An Introduction to Hyperledger Sawtooth

With the emergence of blockchain as a universally distributed ledger system, blockchain platform like Hyperledger Fabric has acquired immense popularity and adoption across numerous verticals. It is primarily due to its unique structure and highly scalable features to support enterprise-grade applications. Giving a tough fight to Hyperledger Fabric is another robust platform – the Hyperledger Sawtooth.

Propounded by Intel, Hyperledger Sawtooth is an enterprise distributed ledger. It was conceptualized to impart modularity, scalability and support to permission and permissionless networks. It is remarkably known as the first project to join Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger umbrella.

Most standard blockchain platforms face performance and security issues as they execute and host the applications and core on the same platform. Hyperledger sawtooth overcomes this challenge by isolating the core ledger system from the application-specific environment. Hence, application development becomes easier yet ensuring the security and safety of the system with high transaction throughput.

Characteristics of Hyperledger Sawtooth

SETH Compatibility

SETH stands for Sawtooth- Ethereum Integration project. SETH allows the feasibility of deploying Ethereum smart contracts to the Sawtooth platform in collaboration with the SETH transaction family. The SETH transaction processor, along with Hyperledger Burrow Ethereum Virtual Machine, helps execute Ethereum smart contracts on the Sawtooth platform.

Parallel Transaction Support

Several blockchain platforms require serial transaction execution to maintain consistent order at every network node. On the contrary, the capability of Hyperledger Sawtooth for grouping the transactions into batches makes it suitable for processing parallel transactions. Sawtooth comprises an advanced parallel scheduler to categorize transactions for similar flow. If the transactions comply with the ACID principle, it is also possible to configure them into different permutations and combinations with Sawtooth.

Private permissioned Networks

Sawtooth can tackle the challenges of a permissioned network because it is possible to deploy the cluster of its nodes with isolated permissioning. Hence, it becomes difficult for centralized service to leak any confidential information or transaction pattern.

Pluggable Consensus Mechanisms

Sawtooth supports various consensus types on the identical blockchain. The consensus mechanisms can be selected at the initial stage during the network setup and can also be altered on a running blockchain with a transaction.

Customized transaction Processors

Sawtooth enables defining of custom transaction processors to fulfill the unique needs of each application. It offers transaction families to serve the requirements related to low-level functions. Low-level functions generally include storing on-chain permissions, managing chain-wide settings, saving block information, and performance evaluation.

Segregation of Core system and application level

Hyperledger Sawtooth simplifies the application development and deployment with isolation of application-level and core system level. It offers smart contract abstraction so that developers can create contract logic in the programming language.

Consensus Implementation supported by Hyperledger Sawtooth

Proof of Elapsed Time (PoET)

It represents Nakamoto-style consensus, designed explicitly as a production-grade protocol to support a vast network. Depending upon the secured instruction execution, it enhances the scalability of the Nakamoto-style consensus mechanism without power consumption issues of the PoW algorithm.

PoET Simulator

It allows PoET-style consensus on any hardware and a virtualized cloud environment.

Dev mode

It is the most accessible random-leader mechanism adopted for development and testing.

For executing the transaction, Hyperledger Sawtooth builds a transaction family comprising a data model and a set of transaction languages. With Hyperledger Sawtooth, users can create custom transaction families to represent their unique requirements. It also offers the following transaction families as models:

• IntegerKey performs the testing of deployed ledgers.
• Identity handles on-chain permissioning for validator and transactor keys to simplify identity management for public keys’ lists.
• Settings enable implementation for saving on-chain configuration settings.
• BlockInfo offers an approach for storing information related to several historic blocks.
• Smallbank evaluates performance analysis of performance testing and benchmarking while comparing blockchain systems’ performance.

Due to the availability of all features and characteristics, Hyperledger Sawtooth serves as a promising blockchain platform to build enterprise-grade modular applications. When it comes to developing applications that require high scalability, efficiency, and complex transaction execution, Hyperledger Sawtooth is a perfect choice.

Look out for a team of blockchain experts who can assist you in streamlining your business operations with distributed ledger technology.