Does‌ ‌chief‌ ‌architect‌ ‌reveal‌ ‌what‌ ‌is‌ ‌the‌ ‌BSN‌ ‌led‌ ‌by‌ ‌the‌ ‌"national‌ ‌team"?‌ ‌

 

With the introduction of new infrastructure concepts, technologies such as 5G, big data, industrial Internet of Things, and blockchain will play an indispensable role. Blockchain, as the link of the trust mechanism, is empowering the new infrastructure by virtue of its non-tampering, information transparency and other characteristics.

2019, due to the State Information Center, lead, together with China Mobile, China Union Pay and other units merged launched a block chain service network ( Block-catena alberghiera-based Service Network, hereinafter referred to as BSN), aims to establish a low-cost development, deployment, operation Public infrastructure networks for maintenance, interoperability and regulatory alliance chain applications. 

After more than a year of development, BSN officially entered the commercial stage on April 25 this year . So as the "national team", what are the highlights of the blockchain service network jointly developed by the giants? What is the design philosophy and technology behind it? 

Not long ago, we interviewed Ma Xiaojun, chief architect of BSN and CTO of Red Date Technology , to hear him reveal the technical concept behind BSN.

Ma Xiaojun: He is currently the CTO of Beijing Red Date Technology Co., Ltd. and the chief architect of the blockchain service network BSN. He once undertook the main research and development work in the core departments of Inspur and Achievo. Has more than ten years of experience in system development, technical architecture design and project management. As a senior architect, he has participated in related projects such as the second-generation cargo distribution library, the smart city five-source plan, and the blockchain service network BSN.

C SDN: Please introduce the original intention, process and recent situation of the establishment of the BSN project. 

 

Ma Xiaojun: The initial cause is very simple and direct. During the deployment of the payment chain application of the five-source plan project, we investigated several BaaS providers in China. The production cost of the three-node production environment is almost more than 100,000 per year. This is too expensive for an application product with an initial number of concurrent transactions of less than 10 TPS. Although the traditional BaaS platform lowers the technical threshold for blockchain application deployment and operation and maintenance, it also holds the user's deployment needs to a certain extent, which is not conducive to the widespread use and popularization of blockchain technology. We hope to find and provide a low-cost deployment solution so that a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, even students, including individuals can use blockchain technology for innovation and entrepreneurship, thereby promoting the rapid development and popularization of blockchain technology.

BSN has integrated Hyperledger Fabric and FISCO BCOS, and is doing the integration of Fabric State Secret, Baidu XuperChain, and the integration of multiple frameworks such as CITA. The public beta version of the BSN International Network has been released. We will continue to adapt and support some public chains such as Ethereum and EOS on the international official website and international nodes to provide DApp developers with high-performance and high-availability public chain node access services.

C SDN : In your opinion, how does the underlying architecture design of a blockchain platform differ from other platforms? How are these differences reflected on the BSN platform?

Ma Xiaojun: First of all, the concept is different . The core concept of BSN is to establish a common public blockchain environment for resource sharing and provide a combination of multiple cloud resources, underlying framework, operating environment, key management, SDK and gateway API development . One-stop blockchain deployment and operation services. Developers can easily deploy and run blockchain and distributed ledger applications on the service network at a very low cost. Regardless of whether the bottom layer is heterogeneous, all application chains on the service network can perform data interaction, which brings a quality experience similar to the rapid construction of websites on the Internet and efficient interconnection.

In terms of the underlying architecture, BSN adopts a more fine-grained way of sharing computing resources among multiple applications to reduce the cost of running blockchain application services. Simply put, different blockchain applications deployed by multiple developers on BSN can be deployed to run on the same host blockchain node, which is equivalent to sharing the same server . Most BaaS platforms deploy application services by allocating independent host resource server resources, ignoring the actual computing resource requirements of application services, resulting in waste of resources and increased customer deployment costs. In terms of performance, if the application service performance requirements can be met, the cost of deploying application services on the BSN will be lower. Just like running 10 applications on one computer and 10 applications must run on 10 computers respectively , the cost of the former is definitely low. 

BSN architecture diagram

BSN is based on the Internet to build a blockchain public operating environment that connects different cloud services and IDCs. Most other platforms are based on the internal local area network of the cloud service provider's cloud services to build a blockchain operating environment.

