- What is Quorum
- Consensus in Quorum
- Implementation of Quorum using SAP Cloud Platform
- Generic Architecture
- Setup of Quorum on Cloud Platform
With the introduction of smart contracts systems, it was envisioned that existing enterprise systems, which have multiple ledgers with replicated data based on duplicated business logics, will be improved. The only problem with the smart contracts were their data privacy. In July 2015, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., an American multinational investment bank introduced an enterprise-ready distributed ledger and smart contract platform which processes private transactions within a permissioned group of known participants.
I have already discussed “Hyperledger Fabric on SAP Cloud Platform”. This blog is similar to it, here we will explore Quorum and how SAP has integrated it in to its cloud platform. Before we start with Quorum, please read What is Blockchain?
What is Quorum
Quorum is a private/permissioned blockchain platform built upon Ethereum. Quorum uses cryptography and segmentation to achieve data privacy.
As discussed in Quorum whitepaper, A Quorum transaction contains:
- The recipient
- Signature identifying the sender
- An amount of ether (although having an ether balance is not required within Quorum)
- An optional list of parties that the transaction should be private to
- An optional data field (containing hash in the case of private transaction)
Consensus in Quorum
The literal meaning of consensus is “A general agreement”. As the meaning suggests, a consensus in a Blockchain is a mechanism of validating a transaction based on general agreement (agreement of more than 51% voters in Quorum).
In Quorum, consensus is termed as QuorumChain Consensus and it utilizes voting-based consensus mechanism.
For example, Gargi sends $100 worth of Ether to Rudra, Gargi will lose 100$ worth of Ether from her wallet, and Rudra will gain 100$ worth of Ether in his wallet. But it needs to be validated and verified that if Gargi had 100$ worth Ether in her wallet or not. This is validated by the voters in the Quorum Blockchain and if more that 51% voters agreed upon this transaction, then only the transaction will be validated.
Implementation of Quorum using SAP Cloud Platform
This is a generic architecture where it is shown how SAP Cloud Platform communicates with a Quorum Node. To learn more about Quorum Architecture please refer the references.
Setup of Quorum on Cloud Platform
To work with Quorum on SAP Cloud Platform, initially we need to setup our Global Account on SAP Cloud Platform and create a Quorum enabled sub-account. Then only we can proceed with development.
Follow the following steps to enable Quorum on your Cloud Platform:
Step 01: Go to your SAP cloud platform Cockpit [If you don’t have, go here and click Free Trial] and select region as Europe (Rot) – US East(VA).
Step 02: Create a sub account there [Give your desired Display name and Subdomain name].
Step 03: Click Entitlements button from the left menu bar.
Step 04: Inside Entitlements menu, you will see Edit button, click it to change the mode to editable and scroll down to Quorum as shown below:
Add dev and channel nodes by clicking ‘+’ button.
Step 05: Click your sub account to open it. Click Spaces and create a new space giving all authorization to that space as shown below:
Step 06: Click on the newly space created and select Service Marketplace and scroll down to Quorum and click to open it as shown below:
Once the initial setup of Quorum is done, you can create your own nodes and instances. Follow Hands on Exercise to create your own SAP Quorum service.