Join us on our Hyperledger Besu Performance Mentorship Program

The Linux Foundation's Hyperledger mentor program is an initiative aimed at fostering the development of the next generation of blockchain developers by providing them with a unique opportunity to work on real-world open-source projects under the guidance of experienced mentors. The program offers a stipend for a selected

A comparison of Ethereum clients

Ethereum has a diverse ecosystem of clients that run on the network. An Ethereum client represents the software needed to allow Ethereum nodes to read and verify blocks on the Ethereum blockchain and Ethereum-based smart contracts. An Ethereum client also enables developers to interact with the network and its nodes

How to create private payment networks with Hyperledger Besu

This is your high level guide to creating a private payment network. You create these because you want instant trade settlement with full allocation clarity, and you do it to avoid other more costly traditional event based solutions, like Swift. Private payment networks are taking the world by storm. We’

What is Hyperledger Besu?

Bitcoin and Ethereum are the biggest public permissionless blockchain networks in the world, measured by the value of their native tokens. But are you familiar with the software that makes these blockchain networks operate?  A blockchain network consists of multiple node software instances which are running on different computers. These

Web3j ENS Layer2 and Offchain Data Support

New significant ENS features have been added in the web3j version 4.9.2. These features are aimed at defining a universal standard of working with L2 solutions and off-chain data.   * ENSIP-10: Wildcard Resolution (EIP-2544) * EIP3668: CCIP Read: Secure offchain data retrieval ENS Wildcard Resolution Many applications have expressed a

How to Install Web3j

If you are wondering how to install web3j on your machine then look no further. This post will walk you through everything you need to know about the various ways you can get web3j into your project in a few easy steps. Project Dependencies Web3j is released on Maven at

Solidity Debugger comes to IntelliJ

Many years ago, being a developer involved punching holes in cards. The process was difficult and tedious. Then things got better, and you could start typing your code straight into the computer. But you’d still rely on print statements and log output to understand what was going on, which

How to Sign Messages with Web3j

The capability to sign messages off chain with Web3j has been possible since 2017. Over time, improvements have been made to support basic string messages but also some more complex structured messages. In this post, we will focus on signing basic unstructured data. To implement the Ethereum sign off chain:

How to connect Infura to Web3j

Ethereum is a network of nodes, and in a fully decentralised world you’d be running your own node locally and connect to that when making transactions or querying for data.  However, not everyone can or wants to run their own node, and because of this we have infrastructure providers

Future of Blockchain - 10 Years from Now

It's the start of a new year and it's a great a time as any to reflect on the last year. We thought we'd share one of our previous posts from 2020 where we theorised what the future of blockchain will look like in

Has Blockchain Crossed the Chasm? On the Quest for Interoperability

One of the major phenomena that have marked the 21st century, blockchain technology is certainly on a roll. According to decentralized finance analytic website DeFi Pulse, the current Total Value Locked (TVL) of the market is more than $111 billion and rising, as it moves on an unstoppable road toward

Has Blockchain Crossed the Chasm? Public Blockchain in Enterprise

For a long time, private and permissioned blockchains have been the go-to choices for organizations and enterprise users - and it’s easy to see why, most of these enterprises have placed a high level of importance on control, of which private blockchain environments provide plenty.  Specifically, they only allow

Blockchain Cross-Chain Interoperability

Interoperability is a subject that has been discussed long before the internet; the ability for heterogeneous systems to communicate with one another is essential for these systems to function, not only in software but in other domains. The accelerated development of the blockchain ecosystems and growth in the number of

Has Blockchain Crossed the Chasm? The Netscape Moment for Blockchain

Blockchain and cryptocurrencies have made dramatic strides since their inception in 2008. The DeFi market now measures its Total Value Locked (TVL) in billions of dollars - and the progress is showing no signs of stopping. But how did it get this far? Before truly understanding how blockchain has reached

Has Blockchain Crossed the Chasm? The Early Majority Phase

In our previous series, we took a peek into the future of blockchain and the emerging trends we’re witnessing and can expect in the coming years. These included third-generation platforms, Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), decentralized identity mechanisms, the Internet of Things (IoT), trusted systems of record, and the wider

First release of Web3 Labs' contract deployment plugin

Today is the first time Web3 Labs have released the Ethereum smart contract deployment library and Gradle plugin for Web3j. This release of the Web3j deployer library and plugin, available at GitHub, allows for easy to use deployment process logic following an annotation driven approach. As can be found in

The Case for Decentralised Identity

Decentralised identity and verified credentials enable you to identify yourself online, without needing to scan your passport or expose personal information unduly. It enables organisations to know who they are dealing with more efficiently. It allows us to build trust between multiple parties. It allows for this through innovative use

What’s Next for Blockchain? 7 Emerging Trends

The world of blockchain is an ever-changing one and it’s been like that since its nascent. Companies and platforms rise and fall, difficulties are faced and overcome, solutions are tested, implemented, or discarded. Through it all, new trends emerge, some of them stick around, others fade away, and some

Announcing Web3j support for EIP-1559

The most anticipated Ethereum London fork upgrade is here! It includes the improvement proposal EIP-1559. The upgrade is scheduled to go live on mainnet at block number 12,965,000, and expected to complete August 5. The legacy transaction model on Ethereum uses an  auction style where highest bidders are

Scaling the Ethereum Network: A Primer on Layer 2

One of the most common criticisms against blockchain, and Ethereum in particular, is their inability to scale. In other words, they have a limited transaction throughput. This can lead to disruptive network congestion with high usage. There are many different solutions to this, and this article will cover one type

The Big 4 Blockchain Opportunities

Are you keeping up with blockchain innovations? Simply knowing about the technology is not enough to take advantage of it. You may have heard of a few concepts like DeFi or NFTs. But do you know what they mean? More importantly, do you know how your business can benefit from

7 Common Myths About Blockchain

Blockchain is a versatile technology, and while it may not be a one-size-fits-all solution, the vast majority of supposed drawbacks stem from misunderstanding how it works. The most common mistake is that people tend to oversimplify issues that some blockchain solutions face and then apply that to every blockchain. In

7 signs you should be looking at blockchain

There are many possible applications for blockchain in enterprises. Being able to determine where it can have the most impact in your organisation may not be obvious to you. If you’re experiencing any of the following problems, you’ll have a good place to start. 1. There is a

What will the future of blockchain look like?

Like anybody in the tech industry, I’m always wondering where we're headed. If we’re already seeing a colossal pace of change, where will we be in 10 years? Blockchain is just one of many examples, having come on in leaps and bounds since the turn of

Web3j Community Update

We’ve spent a good chunk of 2020 with our heads down continually investing in Web3j to improve the Ethereum developer experience for Java and Android developers. This has always been an area close to my heart, and we’ve been fortunate enough to secure funding from the Ethereum Foundation