a central authority.
Customers and partners success
“At Accenture, blockchain is driving business transformation in virtually every industry—from aerospace to not-for-profits,” said Prasad Sankaran, Senior Managing Director of Accenture’s Intelligent Cloud & Infrastructure business group. “Blockchain’s unique characteristics are helping to reinvent complex supply chains, improve business processes, and expand the reach and veracity of our digital identities. As the technology continues to take hold, services such as Amazon Managed Blockchain can drive both cost saving and revenue generating opportunities.”
“As critical financial market infrastructure, the industry relies on us to provide innovative solutions that reduce risk, increase transparency and evolve with market and regulatory needs. We believe that blockchain technology represents a generational opportunity to re-imagine post-trade infrastructure. We are pleased to be using Amazon Managed Blockchain to explore possibilities with Hyperledger Fabric, where we can continue to lead industry initiatives around the exploration and adoption of Blockchain. Amazon Managed Blockchain automates the deployment of blockchain infrastructure, bringing high availability and durability in a fully managed package, accelerating the adoption of distributed ledger technology.”
“Given our vast partner ecosystem, we are exploring the decentralization and immutable tracking benefits of blockchain for potential applications in our insurance business. We believe blockchain can improve the transparency and efficiency for stakeholders in these networks to transact, while still maintaining an independently verifiable lineage of activities. However, blockchain frameworks are complex and difficult to operate. With Amazon Managed Blockchain, we can now easily create Hyperledger Fabric blockchain networks to test and learn without worrying about managing the underlying infrastructure, networking, and software configuration."
“Blockchains will increasingly impact the provisioning of mobility services since they enable business networks to reduce the cost of coordinating their activities,” said Chris Ballinger, Founder and CEO, MOBI. “MOBI hopes to build a worldwide network of cities, infrastructure providers, consumers, and producers of mobility services in order to realize the many potential benefits of blockchain technology. Since Amazon Managed Blockchain is a fully managed service, users are able to setup a Hyperledger Fabric network in minutes and easily invite other partners to join. Also, since Amazon Managed Blockchain’s ordering service ensures reliable sharing of data across the network, our participants don’t need to worry about managing infrastructure and building a blockchain solution from the ground up. Instead, they can now focus on building applications for connected car payments, autonomous and electric vehicles, and peer to peer ride-sharing services.”
“Transparency in supply chains is increasingly important to consumers, who want to know what is in their food and where it comes from. While Nestlé has begun to release information on its supply chains for its 15 key commodities, using blockchain technology enables a more precise tracking,” said Armin Nehzat, Digital Technology Manager, Nestlé Oceania. “With Amazon Managed Blockchain, we are able to set up our Hyperledger Fabric network and easily invite our partners to collaborate in our supply chain transparency efforts. Amazon Managed Blockchain will enable our customers to track their products on the blockchain from the farm all the way through to consumption.”
Digital Technology Manager Nestlé Oceania
“Ever since overcoming the physical limitations of open-outcry trading pits, technology has been fundamental to the transformation of critical financial-market infrastructures,” said Andrew Koay, Head of Blockchain Technology, SGX. “SGX sees blockchain technology as a way to bring innovation to our distributed financial marketplace, and we have developed Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) capabilities for the settlement of tokenized assets across different blockchain platforms. We are working with AWS to move our existing investments in Hyperledger Fabric to Amazon Managed Blockchain. Amazon Managed Blockchain offers businesses the opportunity to eliminate the heavy-lifting typically required in infrastructure setup. This allows us to focus on adding business value and not worry about managing or scaling the underlying platform.”
Andrew Koay,
Head of Blockchain Technology - SGX
“Returnable asset tracking including movement and transportation tracing, invoicing, billing, payment and remediation is complicated, and time sensitive,” said Dr. Eddie Shek, Chief Strategy Officer, TrackX. “Blockchain technology has the potential to increase the speed at which we track and reconcile returnable and reusable assets such as beer kegs, intermediate bulk containers, and plastic pallets. Before Amazon Managed Blockchain, we had spent a huge effort building and managing our blockchain infrastructure. Now, we can use Amazon Managed Blockchain to quickly and easily create blockchain networks with Hyperledger Fabric and easily enable our customers to monitor and maintain accountability throughout their entire supply chain. Amazon Managed Blockchain fully manages our blockchain infrastructure and shared network components, enabling us to focus on developing smart contracts to deliver additional value to our customers.”
Dr. Eddie Shek
Chief Strategy Officer - TrackX
