DAH (Digital Asset Holdings) reveals details of Hyperledger blockchain platform for the first time

Rage Commentary:

Translation: Li Qingnan

Digital Asset Holdings (DAH) has revealed new details about its long-secret Hyperledger blockchain platform for the first time.

This is another leak to the outside world after DAH received a $50 million investment from 13 financial institutions and announced last month that it would cooperate with the Linux Foundation to develop the "Hyper-ledger" code.

Several major companies, including IBM, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, have already committed to working with the so-called Linux Foundation Open Ledger Initiative. DAH is unique in the industry, as it is able to leverage the brand value of the name it gained in 2015, the Hyperledger, which outweighs the code itself. However, few technical details of DAH's development of the blockchain platform were disclosed this time.

The startup, founded in 2014, has long classified itself as a software provider that provides “asset liquidation” services using “distributed infrastructure”, but these terms do not fully reflect DAH’s vision and ambitions for the defined target market. DAH’s latest statement on Friday revealed some technical descriptions of the Open Ledger Project, which DAH described as a “blockchain server tailored for enterprises with a customer API interface”.

The statement also noted:

“Hyperledger uses an append-only log of financial transactions that is designed to be replicated to multiple institutional users without requiring centralized control.”

DAH’s statement positioned the “Hyperledger” as the “data spine”: it can coordinate and process all data from the client’s low-level “communication and consensus layer” and will be committed to upgrading the global financial infrastructure.

“Hyperledger aims to extend the concept of the ‘data spine’ to multiple organizational levels. We intend to open source this project in the future based on our belief that it is a key part of the new financial infrastructure. Part of it should be commercialized and more coordinated, committed to becoming a strong backbone for value-added applications.”

Emphasis on scalability

The statement did not convey much information on how DAH sees its technology as complementary to existing financial trading systems.

Hyperledger was developed by a team that has worked in financial institutions for decades and is built according to the requirements of enterprise architecture. Hyperledger has a highly modular design at the code and operation level to facilitate the integration of legacy systems.

The statement goes on to note that Hyperledger’s network rules are configurable — to accommodate different interoperable consensus groups with their own functional and non-functional requirements.

DAH also hinted that the technology is the latest version in code and will be reviewed by the Linux Foundation Hyperledger Project and the Technical Advisory Committee. It also promised a number of upcoming improvements, including the release of elements of the Blockstream project, which aims to increase the functionality of the bitcoin blockchain.

Stance on Bitcoin

Significantly, DAH acknowledged the concept of using the open source Bitcoin blockchain, despite the fact that CEO Blyth Masters rarely commented on it publicly. DAH said that Hyperledger optimizes Bitcoin's transactional decision-making functions based on the scripting language and expands its performance and features according to the needs of financial services. The statement went on to say that it does not believe that Bitcoin is suitable for use in a strictly regulated financial infrastructure.

“A lot of its design and mature cryptography has been under attack from the outside, and Bitcoin’s cryptography is protecting a multi-billion dollar token. By conforming to the UTXO model and making it the de facto standard, then you’re going to find a much larger ecosystem of innovation.”

The statement also provides insights into how private blockchain companies can evaluate the Bitcoin network to build an alternative system.

Byzantine Fault Tolerance

DAH also admitted that it will optimize a consensus system to provide an alternative to the proof-of-work (PoW) mining mechanism. This process was first used by Bitcoin, which uses a decentralized network of computers to ensure the security of the Bitcoin blockchain and process transactions. DAH also mentioned that Hyperledger will also include a "prototype application of a Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus module," which will be an alternative to the mining process.

“We will be working closely with other members of this project on the consensus module to ensure that there will be a scalable, secure Byzantine Fault Tolerant consensus protocol that provides dispute resolution for all financial institutions.”

Since the original Hyperledger team began work on the blockchain system in 2014, the concept has continued to expand and appears to still be under evaluation.