An enterprise-focused Ethereum blockchain is one of the simplest ways we can describe Quorum. Quorum is the brainchild of JP Morgan, which wants to advance blockchain technology in the financial industry.
As you may already know, the financial sector requires a specific kind of blockchain. It should be fast, high-throughput, and work while keeping participant privacy in check. Knowing this, JP Morgan developed Quorum, which offers high-speed processing and performance while keeping transaction details hidden. It also works flawlessly in a permission group where the participants know each other. In short, Quorum aims to build a blockchain solution that can meet the needs of the financial industry. However, its use is not limited to the financial industry. We will discuss other blockchain use cases in a later part of the guide.
Being based on Ethereum, it uses smart contracts to facilitate transactions within the blockchain. JP Morgan's goal is to implement the Global Network Payments initiative and help banks use distributed networks. This will increase efficiency, streamline global payments, enable 24/7 status tracking and payment settlement, and so on.
What’s the Need for Such a System?
Before going into more information, we also need to find out the need for such a system. Do we need the Quorum blockchain platform? If so, why? Let's explore.
The financial sector is controlled by many organizations that deploy their way of handling all information. It works fine for the most part. However, it is not perfect. Many problems plague the financial industry, including lack of control over information, public transparency, and so on. Even traditional blockchain solutions do not meet the needs of the financial industry, even if they offer features such as immutability and traceability.
The solution is a blockchain system that offers private control through automation. Quorum provides just that, helping any financial organization customize its blockchain to suit its needs. The core of Quora is trying to solve the problems of the financial institute. Quorum enhances existing blockchain solutions and provides the following features that are necessary for it to function properly.
- Enhanced contract privacy and transaction
- Better performance
- Proper peer and network management
- Voting-based consensus mechanisms
Quorum Blockchain Features Explained
Privacy and Transparency:
Privacy is always a key aspect of any blockchain solution. Quorum understands this, which is why it offers both transaction-level privacy and network-wide transparency. These parameters are also not locked and can be customized by the business itself. Smart contracts play a key role in customization. Also, all transactions including smart contracts (private and public) are verified by every node within the blockchain.
Private smart contracts play differently on the network, where their status or operation is known only to the parties or any approved third-party regulators. To ensure security while maintaining privacy, it uses a Zero-knowledge security layer that ensures private settlement without any compromise. This is one of the most important features of the Quorum blockchain.
Performance and Throughput:
Performance has always been a strength of Quorum networks. They can process hundreds of transactions per second. Transaction speed can also be configured according to smart contracts and network configuration. Thanks to optimization, the number of transactions can be significantly improved. It also uses the voting-based QuorumChain RAFT consensus algorithm to ensure better performance. It also uses the Istanbul BFT consensus algorithm contributed by AMIS.
Permission & Governance:
Since financial institutions are private, it was necessary to allow access to the permit. A quorum does this and ensures correct transactions between a group of known authorized participants. However, it is currently only possible to manage it manually. Management can also be managed using a smart contract based tool. These tools are built around cybersecurity best practices.
Quorum is Open-Source
Trust:
Trust is required for any technology. Blockchain has brought digital trust and ensured that both parties play safely in its system. Also, the fact that no centralized authority can participate in the process is considered trustworthy. Open source, on the other hand, brings more confidence to already impressive blockchain projects. This means that the code is verified and validated by developers with different interests, demographics, and learning curves. Quorum also uses signature verification, which brings trust to the permissioned network given that the anonymous network doesn't use them in the first place. Quorum brings the best of both worlds.
Maturity:
Since Quorum is based on Ethereum, it already inherits all the key features of the Ethereum blockchain. Since Ethereum has gone through many iterations, it automatically benefits from this and brings a more mature blockchain that can be developed and developed alongside Ethereum. Quorum also planned to add new features as well as welcome public input.
Consensus Algorithm
Hyperledger Fabric:
The consensus algorithm in Hyperledger Fabric is more dynamic than others. It uses a wide range of consensus algorithms and covers the entire transaction. Transactions are made in advance and then finally entered into the blockchain. This approach is efficient because it powers multiple nodes simultaneously, improving scalability and overall performance.
Corda:
Corda focuses more on privacy and bank security issues. Therefore, they are prone to transactions and state changes. This approach also improves scalability. The fundamental difference between Corda and other blockchain solutions is the introduction of notaries. They act similarly to miners and are entrusted with the responsibility of verifying transactions. After verification, the transaction is added to the immutable chain. The choice of a centralized or decentralized notary depends entirely on the banks.
Quorum:
Quorum also takes a different approach when it comes to the consensus algorithm. It uses "QuorumChain" which brings consensus based on majority voting. However, not all nodes can vote. Only a few special nodes are allowed to vote, which in turn validates the transaction. To achieve better fault tolerance, Quorum uses models based on Istanbul BFT and Raft.
Smart Contracts
As all the three blockchain solutions are based on Ethereum, they utilize smart contracts. However, their approach to smart contracts is unique in their way.
Corda:
Corda's approach is unique. The smart contracts that are written are similar to prose and therefore offer ease of use. The legal prose is known as the Ricardian Contract and requires the parties to sign the contract for validity purposes. It supports two programming languages "‹"‹i.e. Java and Kotin programming languages.
Quorum:
Quorum smart contracts can be set to private or public. It also uses Solidity as a tool to program it. However, there is a limitation. Once a smart contract is set to private, it cannot be made public. This Quora privacy proposal is intended to protect the interests of organizations that do not want their smart contracts to be leaked in any way. Similarly, public smart contracts cannot be changed to private ones.
November 21, 2024 at 10:52 am
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