We are excited to introduce VMware Blockchain for Ethereum, available now in beta. The beta expands VMware’s enterprise blockchain platform for businesses to easily build, efficiently operate, and quickly scale Ethereum-based blockchain networks. It also gives customers flexibility and choice by adding Ethereum support to its existing support for the Daml smart contract language. This blog will focus on the Ethereum Beta features and how to get started.
1. VMware Blockchain for Ethereum
The Ethereum ecosystem, with its smart contracts, developer tools, wallets, and overall ecosystem, is the broadest and most mature stack to build blockchain networks. Despite its breadth and maturity, there are several enterprise gaps in public and permissioned Ethereum platforms:
- Privacy
- Scalability & Performance
- Governance
- Supportability
VMware Blockchain (VMBC) for Ethereum will begin to address these gaps with an enterprise-grade Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible platform, built using open enterprise-centric architecture that provides a high level of decentralized trust via SBFT (Scalable Byzantine Fault Tolerant), privacy, performance, gas free mode, and instant transaction finality.
VMware Blockchain for Ethereum is composed of nodes running the SBFT consensus engine and Ethereum Virtual Machine, SDKs, embedded operations, orchestration utilities, and 3rd party integrations. Developers and architects can construct or extend a network on any public or private cloud to deploy their dApps and smart contracts leveraging developer tools such as Truffle, HardHat. In addition, there are integration capabilities with MetaMask.
Figure 1: VMware is bringing Ethereum to the enterprise.
2. VMware Blockchain for Ethereum Developer Kit Beta
To quickly get started developing or porting your dApp on VMware Blockchain for Ethereum, we are pleased to introduce the new developer kit, available to customers at no cost. To download the developer kit, please sign up for the beta program here.
With the VMware Blockchain for Ethereum Developer Kit, you can:
- Deploy a single host deployment of VMware Blockchain for Ethereum locally on a laptop or any cloud.
- Build, port, and run Solidity dApps on a local VMware Blockchain Ethereum, using standard Ethereum tooling including HardHat, Remix, Truffle, etc.
- Run dApps using gas-free mode.
- Experience quick transaction finality.
- Use VMware Blockchain Explorer to view blockchain and transaction data.
3. VMware Blockchain for Ethereum Beta features
The list of features below is included in the first beta release. Over the next several months, we will ship new enterprise features for beta users to test and provide feedback.
JSON RPC API HTTP endpoint
Applications can interact with VMware Blockchain – read data, submit transactions – in exactly the same way they do with other Ethereum clients, i.e., using the JSON-RPC API. In addition, VMBC supports a majority of the APIs in the Ethereum Execution API specification. For a full list of API endpoints supported today, please sign up for the beta program.
Ecosystem integration
dApp developers can use wallet services and tools they are familiar with to build on VMware Blockchain. Popular wallets like MetaMask, developer tools such as HardHat, Truffle, and Remix, as well as supported integration libraries like Web3j.
Gas-free mode
In the public Ethereum network, gas refers to the cost necessary to perform a transaction on the network. Miners set the price of gas based on supply and demand for the computational power of the network needed to process smart contracts and other transactions. Requiring a fee for every transaction executed on the network provides a layer of security to the Ethereum network by making it too expensive for malicious users to spam the network. VMware Blockchain is a private, permissioned, and managed network; therefore, it is unnecessary to charge for computation power. In addition, the SBFT protocol it uses helps mitigate byzantine attacks. Since gas fees are not needed, VMBC supports a gas-free mode which simplifies dApp deployment.
Block Explorer
The VMBC Ethereum Block Explorer displays information about the Ethereum Blockchain. Currently, available data includes transaction list explorer, transaction detail view, blocklist view, and block detail view.
Kubernetes architecture
We updated the platform architecture so that VMware Blockchain can be deployed on Kubernetes. This enables developers to rapidly deploy VMware Blockchain in a single host configuration today and will allow for future cloud agnostic, multi-cluster deployments.
Observability
JSON RPC API metrics: In order to monitor the request execution and system health, metrics of all the JSON RPC API endpoints are available in a dashboard such as VMware Wavefront.
4. Enterprise Ethereum use cases
To inspire your next project, we included a few key use cases garnering interest from enterprise customers and partners. We cannot wait to see what you build!
Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) and Stablecoins
Enabling the re-imagining of money in a digital form by leveraging scalable, interoperable, distributed blockchain infrastructure at the core and providing unique accountable privacy protocols that balance auditability and anonymity (cash-like properties). Check out the Bank of Israel’s CBDC study on VMware Blockchain for Ethereum’s ability to provide anonymous transactions and accountable privacy with a technology called UTT (Untraceable Transactions).
Payments
Using blockchain, build new payment rails and assets on those rails to transform the cost and experience of current peer-to-peer, merchant, and cross-border payment flows.
NFT marketplaces
Enable brands to create, market, transact and manage digital goods (collectibles, loyalty assets, etc.) with their customers on an enterprise blockchain network with seamless connectivity to secondary market platforms and other chains. An ERC-721 NFT platform prototype running on VMware Blockchain was presented at a Spring One 2021 workshop.
Document verification
Enable private institutions and government organizations to digitally issue and validate trustworthiness and authenticity of the certificates (official records) submitted by applicants in a secure and controlled manner.
Get Started
Please register for the VMware Blockchain for Ethereum beta program — sign up here.
If you’re interested in learning more about VMware’s vision for Ethereum in the Enterprise, we recommend checking out our blog. In the meantime, you can engage with us and follow our announcements and advancements on Twitter — @vmwblockchain.
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