From the perspective of the underlying framework, most of the current BaaS platforms will generally choose to integrate two open source or their own blockchain frameworks, and the built blockchain operating environment runs independently. One of the core concepts of the service network is to support as many underlying blockchain frameworks as possible. At present, blockchain technology is still in the early stages. We hope to establish a benign development and fair competition environment for all underlying frameworks through the service network, and promote the underlying framework to continue to promote the development of blockchain underlying technologies and continuously improve service quality. All the frameworks adapted to the service network are not simply piled together, but according to the "Blockchain Service Network Bottom Framework Adaptation Standard", the key algorithm, CA management, application chain management, smart contract management, transaction interface Unify the entry and other aspects.

Another difference is the multi-portal, which is this part of the BSN enabling platform. Generally speaking, other blockchain platforms are closed and only sell the resources of the platform itself, and will not export BaaS capabilities to third parties. BSN provides this service -through the BSN enabling platform, the ability to release blockchain application services is opened to third parties, so that third-party portals can use BSN deployment resources to provide blockchain application deployment and operation service capabilities to their users.

Especially for portals with developer resources, taking CSDN as an example, as a professional IT technology community in China, a large number of technology developers are gathered. If CSDN integrates the BSN enabling platform, developers can directly select BSN's city node resources to deploy blockchain applications in the CSDN platform, and these application deployment information is passed to the BSN's operation and maintenance system through the enabling platform and dispatched by each The node management service of the city node completes the service deployment work . For the CSDN platform, it actually outputs the deployment capabilities of the blockchain to the users of CSDN, and realizes the functions similar to the BSN portal.

CSDN : As the chief architect of BSN, what principles does the design of BSN architecture follow?

 

Ma Xiaojun: Mainly follow the following design principles in architecture and implementation:

• Simple and easy to use, realize automatic configuration, deploy blockchain application services, manage and maintain accounting nodes, and provide full lifecycle management of blockchain;
• Safe and reliable, based on encryption technology, to achieve perfect user identity authentication, CA management, application authority management, data security management and isolation mechanism;
• Mature and advanced, the blockchain service network is built with mature technologies in multiple fields. Starting from analyzing typical use cases of enterprise applications, the system functional characteristics and basic capability services are designed to ensure that the basic functional services provided by the service network are universal and suitable for a wide range of applications. Corporate needs;
• Modular design, using modular design, separate design and implementation of functional modules such as node resource management, bottom frame adaptation, application chain management, node gateway, CA management, authority management, operation and maintenance management and monitoring, etc., through a clearly defined module interface The service realizes loose coupling between modules to obtain good scalability of the entire system.
• Cooperation is open, and any cloud service provider, underlying framework provider, and portal provider can freely choose to join or exit the service network under the premise of meeting the service network protocol standards.

C SDN : What technical challenges have you encountered in the construction of the architecture?

Ma Xiaojun: The BSN mentioned above is based on computing resource sharing and bears multiple application services. Under this model, it is a difficult problem to implement accurate billing technology for computing and network resource usage of application services based on different blockchain frameworks. It is easy to understand from the business logic that running multiple applications on one machine is definitely cheaper than running one application on one machine.

But these 20 applications run on one machine, and it is difficult to accurately measure the cost of each application. In terms of traffic metering, the traditional BaaS platform's application services are deployed on a one-to-one basis with the host. Billing can be accurately billed through the host's traffic statistics, but on the BSN, it is often the deployment of multiple application services from different publishers. In the service instance of an underlying framework running on the same host, this requires that we can communicate data packets and data packets transmitted by the underlying framework node for different applications of different frameworks to accurately calculate and calculate the application traffic. fee. The accurate billing and pricing of the host's CPU and memory computing resources are more complicated.

The multi-frame adaptation of BSN requires us to invest a lot of resources and energy to deeply study the operation mechanism of various types of blockchain frameworks, and combine the business model of BSN to customize the adaptation to the underlying framework.

The compatibility of the deployment of heterogeneous node service providers' resources and facilities, the rolling update deployment of large-scale public city nodes and the delay of Internet communication across multiple telecom operators are also the challenges and challenges faced in the service network operation and maintenance and operation .

How can the national team card company build a super blockchain service network?

C SDN : B SN involves the participation of national ministries and commissions and multiple enterprises. What is the division of labor between them ?

Ma Xiaojun: Red Date Technology is mainly engaged in the design and development of BSN's underlying framework adaptation, city node operation management, and city node gateway related systems. China UnionPay Electronic Payment Research Institute is responsible for the design and construction of BSN's basic capability services. China Mobile Design Institute is responsible for the BSN city node network management system, BSN city node network planning and network security design and construction. Various developers of the underlying framework, such as Wezhong Bank, Baidu, Hainan Lianhuo, and Xita Technology, are responsible for the customized development of the adaptation of the underlying framework.

 

CSDN : What is the cross-chain mechanism of BSN between heterogeneous blockchains?

