All About National Blockchain Technology Stack, Vishvasya

ABSTRACT

The technology stack aims to offer blockchain technology as a service and includes a geographically distributed infrastructure designed to support various “permissioned” applications

MeitY also unveiled a blockchain sandbox platform called NBFLite, National Blockchain Portal and Praamaanik, a blockchain-based solution for mobile app verification

In the future, MeitY will focus on developing an “extensible blockchain framework” that will help address challenges such as skilled labor, vendor lock-in, and other research challenges.

India has been experimenting with blockchain for some time now. As part of its broader push into the new technology, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has now launched a range of blockchain-based solutions to support security, trust and transparency across citizen-centric applications.

In a follow-up to this, the ministry on September 4 unveiled ‘Vishvasya’, a domestic blockchain stack designed to offer blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS). The new platform includes a geographically distributed infrastructure designed to support a variety of ‘permissioned’ blockchain-based applications.

Additionally, the government unveiled a blockchain testbed called NBFLite, the National Blockchain Portal and Praamaanik, a blockchain-based solution for verifying the origin of mobile apps.

Speaking at the launch event, MeitY Additional Secretary Bhuvnesh Kumar highlighted that the technology has the potential to “transform” governance in India by making public services more transparent, efficient and accountable. He also urged various state governments and departments to scale applications under the National Blockchain Framework (NBF).

But what is blockchain? In simple terms, it is a type of digital ledger technology that uses cryptography and algorithms to create a chain of blocks that record transactions. Due to its advantages such as transparency, security, and immutability, these ledgers can record transactions and data that cannot be easily manipulated and can be verified in the future.

With this in mind, let’s take a closer look at Centrum’s ambitious blockchain technology stack.

What is a national blockchain stack?

A new set of technologies has been designed to build trust by developing new types of distributed software architectures.

The BaaS model ensures the security of various blockchain components, reduces the need for human intervention, and enables “technology support” for various stakeholders building and deploying blockchain applications.

With this, the government aims to facilitate the adoption of blockchain technology by various stakeholders, including infrastructure providers, smart contract developers and application developers.

For the uninitiated, blockchain infrastructure providers manage blockchain applications for businesses and offer services such as node operations, decentralized storage, and more. Meanwhile, smart contract developers create, deploy, and maintain smart contracts on DLT platforms.

Smart contracts are automatically executable agreements encoded on a blockchain platform that are automatically executed when certain conditions are met.

Infrastructure providers can take advantage of the network configuration wizard and single and multi-node configurations, while smart contract developers can take advantage of features such as the smart contract studio with pre-populated templates and design patterns for various application domains.

Additionally, BaaS also offers generic Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface (REST) ​​APIs to access smart contract features and easily integrate with mobile applications and IoT devices.

Features of Vishvasya BaaS:

• Rapid end-to-end development and deployment of permissioned blockchain applications
• Ready-to-use, security-audited blockchain containers for production setup
• Blockchain-specific security audit guidelines implemented
• Geographically distributed infrastructure spanning three data centers in Hyderabad, Pune and Bhubaneswar

Another key feature of Vishvasya blockchain technology is NBF Lite, a blockchain-based sandbox platform specifically developed for startups and academic institutions to rapidly prototype applications, conduct research, and build capacity.

NBF Lite has been developed in a collaboration between C-DAC, NIC, IDRBT Hyderabad, IIT Hyderabad, IIIT Hyderabad and SETS Chennai, with support from MeitY.

Meanwhile, MeitY said a range of blockchain-based solutions have already been developed or are being developed in collaboration with various government agencies.

It has partnered with companies like Cotton Corporation of India, Forensic Science Laboratory, CBSE and Ministry of Justice to develop use cases like cotton bale identification and tracking, document chain and applications for various exams.

MeitY is also working with the governments of Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and other countries to build and deploy blockchain-based applications.

Building a Blockchain Ecosystem

During the launch event, MeitY representatives also showcased “Praamaanik”, a blockchain-based solution for mobile app verification.

“Praamaanik is a blockchain-based solution for verifying the origin of mobile apps and is powered by NBF. Mobile apps are uploaded by (a) designated representative of the organization and the unique details of the mobile app are recorded on a blockchain ledger,” the statement reads.

The blockchain-based solution offers an “immutable mobile app fingerprint registry,” app authentication, trust building, and other features.

At the same time, the Ministry also unveiled the National Blockchain Portal, which will offer comprehensive solutions for all issues related to the National Blockchain Framework. The portal will offer training, data on related startups, integrated news on chatbots and all related publications in one place.

In the future, MeitY aims to develop an “extensible blockchain infrastructure” that will address challenges such as skilled labor, vendor lock-in, and research challenges related to security, interoperability, efficiency, and other aspects.