VMware Blockchain v1.8: Supporting Enterprise-grade Ethereum Blockchains

We are excited to announce VMware Blockchain v1.8, our latest release that includes major enhancements to support enterprise-grade Ethereum blockchains. As we continue to add Ethereum support to the VMware Blockchain platform, we're delivering flexibility and choice to our customers.

In August 2022, VMware Blockchain announced the beta availability of Ethereum. In that release, we delivered scalability, recoverability, and data-integrity enhancements for the platform while adding support for Daml 2.0 and improving cloud-native deployments on AWS. This release introduces key features to enable Ethereum for enterprise adoption. What does that include? Let's dive into the new feature highlights in this release

Privacy SDK

Earlier this year, we published research on how UnTraceable Transactions (UTT) can be used to ensure accountable privacy in decentralized Ecash. We then led a co-innovation project to support the Bank of Israel's experimentation with the digital shekel. For VMware Blockchain 1.8, we will introduce a Privacy SDK enabling developers to build and test an end-to-end private token transfer dApp. The SDK consists of a client-side zero-knowledge proof library that interacts with on-chain Solidity token contracts using standard JavaScript integration libraries such as Ethersjs or Web3js. The token contracts can be modified to change token details, token supply, and privacy budgets. The SDK enables the generation of zero-knowledge proofs, and the on-chain token contracts leverage pre-compiled contract code to perform proof validation. With this approach, the complexity of Zero Knowledge Proof cryptography is abstracted from developers, enabling them to focus on the dApp and token design.

Governance controls (permissioning)

In this release, VMware Blockchain for Ethereum will implement "account permissioning" in accordance with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) specifications to provide the necessary tools and granularity to govern actions permitted by accounts on the blockchain. Permissioning in the context of enterprise blockchains is a required feature for our customers as they seek ways to control access to deploy and execute smart contracts running on the blockchain. The account permissioning feature can be enabled during network creation by providing the necessary parameters in the deployment configurations file. The compiled permissioning smart contract and the account(s) that can grant permissions to other addresses should also be included in the genesis file. The "permission admin" user can use a dApp or the permissioning user interface to control which accounts are allowed to send transactions and specify the type of transactions permitted. Types of transaction can be READ, WRITE and DEPLOY permissions to other accounts. The dApp should be the preferred method to grant access to a large number of accounts.

Ecosystem integrations

The Ethereum ecosystem has the broadest and most mature stack to build blockchain networks. VMware Blockchain for Ethereum was built with these comprehensive integration capabilities in mind so customers can leverage the existing investments within the Ethereum ecosystem. This allows access to these integrations to make the most of an Ethereum investment, providing seamless support under one umbrella. The beta supports standard Ethereum APIs, commonly used development tools such as Truffle, Hardhat, Remix, Web3j, Ethersjs, and wallets like MetaMask and Fireblocks to enable a seamless developer experience. Early usage of VMware Blockchain's integration capabilities include Fireblocks, a digital asset and crypto technology platform used by over 1,500 customers, and Web3 Labs, a leading web3 and blockchain technology and strategy company specializing in enterprise solutions. Their Web3j library makes it easy to build Ethereum applications with the Java platform.

Early customers of VMware Blockchain for Ethereum

With its focus on enterprise needs, VMware Blockchain has been adopted in two separate trials: 1) the Bank of Israel and 2) the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. In the Bank of Israel trial, VMware Blockchain UUT privacy feature was used where wallets held had both ordinary digital shekels as well as a monthly allocation of 1000 private digital shekels where the transactions are not recorded openly on the blockchain. The VMware solution combines zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) and eCash, a privacy concept developed by early digital currency inventor David Chaum that originally didn't use blockchain. In the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange pilot project, VMware Blockchain will provide the Ethereum backbone to enable TASE to tokenize bonds, sending them to participants' digital wallets while the issuance consideration, in digital currency, is transferred from the participants to the state of Israel's own wallet, according to a statement.

VMware Blockchain for Ethereum (Beta1) Developer Kit download

VMware Blockchain for Ethereum is available to download and run locally on your laptop! Just sign up to download the Developer Kit by registering for the VMware Blockchain for Ethereum beta program here.

Resources:

• If you liked this release update, follow us on Twitter to keep up to date on the latest VMware Blockchain information
• Are you interested in learning more about VMware Blockchain requirements and usage? Refer to our online product documentation.
• Questions? Contact the VMware Blockchain group via Slack.

Public link

Please use the above public link if you want to share this noodl on another website.