Building a trusted ledger application with AWS QLDB and extending to tokenomics using AWS Managed Blockchain

Blockchain helps in building applications where multiple stakeholders can execute transactions without a need for a centralized trusted authority. Each blockchain network member needs to provide hardware, software, network elements, and access control. To set up a member node and scale as needed is capital intensive, complex, and not easy to manage.
Depending on the use cases, QLDB and Managed Blockchain can be used together or individually to achieve the goals.

AWS QLDB is a purpose-built ledger database that provides transparent, immutable and cryptographically verifiable transaction logs. It is centralized but auditable and verifiable.

AWS currently provides 2 major blockchain frameworks using AWS Managed Blockchain –

1. Ethereum – It is well suited where transparency of data for all members is important.
2. Hyperledger Fabric – It is well suited where privacy and permission are important with a known set of members.

AWS Managed Blockchain is decentralized in nature with private and public networks.

Enterprises would want to build ledger-based blockchain solutions for a variety of use cases like –

1. Supply chain and inventory
2. Trading platform
3. Healthcare records
4. Claims history
5. Loyalty programs
6. DeFi and so on

The AWS-based implementation comprises 3 major solutions –

Usecase 1 - Record verifiable transactions for enterprise customers in a centralized cloud

Solution - Centralized verifiable ledger solution

P2E(Play to Earn) and P&E(Play and earn) are changing the way the app economy works. Some providers manage the virtual currency and in other cases, it becomes the responsibility of the implementer to manage these earned virtual currencies. This is almost equivalent to building a FinTech solution except that no real fiat currency is involved. Hence a verifiable ledger solution is important to record the transactions. QLDB comes in handy for this purpose. History and current along with the ledger provide an easy way to look at transactions as needed without the development team having to manage different state tables.

Usecase 2 - Extend the earned virtual currencies to stablecoins

Solution - Stablecoins on a blockchain network

The earned virtual currencies can be minted on a private or public blockchain network based on the enterprise’s needs. Stablecoins for enterprise eliminates lots of transaction fees that otherwise would be unwanted using a centralized ledger solution like banking. Stablecoins are mostly used for internal settlements. Rather than waiting for longer banking cashback settlements and paying the banks and card networks to take this benefit to the customer, minting on blockchain helps the benefits being passed to the end customer directly. For large volumes of data, S3 can be used as off-chain storage. AWS Managed Blockchain provides a way to mint stablecoins and record transactions over a private and public blockchain network.

Usecase 3 - Extend the brand ambassadorship by issuing tradable digital assets

Solution - Mint NFTs on a blockchain network

NFT’s provide a way for enterprises to share their digital assets with their customers. Enterprises also open an NFT marketplace for their customers where they can exchange the NFT with other customers. Think of digital industries refurbished business, the digital assets can be exchanged without return and refunds. This saves a lot of time for the enterprise. Also, it provides satisfaction for the buyer that it comes with the same guarantee that the enterprise provided for the first owner. The utility is just changed from one owner to another. Using AWS Managed Blockchain NFTs can be minted on a public blockchain network like Ethereum by securely storing the NFT metadata in S3 and private key in KMS and Secrets Manager.

High-level AWS resources used in the solution

1. API Gateway
2. Lambda
3. QLDB
4. Kinesis
5. Aurora RDS
6. Elasticache
7. Step Functions
8. S3
9. Secrets Manager
10. KMS
11. Managed Blockchain
12. Cloudwatch
13. Cloudfront
14. IAM
15. Amplify

Share your experience on how you would use different AWS resources to build an enterprise-grade blockchain solution.

Happy learning!