Too many challenges, so little time - How can blockchain integration succeed without an army of engineers?

For a long time, neither politics nor business took the issue of Blockchain seriously. Today, every larger company develops at least proof of concepts, while Blockchain initiatives are proclaimed. However, feasibility quickly reaches its limits when it comes to transforming a PoC into a product. The rapid development of the space, even by IT standards, and a simultaneous lack of Blockchain experts slows down many projects. In this talk, Patrick Stürmlinger points out the difficulties of integration and introduces you to the concept of a Blockchain gateway (including an exemplary implementation), which solves the biggest integration problems such as the different functionality of the different Blockchains, the predictability of costs and the handling of mini-forks.

Transcript

1. Too many challenges, so little time Patrick Stürmlinger | @PSturmlinger | Thinktecture AG / Freelancer How can blockchain integration succeed without an army of engineers?
2. Patrick Stürmlinger Focus Blockchain Development Blockchain Architecture Progressive Web Applications (PWA) Me patrick@mindf.org @PSturmlinger
3. Blockchain Survey Relevance within organizations 53 % 27 % 14 % 6 % It will be critical, in our top 5 priorities It will be important but not in our top 5 priorities It will be relevant but not a strategic priority Unsure / Not relevant Source: Deloitte‘s Global Blockchain Survey 2019 (1,386 global enterprises)
4. Blockchain Survey Attitude and Adoption Source: Deloitte‘s Global Blockchain Survey 2019 (1,386 global enterprises) See compelling use cases Initiated a blockchain deployment 83 % 23 %
5. Barriers to greater Investment Source: Deloitte‘s Global Blockchain Survey 2019 (1,386 global enterprises) Implementation (replacing or adapting existing legacy systems) 30 % 28 % 30 % 29 % Regulatory issues Potential security threats Lack of in-house capabilities (skill and understanding) 28 % Uncertain ROI
6. Blockchainify an Application - Challenges Blockchain economics Blockchain SDKs Maintenance Characteristics of different blockchain plattforms Public vs. Private Basics Exchange rate Relation of transaction fee and speed Fee calculation Transaction acceleration Cost & Time Management Key management Data visibilty Security Concept of Finality Blockchain monitoring Blockchain re-organisation Alternative nodes Network Nonce management Transaction queue management Race conditions Transaction Reliability ?? ?
7. We need to lower adoption barriers By providing a developer friendly abstraction layer
8. Naive Way of Blockchain Integration Application X SDK Endorser Peer Orderer Peer Node
9. Problems • Application developers need blockchain expertise • Re-usability • Switching blockchain platform • Needs code maintenance • Error-prone
10. Blockchain Gateway Application X Endorser Peer Orderer Peer Blockchain Gateway SDK JSON
11. Advantages • Clear separation • Re-usability of code, knowledge • Reliability • Time saving • Cost saving
12. Blockchain Gateway REST API { "id": 1, "tag": "anchor", "args": [ "some-hash-we-want-to-store", 456632 ] } POST https://gateway.example.com/api/tx/send id: A unique identifier for each action/transaction initiated by the application. tag: Action identifier. The gateway has rules associated to each tag. args: A list of arguments used by the associated action.
13. Blockchain Gateway REST API [ { "number": 5, "type": "TX_CONFIRMED", "chainId": "eth", "data": { "id": "2", "hash": "0xfae83...", "nonce": "2", "confirmations": "3", "receipt": { "transactionHash": "0xfae83...", "blockNumber": 523562, "blockHash": "0x5b160...", "gasUsed": "22590", "...": "..." } }, "date": 1562577032 }, ... ] GET https://gateway.example.com/api/log number: A unique event identifier. type: The event type (Queued, Processing, ...) chainId: Unique identifier from the source blockchain. data: Event and blockchain specific data. date: Timestamp of the event.
14. DEMO
15. Blockchain Gateway Framework • Consistent interface for applications • Transaction routing to correct chain • Queue API • Exchange API • Storage API • Event API
16. Vision • Support of all major blockchain platforms • Having expert teams maintaining their Blockchain Gateway module ?? ?
17. Code available soon • Watch at https://github.com/pstuermlinger/blockchain-gateway • Feedback & ideas wanted! • When: 2019 • Open Source patrick@mindf.org @PSturmlinger https://speakerdeck.com/pstuermlinger
18. Blockchain Gateway Tag configuration { "anchor": { "account": "0x156c1da...", "queueLength": 1, "confirmations": 3, "cost": { "currency": "USD", "max": "0.1", "min": "0.02", "raise": "0.02" }, "time": { "confirmationLimit": 5000 }, "target": { "contract": "test-contract", "method": "createAnchor", "args": 2 } } } eth.config.json queueLength: Amount of transactions hold in queue. 0 processes all transactions n processes the newest n transactions confirmations: Number of confirmations required to consider a transactions as completed. cost & time: Configures the behavior of tx-fee calculation. Is a tx after confirmationLimit not mined, increase its fees by raise and repeat until max is reached. target: Associates this tag with a smart contract method.