Amazon Announces Amazon Quantum Ledger Database
Amazon is getting into Blockchain by introduction its Amazon Managed Blockchain Service that allows software developers and application builders to build blockchain based applications without creating their own blockchain infrastructure. Amazon Managed Blockchain Service hosted in AWS can manage peer-to-peer payments, process loans, and help businesses transact with distributors and suppliers. Currently, AWS Managed blockchain service supports two popular open source blockchain frameworks - Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.
With the announcement, Amazon also announced Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (Amazon QLDB), that is fully managed ledger database and provides a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log. Owned by a central trusted authority.
From the QLDB website:
Amazon QLDB is a fully managed ledger database that provides a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable transaction log owned by a central trusted authority. Amazon QLDB tracks each and every application data change and maintains a complete and verifiable history of changes over time.
Ledgers are typically used to record a history of economic and financial activity in an organization. Many organizations build applications with ledger-like functionality because they want to maintain an accurate history of their applications' data, for example, tracking the history of credits and debits in banking transactions, verifying the data lineage of an insurance claim, or tracing movement of an item in a supply chain network. Ledger applications are often implemented using custom audit tables or audit trails created in relational databases. However, building audit functionality with relational databases is time-consuming and prone to human error. It requires custom development, and since relational databases are not inherently immutable, any unintended changes to the data are hard to track and verify. Alternatively, blockchain frameworks, such as Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum, can also be used as a ledger. However, this adds complexity as you need to set-up an entire blockchain network with multiple nodes, manage its infrastructure, and require the nodes to validate each transaction before it can be added to the ledger.
Amazon QLDB is a new class of database that eliminates the need to engage in the complex development effort of building your own ledger-like applications. With QLDB, your data’s change history is immutable – it cannot be altered or deleted – and using cryptography, you can easily verify that there have been no unintended modifications to your application’s data. QLDB uses an immutable transactional log, known as a journal, that tracks each application data change and maintains a complete and verifiable history of changes over time. QLDB is easy to use because it provides developers with a familiar SQL-like API, a flexible document data model, and full support for transactions. QLDB is also serverless, so it automatically scales to support the demands of your application. There are no servers to manage and no read or write limits to configure. With QLDB, you only pay for what you use.
Amazon QLDB benefits
Immutable and Transparent
Amazon QLDB uses a journal that tracks each application data change and maintains a complete and sequenced history of changes over time. Data on the journal cannot be deleted or modified. The full history of your database can be accessed and you can query and analyze the history to see how your data has changed over time.
Cryptographically Verifiable
With Amazon QLDB, you can trust that the history of changes to your application data is accurate. QLDB uses a cryptographic hash function (SHA-256) to generate a secure output file of your data’s change history, known as a digest. The digest acts as a proof of your data’s change history, allowing you to look back and validate the integrity of your data changes.
Highly Scalable
Amazon QLDB is highly scalable and can execute 2 – 3X as many transactions than ledgers in common blockchain frameworks. Blockchain frameworks are decentralized so to execute a transaction, they require a majority of members of the network to reach consensus on the validity of the transaction. On the other hand, QLDB has a centralized design, allowing its transactions to execute without the need for multi-party consensus.
Serverless
With Amazon QLDB, you don’t have to worry about provisioning capacity or configuring read and write limits. You create a ledger, define your tables, and QLDB automatically scales to support the demands of your application. To help you gain a better understanding of the operational health of your database, QLDB also allows you to monitor operational metrics such as read-events, write-events, storage, etc.
Easy to Use
Amazon QLDB’s familiar database capabilities make it easy to use. QLDB’s SQL-like API allows you to query, manage and update your data using SQL operators. QLDB’s document-oriented data model is flexible, enabling you to easily store and process both structured and semi-structured data.