企业区块链标准合作

今年10月，两个最大的企业区块链平台 -Hyperledger和企业以太坊联盟（EEA） - 达成了协作的协议，使潜在的延长标准战争提前结束。长期的标准战争可能无法满足任何人的利益，并且有了这一协议，我们现在就可以清楚地构建和互操作区块链解决方案。

In this blog, we’ll analyze the evolution of Hyperledger and EEA, the forces that pushed the two to collaborate and avert a standards war, and possible ways in which enterprise blockchain might unfold in the future.

Evolution of Hyperledger and EEA

The first generation of blockchain was a simple immutable public ledger to record cryptocurrency transaction. Bitcoin is the best-known implementation. Next came the immutable public ledger with smart contracts, of which Ethereum is one of the best-known examples. Enterprise players like IBM realized the potential for blockchain in the enterprise world and launched permissioned blockchain with a focus on privacy, confidentiality, and auditability.

Here’s how the timeline played out: In December 2015, the Linux Foundation started an open source blockchain project. IBM contributed its Open Blockchain project to the Linux Foundation under the name Hyperledger Fabric.Hyperledger织物是既有可伸缩又包含隐私功能的权限分类帐。版本1.0于2017年7月发布。2017年初，以太坊启动了自己的企业区块链平台称为以太坊企业联盟。

早期采用者

Enterprises looking for a manageable, permissioned distributed ledger jumped on the Hyperledger Fabric platform, including large projects atMaersk Line和Walmart.随着越来越多的开发人员采用该平台，更广泛的Hyperledger织物工具和参考实现设计大大增长。广泛使用中唯一的其他企业区块链平台R3 Corda，主要在银行和保险中使用案例的焦点更加有限。

While EEA was behind in the enterprise race, Ethereum was the hands-down winner in cryptocurrency with the majority of initial coin offerings (ICOs) using the Ethereum ERC-20 platform. With thousands of apps built and market capitalization crossing $100 billion for a brief time, EEA was a significant platform. However, the clock was ticking for success in the enterprise market. In May 2018, EEA issued a draft client specification hoping it would accelerate enterprise adoption. What was missing was ready-to-use blockchain platform code, the lack of which slowed adoption.

Enterprise Ethereum Architecture Stack v1 released in May 2018

Source: EEA White Paper

区块链平台功能比较

成功为企业区块链发动标准战争的能力取决于七个关键因素的可用性。让我们看一下Hyperledger Fabric和EEA平台如何定位，并分析最近的联合合作背后的动力。

• 安装的用户基础：Hyperledger关于早期采用者和大型企业采用Hyperledger许可的企业区块链的领先优势。相比之下，EEA拥有最大的无公众许可区块链客户，应用程序和工具的生态系统。借助向后兼容的右架构，该公共区块链的资产也可以被引入许可的分类帐。任何平台的目标之一是工具和文档的广泛可用性。通过创建专用的开源工具和详尽的文档，相对于EEA加速了HyperLeDger平台的采用。

Hyperledgerplatform with a wide range of Open source blockchain frameworks and tools

Source: Hyperledger

• 知识产权：Hyperledger织物focused on pluggable consensus, private channels, role-based access control and open source code development. In contrast, EEA has focused on scalability, consensus mechanisms, zero-knowledge proof, distributed storage and standards development. The predominantly complimentary focus opens the door to collaboration without a conflict of interest.
• Ability to innovate:EEA使以太坊规范向后与平台的先前迭代兼容，从而使数据可以在平台的一代之间互操作。互操作性是推动Hyperledger与EEA合作的重要因素。
• 第一转机优势：Hyperledgerhas a first-mover advantage in the enterprise space for Permissioned Ledger, and tools like Composer are complemented by extensive documentation. EEA is behind on all the software development fronts, making collaboration even more attractive.
• 开发能力：HyperLeDger Fabric具有开源代码开发工具的可靠记录。使用Fabric 1.3，HyperLeDger添加了零知识证明，每钥匙认可政策和更好的查询机制。EEA尚未在开源开发上花费可比的金额。该解决方案要么是从公共以太坊借来的，这并不理想考虑意识形态差异，要么与Hyperledger这样的现有玩家合作。
• Strength in complements:Hyperledger的强度是其构建开源代码的能力。EEA的优势在于它具有工作的公共区块链平台的支持，该平台可以作为互操作性标准执行，并在企业世界中进行一些变化。
• 声誉和品牌名称：这两个平台都是打开的，并具有备受信任的名称来支持它们。在区块链世界中，Hyperledger和以太坊也是高度尊敬的名字。许多大型企业都是两个财团的一部分。

企业区块链平台的未来

Given the foregoing, below are some scenarios for how the future may unfold for enterprise blockchain platforms.

Hyperledgerframeworks adopt the EEA specification and gain community adoption：HyperLeDger Burrow为模块化区块链客户端提供了一个权限的智能合约解释器，该智能合约解释器部分开发为以太坊虚拟机（EVM）规范。随着EEA客户规范和与EEA的官方合作的更改，该智能合同解释器可以升级到最新的EEA版本并获得认证。通过采用这种潜在的新口译员，Hyperledger Fabric可以进一步巩固其作为首选区块链平台的地位，因为以太坊社区开发人员可以迅速进入具有最短学习曲线的Hyperledger平台。

网络效应可能会通过新的集成平台开始

资料来源：作者

Hyperledgerstacks work in standard and interoperable modes:b Hyperledger收益的先发优势y filling the vacant slot in EEA’s permissioned ledger specification for open source code. The trade-off for agreeing to adopt the EEA specification is that Hyperledger frameworks will have to give up rights to build their own specification while building open source code and tools. Ethereum is not currently competing to develop open source code and tools, so this move could prompt EEA community developers to start developing open source code for Hyperledger, which would be a win for both Hyperledger and EEA. It would also open the door to cryptocurrency interoperability and value exchange between platforms, simplifying financial transactions between the platforms.

New positioning and benefit of each potential move

资料来源：作者

R3 Corda等更多平台可能会采用EEA规范：EEA-Hyperledger并非是独家交易，标准设定的过程可以为R3 Corda和其他平台与EEA开放协作。这可能会推动跨行业区块链平台的共同规格，从而提供互操作性和加速区块链的采用。

Conclusion

Whether any of these three predictions come true, or the market moves in an altogether different direction, remains to play out. The announcement of a collaboration between Hyperledger and EEA hints at where we might be heading, but the rapid evolution of interoperability standards means that surprises may yet lie ahead.

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