Blockchain - The Next Big Thing for Middleware

Kai Wähner
Technology Evangelist
kwaehner@tibco.com
LinkedIn
@KaiWaehner
www.kai-waehner.de
October 2016
Blockchain – The Next Big Thing (for Middleware)?

© Copyright 2000-2016 TIBCO Software Inc.
1. Motivation and Use Cases for Blockchain
2. Technical Concepts and Frameworks
3. Blockchain as a Service (BaaS)
4. Blockchain and Middleware
Agenda

Bitcoin – Just the Tip of the Iceberg!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSP-taqLWPQ
Let’s watch a
5min intro first…

There were more than 710 cryptocurrencies available for trade in online markets as of 11 July 2016 and
more than 740 in total but only 9 of them had market capitalizations over $10 million.
Altcoins (= Bitcoin Alternatives)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptocurrencies https://bitcoinlife.wordpress.com/2014/01/13/holy-crap-i-get-altcoins-now/ 1
Altcoin is not Blockchain!

… is a layer
under the hood
of a cryptocurrency!
Blockchain
http://www.ibm.com/blockchain/what-is-blockchain.html

… is all around
“the transfer of assets
within a business network”
http://www.ibm.com/blockchain/what-is-blockchain.html
Blockchain

Blockchain goes way beyond financial transactions
OpenBazaar
Open your own shop without
Ebay or Amazon as intermediary
Internet of Things and Smart Contracts
Probably the next “big thing” for Blockchain
after financial industry
Lazooz
Ride-sharing for
collaborative transportation
Skuchain
Next Generation
Supply Chain Management

• Innovate and provide new services and distributed
applications
• Enable Smart Contracts to cut out the [expensive
and / or slow] middleman in many industry
scenarios streamlining processes like settlement.
• Today just scratching the surface of possible use
cases. Can’t really imagine yet what customers and
partners will build (this is similar to Open API
initiatives, but more “extreme”)
Why Blockchain?

Blockchain as Disruptor for existing Businesses (beyond Banks)
http://www.slideshare.net/CoinDesk/state-of-bitcoin-and-blockchain-2016-57577869/96
https://www.flightright.com/
http://www.travelguard.com/travelinsurance/flight.asp

A blockchain is a protocol and ledger for building an immutable
historical record of transactions.
Implementation of a Ledger
• Ledgers record transactions – the passing of value from owner to owner
• Transactions are time based
• Once a Transaction is recorded you cannot alter it
• You need to be able to detect if your ledger has been altered
What is a Blockchain?
http://www.slideshare.net/Blockstrap/cbgtbt-part-1-workshop-introduction-primer

No new technology in blockchains, just lots of it combined in a new way.
1. A data structure called the blockchain which serves as the back-end
database.
2. A cryptographic token, e.g. the Bitcoin (BTC) in the Bitcoin protocol or ether
(ETH) for Ethereum.
3. A peer-to-peer network for discovery and communications.
4. A consensus formation algorithm. Most enterprise blockchains will not use
mining (like Bitcoin) for consensus.
5. A virtual machine that enables programmable money in Bitcoin and
decentralized applications in Ethereum .
Key Characteristics of Blockchain
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ethereum-blockchain-as-a-service-now-on-azure

Blockchain Network and Shared Ledger
https://new-console.ng.bluemix.net/docs/services/blockchain/ibmblockchain_overview.html
“Blockchain consists of a network, over
which members track and exchange assets,
and a record of all exchanges (ledger),
which is replicated to all participating
members.
Applications deployed to a blockchain
consist of a self-executing contract and a
client-side application that interfaces with
the network through an SDK or API.”

• Public vs private (internal / partner)
• Adopted vs. new vs. dead
• Different characteristics (speed, security, consensus algorithms, etc.)
Variety of Blockchain Technologies
http://www.blockchaintechnologies.com/blockchain-mining

There is no Blockchain Standard yet, but at least…
https://r3cev.com/ http://www.digitalchamber.org/smart-contract-alliance.html

Hyperledger
https://www.hyperledger.org/
https://github.com/hyperledger

Ethereum
https://www.ethereum.org/
https://consensys.net
Ether is to be treated as "crypto-fuel", a token whose purpose
is to pay for computation, and is not intended to be used as or
considered a currency, asset, share or anything else.

