You may not know but AWS Lambda is the perfect tool to implement Blockchain technology in your company thanks to its serverless architecture. However, if this is the first time you have heard the term “Blockchain Technology”, or if you have only heard it thanks to the popularity of cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum or Bitcoin, it is worth remembering that, in reality, it is a distributed data structure that can register transactions in a verifiable and immutable way, thus offering benefits in the FinTech industry, Health Tech, etc. Depending on the use case, there are opportunities for lower costs, improved speed and efficiency, stronger regulatory compliance, and greater resiliency and scalability.
However, the improvement in security it offers may also bring a series of important problems for its implementation: To create a blockchain network, each member of the network needs to manually provision hardware, install software, create and manage certificates for access control and configure network components. This process has traditionally been somewhat long and tedious (even more so if your team is not perfectly prepared for this change). However, you are not alone, a correct consultancy can guide you in the implementation of this technology in your company.
For example, a perfect solution for your company can be Amazon Managed Blockchain, It eliminates the overhead of creating a network or joining a public network manually. Plus, it automatically scales the service to meet the demands of thousands of applications executing millions of transactions at the same time. Once your network is up and running, managing and maintaining your blockchain network is made easy with Managed Blockchain and AWS Lambda.
How does Blockchain technology like AWS work?
Blockchain development is defined as the creation of a general ledger shared and immutable that facilitates the registration process transaction and asset tracking in a business network. An asset can be tangible like a house, a car, cash, land, etc., or intangible like a work of intellectual property, patents, copyrights, trademarks, among other things. In reality, anything traded online can be tracked, reducing risk and cost for everyone involved.
That said, it is especially suitable for scenarios in which it is required to store increasingly ordered data over time, without the possibility of modification or review and whose security must be paramount. In this way, transactions through Blockchain are divided into three main aspects:
- Data storage: it is achieved by replicating the information of the block chain
- Data transmission: achieved through peer networks.
- Confirmation of data: it is achieved through a consensus process among the participating nodes. The most widely used type of consensus algorithm is proof-of-work, in which there is an open competitive and transparent process of validating new entries called mining.
As we mentioned, Amazon Managed Blockchain makes it easy to create and manage of scalable blockchain networks, it also helps how to implement a REST API to provide a simple interface for reading and writing to the network through AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway. This offers other benefits, for example, Lambda has built-in fault tolerance and provides high availability for the service itself and the functions it operates, allowing developers to focus on developing business logic.
Also, the iImplementing APIs with AWS Lambda and API Gateway allows your application to scale automatically, you only pay for the resources you need. This can be very attractive for your company, but it is not the only benefit that its implementation could bring to your company.
Benefits of using Blockchain in your company
If cybersecurity of your company is a topic that interests you, maybe Blockchain technology, with the tools offered by AWS Lambda and AMB, be it for you. As you well know, operations often waste efforts due to duplicate records and third-party validations. Additionally, record-keeping systems can be vulnerable to fraud and cyberattacks on a regular basis. All this can affect your business and hurt the results you could get, so we need to improve the way we do things.
Blockchain technology produces a data structure with inherent security qualities. It is based on principles of cryptography, decentralization and consensus, which guarantee trust in transactions. In most blockchains or distributed ledger technologies (DLT), data is structured in blocks, with each block containing a transaction or packet of transactions.
Each new block is connected to all previous blocks in a crypto chain in such a way that it is almost impossible to manipulate it externally.. All transactions within blocks are validated and verified using a consensus mechanism, ensuring that each transaction is true and correct.
This allows decentralization through the participation of members in a distributed network. There is no single point of failure and a single user cannot change the transaction log. However, there are some differences worth mentioning that this technology possesses:
Public or private networks
Networks are often labeled as public or private, depending on who can participate, and with or without permission. Public blockchain networks generally allow anyone to join and allow participants to remain anonymous. Such a blockchain uses computers connected to the Internet to validate transactions. Bitcoin is probably the best known example of a public blockchain. Computers on the bitcoin network, or "miners," attempt to solve a complex cryptographic problem in order to create a proof-of-work and thus validate the transaction. Outside of public keys, there are few identity and access controls in this type of network.
For its part, private blockchains use identity to confirm membership and access privileges and usually only allow known organizations to join. Together, the organizations form a private "business network" for members only. This type of network requires more identity and access controls. Private and permissioned networks can be tightly controlled and are preferable for regulatory and security compliance reasons. However, public and permissionless networks can achieve greater decentralization and distribution.
In both cases, both AWS Lambda and Amazon Managed Blockchain are a service that can help you, as they facilitate joining public networks or the creation and administration of scalable private networks through the use of popular open source frameworks Hyperledger Fabric and ethereum.
Security against cyber attacks
It's not hard to see the security benefits of blockchain technology supported by AWS Lambda and Amazon Managed Blockchain, but there are a few important points to mention:
- Blockchains are decentralized, so there is no single source of data to hack and no need to bring in third-party providers, which can also be hacked, to process transactions.
- Blockchains are encrypted to provide an extra layer of security and ensure data doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
- Any changes are made in real time to all components of the block, which adds transparency and trust to the ledger and ensures there is no single point of failure.
Now, this can directly impact different industries. For example in Health Tech, Blockchain Technology Can Help Securely Encrypt Electronic Patient Records, protect them from hacking, and preserve the anonymity of individual patients who may be part of the network. That ensures data can be shared seamlessly between patients, healthcare providers, and physicians with minimal privacy or security concerns.
For its part, in the fintech industry, the blockchain can securely encrypt financial transactions and, at the same time, facilitate the monitoring and control of payments to mitigate fraud. The same principles can be applied to the storage and sharing of sensitive business and personal data.
Reliability and Scaling
What's more, With the support of AWS Lambda and Amazon Managed Blockchain, you can quickly create blockchain networks that span multiple AWS accounts.. In fact, this technology eliminates the need to manually provision hardware, configure software, and configure networking and security components. With the Managed Blockchain Voting API, network participants can vote and add or remove members. Unlike a traditional network, with the support of AWS, you won't have to worry about monitoring the network and replacing nodes that have poor performance, because it does it automatically.
As we mentioned before, can easily scale the Blockchain network as the use of applications on the network grows over time and your needs. When a network member requires more capacity to create and validate transactions, they can quickly add a new node using the Managed Blockchain API.
This tool provides a selection of instance types spanning various combinations of CPU and memory to give you the flexibility to choose the right mix of resources for your workload. Additionally, Managed Blockchain protects your network certificates with AWS Key Management Service (KMS) technology, eliminating the need to establish your own secure key storage.
Finally, the reliability of the "request service" is something that AWS Lambda and AMB ensure for the blockchain, because the Hyperledger Fabric framework can ensure the delivery of transactions on the network. The Managed Blockchain Request Service is built on Amazon QLDB technology and has an immutable change log that accurately maintains the full history of all transactions on the blockchain network, ensuring that data is stored durably. .
Before making a decision about using AWS Lambda, Amazon Managed Blockchain to implement Blockchain technology in your company, it is necessary to analyze in detail the benefits and advantages that it can offer, as well as the challenges that it would represent for your team. If you are interested learn more about this, discover the solutions it offers and will offer Codster through a consultancy that can help solve all your doubts.
