An Overview
of Hyperledger
Foundation
Purpose of This Paper
ABOUT HYPERLEDGERFOUNDATION
Hyperledger Foundation was
founded in 2015 to bringtransparency and efficiency tothe enterprise market by fosteringa thriving ecosystem aroundopen source blockchain software
technologies. As a project of theLinux Foundation, Hyperledger
Foundation coordinates acommunity of member and nonmember organizations, individual
contributors, and softwaredevelopers building enterprisegrade platforms, libraries, tools,
and solutions for multiparty
systems using blockchain,
distributed ledger, and related
technologies. Organizations join
Hyperledger Foundation todemonstrate technical leadership,collaborate and network withothers, and raise awarenessaround their efforts in theenterprise blockchain community.
Members include industryleading organizations in finance,banking, healthcare, supply
chains, manufacturing, technology
and beyond. All Hyperledger
code is built publicly and available
under the Apache license. To
learn more, visit hyperledger.org

This paper provides a high-level overview of Hyperledger as an organization,
including why it exists, what it does, and who is involved. Next it covers
Hyperledger technologies and their impact on existing and new markets. Finally,
this paper looks at the roadmap to widespread adoption of Hyperledger platforms,
tools, and libraries to power a new generation of multiparty systems.
This is not intended as a deep technical white paper, but an introduction toHyperledger for a general business reader.

Intended Audience
We expect this paper will be read by people from different backgrounds,
including entrepreneurs, executives, IT managers, and software developers. Since
Hyperledger is a worldwide project, we expect this paper will be read by people
around the world, many of whom do not have English as their first language, so wehave tried to make this paper as clear and readable as possible.

1 Executive Summary3

2 Hyperledger Foundation Basics

4

2.1 Why the Hyperledger Foundation Exists

4

2.2 What Hyperledger Does4

2.3 Who Is Involved

5

3 Hyperledger Technologies and Their Impact

5

3.1 Why Enterprise Blockchain? Why Hyperledger?

5

3.2 Hyperledger Technologies

6

3.3 Hyperledger in Action

7

3.4 New Markets and Business Models

8

4 The Roadmap to Widespread Adoption

9

4.1 Growing the Hyperledger Technology Landscape

94.2 Growing the Deployment Ecosystem

94.3 Growing the Hyperledger Community

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5 Conclusion

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V1 published October 2021.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Acknowledgments
Hyperledger Foundation would like to thank the members of the Whitepaper and Greenhouse Graphic Update
Taskforce (Anthony Lusard, Arnaud Le Hors, Arun SM, Bobbi Muscara, Csilla Zsigri, David Bowswell, Hart
Montgomery, Helen Garneau, Tracy Kuhrt and Travin Keith) for contributing to this paper.

1 Executive Summary
Blockchains and their underlying distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) change the way
business is conducted.
All businesses participating in a commercial ecosystem need a ledger to record transactions.
Any business network that records transactions—and does not want to depend on a central
proxy that everyone must trust—can be remade through blockchain technology.
DLTs can be used to record promises, trades, transactions, or any items we never want todisappear. Mirrored exactly across all nodes in a given network, the distributed ledger gives
everyone in an ecosystem an identical copy of the common system of record.
When used as an enterprise software solution, blockchain enables trust where it did notexist and removes layers of inefficiency. And when built as open source software, blockchain
serves as a common and open platform that enterprises can build collectively and use
confidently as shared infrastructure for multiparty systems.
The Hyperledger Foundation exists to foster community development of enterprisegrade open source blockchain, distributed ledger, and related technologies, and to drive
broad adoption of these technologies. It hosts a wide array of software projects and thecommunities that develop and deploy them.
Hyperledger technologies are transforming a wide range of existing markets and drivinga growing list of new business models in emerging markets. According to research from
Blockdata, Hyperledger technologies are used by more of the top 100 public companies in
the world than any other blockchain platform.