Not 100% comparable, but
Hyperledger ”is more like” a IaaS (e.g. AWS in the public cloud
or OpenStack on premise).
Ethereum “is more like” a PaaS (e.g. CloudFoundry or
OpenShift).
Hyperledger vs. Ethereum

• Hyperledger (Hyper Ledger Foundation) is a newly initiated open source project of the Linux
Foundation that was spun out of Digital Asset following the acquisition of Hyperledger. Hyperledger is
a “Unspent Transaction Output-based protocol (UTXO)”. A key difference to Bitcoin and Ethereum:
Open governance. The project will serve as a development library that firms can use to build their own
distributed ledgers without needing to rely on public blockchains such as those used in bitcoin and
Ethereum
• Ethereum (Ethereum.org) is a fully-functioning, publicly accessible, uncensorable smart contract
network. Ethereum is a smart contract-based protocol. It is open source but it's governed by the
board of the Ethereum Foundation, not an open technical committee.
Differences between Hyperledger and Ethereum

• IBM and Microsoft are taking a leading role
• Offering cloud platforms for development and enterprise scale
• Based on open technologies and frameworks
• Portfolio includes blockchain offerings plus integration into their
other cloud services
Blockchain Offerings

IBM – Blockchain on Bluemix
Leverages the
Hyperledger Project

IBM – Blockchain on Bluemix
Testing with Swagger REST UIBlockchain Monitor

Microsoft – Blockchain on Azure
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/ethereum-blockchain-as-a-service-now-on-azure/
Leverages the
Ethereum Project

“Blockchain will be a workhorse, but behind the scenes.”
Translated:
Blockchain will not be important for most business users, but a key
component for distributed infrastructure (and middleware) applications under
the hood!
Is Blockchain just a Hype?
https://www.rtinsights.com/blockchain-challenges-pki-hype

• Integration of many different data sources in real time
• Blockchain Clients
• Backends (ERP, CRM)
• Legacy systems
• Cloud services
• …
• Gateway and API Management
• Combination of different blockchains
• Correlation of events in real time
• Data discovery to find insights
• Identity and Key Services
• Crypto Services
Why Middleware in Combination with Blockchain?

Reference Architecture for Blockchain and Middleware
Operational Analytics
Operations
Live User Interface
Blockchain
Real Time
Integration
Streaming Analytics
Action
Aggregate
Rules
Stream Processing
Analytics
Correlate
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
Data
Sheets
BI
Data
Scientists
Cleansed
Data
History
Data Discovery
Enterprise Service Bus
ERP MDM DB Host
SOA
Data Storage
Integration Bus
API
Complex Event Processing
Machine
Learning
Big Data
Blockchain
Network A
(Hyperledger)
Blockchain
Network B
(Ethereum)
Blockchain
Real Time
Integration
Continuous query
processing
Alerts
Manual action,
escalation

Getting Started with TIBCO Middleware and Blockchain
1) Spin up an Blockchain BaaS instance
2) Run Blockchain Hello World example
3) Import Swagger REST interface into TIBCO’s Integration Middleware
• BusinessWorks 6 (BW6), BW Container Edition (BWCE) or TIBCO Cloud Integration (TCI)
4) Implement a first integration service
5) Or correlate blockchain events with TIBCO’s Streaming Analytics
• TIBCO StreamBase, TIBCO Live Datamart
6) Or discover insights in historical data via TIBCO’s Visual Analytics
• TIBCO Spotfire
7) Apply Machine Learning
• TIBCO Runtime for R (TERR), Apache Spark ML, H2O.ai
• In combination with Visual Analytics and / or Streaming Analytics

Questions? Please contact me!
Kai Wähner
Technology Evangelist
kwaehner@tibco.com
@KaiWaehner
www.kai-waehner.de
LinkedIn

Blockchain - The Next Big Thing for Middleware

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