Best way to get started with Blockchain Development
- Tanishq Wadhwani
- May 8, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jun 6, 2021
The Roadmap
Ethereum
Blockchain
Solidity
Smart Contracts
Truffle
Tokens
OpenZeppelin
dApps
Drizzle
Public and Private Ethereum Networks
Mainnet
Ropsten Test Network
Ethereum Frameworks
Hyperledger Fabric
Chaincode
Consensys Products
AWS and other Cloud Products
Scaling Ethereum
Both Hyperledger and Ethereum are highly flexible, but their strengths lie in different aspects. The powerful smart contracts engine of Ethereum makes it a generic platform for any application. However, it does not require permission and it is transparent, which affects the performance scalability and privacy.
Hyperledger, on the other hand, solves the performance scalability and privacy issues by using a permissioned mode of operation and access control. You can also customize Hyperledger to a wide range of applications, analogous to a toolbox.
Ethereum’s powerful smart contracts engine makes it a generic platform for literally any kind of application. However, its permissionless mode of operation and total transparency comes at the cost of performance scalability and privacy.
Hyperledger solves performance scalability and privacy issues by permissioned mode of operation and fine-grained access control. Further, the modular architecture allows Hyperledger to be customized to a multitude of applications, analogous to a toolbox.
You may think that Ethereum isn’t suited for commercial use cases. However, that’s not entirely true. Ethereum does have a private version of its technology called Enterprise Ethereum under the enterprise Ethereum Alliance. Here, like Hyperledger, many companies come together and work on possible solutions.
In fact, Hyperledger and EEA are already collaborating on a series of solutions just for the sake of enterprises. So, as you can see, both platforms are great options. Thus, it’s up to you to choose the best one out there.
You wish to develop public, out-of-the-box applications. With Ethereum, anyone can create a node, and each node on the network will possess a copy of the Blockchain.
You prefer a community-led by Blockchain Developers. Unlike Hyperledger, which is controlled by centralized companies, Ethereum is enhanced and improved by developers all around the world.
You are comfortable working with third-party open-source tools/packages. Since Ethereum is an open-source platform, most of the tools used for developing Ethereum DApps rely on third-party, open-source projects.
You wish to develop B2B applications. Hyperledger was explicitly designed to cater to B2B requirements and needs. It is a perfect tool for developing B2B projects since many businesses are unwilling to keep their private data on public Blockchain platforms.
You wish to define your unique Blockchain infrastructure. In Hyperledger projects, you can define the underlying infrastructure of the Blockchain, right from consensus algorithms to which nodes can decrypt which block on the network. This high-level of flexibility allows businesses to customize their Blockchain apps according to their needs.
You are comfortable using in-house tools supported by top companies. All Hyperledger tools are backed by the Linux Foundation, along with companies like IBM, SAP, etc.
Should blockchain developers learn both Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric?
That depends on each individual’s career goals and interests, since each framework is built for different application areas as described above. Do you imagine yourself working in a blue chip company that is rolling out large-scale, enterprise blockchain projects? Hyperledger Fabric might be the best choice for you. Perhaps you are more into the startup scene or want to experiment to bring new blockchain applications to consumers? Ethereum is probably the way to go.
For the undecided or those seeking a balanced and well-rounded foundation to springboard their blockchain career, we usually recommend starting with the more complex stack (Ethereum) and complementing that knowledge with Hyperledger Fabric. Learning both can also give you the expertise needed to use Ethereum for permissioned solutions like Quorum (EEA) and Hyperledger Sawtooth (a course coming to B9lab very soon!).
Both Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric are Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) frameworks built on the blockchain concept. They differ in several important ways, however. Ethereum was designed as a public blockchain that would enable distributed computing applications; Hyperledger Fabric is a permissioned private blockchain designed for use among large enterprises and business groups.
Ethereum is a public blockchain (all nodes are fully decentralised) where transactions are ordered (via miners) and individual nodes are responsible for updating. Miners wins the right to update the blockchain through a process known as Proof of Work.
Fabric is a permissioned blockchain where nodes are known to other nodes only when owners of nodes (typically a business organisation unit) permit nodes to be discoverable to each other (as of version 1.0, it is based on X.509 certification process). Transactions are executed in this sequence; endorsement, ordering and commit. Blocks are ordered on a first-come-first-serve-basis (solo) or based on Kafka mechanism. Hence, ordering nodes are in fact not fully decentralised. In the case of solo configuration, there is only one ordering node for the network. In a Kafka configuration, ordering nodes may be distributed but it is still reliant on a centralised Kafka mechanism to do its job. The use of root certificate also introduce a single source of failure.
Ethereum’s powerful smart contracts engine makes it a generic platform for literally any kind of application. However, its permission mode of operation and total transparency comes at the cost of performance scalability and privacy. Hyperledger solves presentation scalability and privacy issues by permission mode of operation and fine-grained admission control. Further, the modular structural design allows Hyperledger to be customized to a multitude of applications, equivalent to a toolbox.
In the spirit of expanding choices, Hyperledger Fabric now supports Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) bytecode smart contracts. Contracts can now be written in languages such as Solidity or Vyper. Along with introducing a new smart contract runtime, Fabric also has a corresponding web3 provider which can be used to develop decentralized applications (DApps) using web3.js. This new feature comes as part of the 1.3 release and is motivated with the goal to enable developers to be able to migrate or create DApps for a permissioned platform.
References
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