As we continue our mission to disrupt the data collection process in the international development and humanitarian sectors, it’s critical to explain the thinking behind selecting the infrastructure of our technology solution.

The application will be built on Hyperledger Fabric, a permissioned blockchain solution known for its robust enterprise security features and a strong developer community. This choice was made after a thorough evaluation of other blockchain protocols, including Ethereum and Filecoin.

Ethereum

Initially, the team examined Ethereum, which has been used in some humanitarian projects. However, its high transaction fees posed a significant drawback, making it a less viable option for the application. Moreover, Ethereum is a public and permissionless blockchain, meaning that anyone can join the network and access the data stored on it. This lack of privacy and confidentiality could be a significant concern when dealing with sensitive survey data from multiple organizations. Moreover, Ethereum primarily uses Solidity as its smart contract language. While Solidity is a powerful and popular language, it may not be as familiar or accessible as more common programming languages like Java, Go, or Node.js, which are supported by Hyperledger Fabric.

Filecoin

Filecoin was another promising option, given its ability to store large amounts of data through IPFS at much lower fees than Ethereum. It also has an active developer community.

However, Filecoin’s data sensitivity posed a challenge, as it required encryption before sending data to a storage provider and additional fees for data retrieval. Additionally, Filecoin primarily focuses on data management, meaning survey data would not be stored on a blockchain.

Hyperledger Fabric

Upon evaluating the limitations of Ethereum and Filecoin, Hyperledger Fabric emerged as the most optimal protocol for the application. Its modular architecture delivers high levels of confidentiality, resiliency, flexibility, and scalability. Fabric is also more developer-friendly, as it supports common application languages such as Java, Go, and Node.js.

Moreover, Fabric’s elaborate architecture, including its Membership Service Provider (MSP) and channels features, provide flexibility and ensure data visibility only to authorized parties. Hyperledger Fabric’s approach to blockchain storage is advantageous, as it stores transactions on a world state (a mutable database) and an immutable transaction log. This system enables a more efficient and secure data storage process. Fabric also supports smart contracts, known as chaincodes, which will store the survey details. The use of chaincodes ensures a secure and transparent process for storing and managing survey data, further enhancing the application’s value proposition.

Fabric’s structure allows for horizontal scaling, making it an ideal choice for multi-organization projects. The distributed and modular nature of Hyperledger Fabric ensures that the system can handle a growing number of organizations and transactions without compromising performance.

We believe that Hyperledger Fabric is the best platform for our blockchain-based survey application. It offers the security, scalability, and flexibility that we need to deliver a valuable service to our users.

We are excited to continue developing this application and to see how it can help to improve the data collection process in the international development and humanitarian sectors.

We are always looking for feedback, so please feel free to reach out to us with your thoughts.