Amazon Web Services announces new service to simplify building blockchains

Amazon Web Services (AWS), an Amazon subsidiary providing on-demand cloud computing platforms, has announced two new services that will help companies manage business transactions that require full auditability.

The new services – Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and Amazon Managed Blockchain – were announced at the AWS re:Invent.

Amazon QLDB is a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable ledger for applications that need a central, trusted authority to provide a permanent and complete record of transactions. It removes the need to build complex audit functionality into a relational database or rely on the ledger capabilities of a blockchain framework. Customers include Healthdirect Australia and Smaato.

The other service, Amazon Managed Blockchain, is aimed at those customers who intend to build applications where multiple parties can execute transactions without the need for a trusted, central authority. It simplifies creating and managing scalable blockchain networks using the popular, open source Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric frameworks.

“Amazon Managed Blockchain eliminates the overhead required to create the network, and automatically scales to meet the demands of thousands of applications running millions of transactions,” the website reads.

“In addition, Managed Blockchain can replicate an immutable copy of your blockchain network activity into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), a fully managed ledger database. This allows you to easily analyze the network activity outside the network and gain insights into trends.”

With Managed Blockchain, AWS explained that setting up a blockchain network is as easy as a few clicks in the AWS Management Console.

Customers just need to choose their preferred framework, add network members, and configure the member nodes that will process transaction requests. Amazon Managed Blockchain takes care of the rest, creating a blockchain network that can span multiple AWS accounts with multiple nodes per member, and configuring software, security, and network settings. In case of a permissioned network, it secures and manages blockchain network certificates with AWS Key Management Service, eliminating the need for customers to set up their own secure key storage.

According to the website, customers of Amazon Managed Blockchain include Workday, Philips, DTCC, Change Healthcare, among others.