Ma Xiaojun:BSN is cooperating with Bianjian Intelligence to integrate its IRITA framework into BSN to support cross-chain access and interoperability between developers’ application chains. Secondly, the developer's off-chain business system can access and operate multiple blockchain application chains at the same time through the BSN's city node gateway, and obtain access authorization from the application publisher, which can realize the inter-chain based on off-chain relay Data communication.

 

CSDN : What is the security mechanism/encryption algorithm mechanism of BSN?

Ma Xiaojun: When a developer publishes an application chain in any BSN portal, there are two application access key modes to choose from: "key escrow mode" or "upload public key mode" . The key escrow mode is that the user entrusts the service network to generate the key, which is downloaded and used by the user in the BSN portal. The upload public key mode is that the application chain user generates a key locally, and then uploads the public key through the BSN portal, and then uses the private key for transaction signature to connect to the city node gateway to complete the application access authentication.

The key escrow mode is more convenient, but the public key upload mode is more autonomous, and the specific mode used is completely set by the developer. For the application chain that has been released, when setting the user transaction key, the developer can set a unified key for the entire application chain for all access users, or set a separate user transaction key for each user. The mode of key setting is also divided into key escrow mode and upload public key mode. Different from the application access key, the city node gateway provides a user transaction key management interface, which does not require developers and users to set up separately in the BSN portal.

In addition, when releasing smart contracts for application chains, developers can freely combine the methods in the smart contract into various roles, and each role has the permission to call one or more methods, for example: some roles can write data, some The role can only query data. When a user joins the application chain, one or more roles can be assigned. These roles and corresponding permission information exist in the permission chain. When the user's business system accesses the application chain through the gateway, it can only execute the functions and data permissions allowed by the assigned role.

Developers can further control transactions and data processing in the preparation of smart contracts. Even if two users have the permissions of the same role, it can be defined at the smart contract code level that these two users can query and perform different data transaction operations.

The above mechanisms form a complete service network system in terms of application chain data security, which not only guarantees the absolute security of the data, but also allows developers to have enough space to design their own application chain security mechanism according to business needs.

 

B SN and blockchain application

 

C SDN : What are the current applications that impress you on BSN?

Ma Xiaojun: From internal testing to current commercial use, nearly 200 blockchain applications have been deployed in the BSN, including 1call resident public point management, public data security sharing service, smart disinfection supervision platform, government integration chain, electronic contract management , Government affairs deposit certificate, commodity traceability and other blockchain applications, covering different industries.

Based on BSN core technology, the initiator of BSN launched the BSN blockchain private network for industry-specific networks. The blockchain private network is built on a dedicated network environment such as government affairs, finance, and power. It has built a blockchain basic environment platform including the underlying blockchain infrastructure network, supporting management platform, operation and maintenance platform, and application portal. It brings together public health management, digital certificate registration, public safety evidence supervision, civil registration, inter-government information exchange and mutual trust and other blockchain application products of professional companies in various industries to provide smart city construction and traditional business system blocks for local governments. Chain transformation empowerment.

 

CSDN : next 1 - 2 years, the block chain applications will be developed to what?

Ma Xiaojun: I personally think that blockchain technology may be the first to mature and play a huge application value in the financial fields such as cross-border payment , letter of credit, and payment settlement, as well as election voting, welfare lottery, and public welfare charity and public utilities. Blockchain can technically solve the problems of transparency and openness in the process of election voting, welfare lottery, and public welfare charity, to avoid the interference of the results by external human resources, and to ensure the fairness of the results. 

C SDN : What is your road to blockchain technology growth?

Ma Xiaojun : I started to understand the basic knowledge, technical architecture and operating mechanism of blockchain from Bitcoin and Ethereum. In the process of BSN construction , I have had in-depth study and researchon Hyperledger Fabric, FISCO BCOS and XuperChain.

For developers of entry-level blockchains, I recommend first collecting the basic knowledge resources of the blockchain from the technical community and doing a lot of extensive reading. Then choose a blockchain framework for in-depth learning and research. To become familiar with a framework, you can start with the official documentation of the framework, understand the basic terms and concepts, and supplement your lack of knowledge based on these. Then, through precision reading, we can grasp the overall architecture and operating mechanism of the framework, such as: security control, cryptographic algorithm, communication processing flow, synchronization mechanism, consensus mechanism, block data structure, state database and smart contract language, etc. On this basis, combined with your own project practice, the problem-driven further learning and research framework implementation code . For blockchain application developers, smart contract languages, contract SDKs, contract development models, contract deployment mechanisms, and framework cli SDKs that are proficient in related frameworks are all necessary.