32 Hyperledger Foundation Basics
This section provides a high-level overview of the Hyperledger Foundation, including why it
exists, what it does, and who is involved.
2.1 Why Hyperledger Foundation Exists
The Hyperledger Foundation is the open, global ecosystem for enterprise blockchain
technologies. As part of the Linux Foundation, it is a neutral home for developers tocollaborate, contribute, and maintain open source software.
Hyperledger was founded in 2015 to bring the transparency and efficiency of DLT technologies
to the enterprise market, leveraging the well-proven open source software model. The highlevel aim is to enable solutions that connect industries, organizations, and even individuals
more directly, recreating how information is shared and business is conducted.
The Hyperledger Foundation hosts a number of open source software projects that serve as
the building blocks for enterprise blockchain deployments. These projects are conceived andbuilt by the Hyperledger developer community as freely available, enterprise-grade softwarethat vendors, end user organizations, service providers, start-ups, academics, and others canuse to build and deploy blockchain networks and even commercial solutions.
Because they are developed and governed as open source technologies, Hyperledger
projects are all community led. This means that the code is written collaboratively and available
for review and use by anyone. Decisions about development roadmaps and priorities are
made openly and cooperatively.
Open source software development is a transparent process, which is particularly fitting forblockchain technologies. It brings together organizations and individuals with different
requirements and drives them to work together to develop common solutions that can be thefoundation for mutual success—another good parallel with blockchain.
The role of Hyperledger Foundation is to ensure the health and transparency of the community
and all its projects, including managing the development cycle, software licensing, security
audits, and provenance tracking for every line of code.
In short, Hyperledger Foundation provides the backbone of services that open source projects
require to ensure community growth. This increases the willingness of enterprise software
companies, start-ups, and independent developers to commit resources to open source projects.
The Hyperledger staff is part of the larger Linux Foundation team that has years of experiencein providing program management services for open source projects.
2.2 What Hyperledger DoesDistributed ledger technologies enable decentralized, transparent networks that require
no central authority to validate data. In these networks, transactions are authenticatedand recorded as a series of encrypted blocks, or a blockchain, creating a live, open, andimmutable audit trail.
The first application of blockchain was Bitcoin, which used the decentralized architecture andimmutable records of the technology to introduce cryptocurrencies to the world. Blockchain
technology and digital currencies have been linked together in the public imagination ever since.
But there is a difference. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum enable transactions
on large-scale, public networks with permissionless models. There are no limits on who canbuy, sell, trade, and transact over the network. Anyone can see the whole history of what has
transpired as it is written, block by block. Users operate freely and quite often anonymously.
Yet cryptocurrencies are not the only use case for blockchain.

4The Hyperledger Foundation is focused on consortium networks that link a group of
stakeholders to streamline critical, often proprietary business processes and transactions.
There is no one Hyperledger blockchain network. Instead, businesses, consortia, and otherorganizations deploy Hyperledger technologies to build networks that support their needs.
With this approach, these networks, or multiparty systems, are modular and flexible enoughto support different industries and use cases. The diverse and growing Hyperledger
ecosystem means enterprises can mix and match technologies to balance privacy andperformance; create permissioned, permissionless, or hybrid networks; integrate with legacy
systems; or even tap into a cryptocurrency “mainnet.”
The Hyperledger Foundation does not sell any of these technologies as products or services.
Hyperledger projects are vendor neutral, meaning that they can be deployed in products andsolutions by any company, anywhere in the world.
As a result, Hyperledger technologies are used in everything from powering global trade
networks and supply chains to fighting counterfeit drugs, banking “unbanked” populations,and ensuring sustainable manufacturing.
Hyperledger-based networks are used by some of the largest corporations around the world,
including more than half of the companies on the Forbes Blockchain 50, a list of companies withrevenue or a valuation of at least $1 billion that lead in employing distributed ledger technology.
2.3 Who Is Involved
The Hyperledger Foundation is a member-driven, not-for-profit organization. Industry-leadingorganizations join Hyperledger to help build and shape the ecosystem for blockchain
technologies, use cases, and applications. Member organizations help set the agenda for
Hyperledger, with many serving in governance roles for the community. They also haveaccess to a range of resources and services that help them plan, develop, deploy, and evenmarket Hyperledger-based solutions.
Membership is not a requirement to use, build a business upon, contribute, or even leaddevelopment of Hyperledger technologies. The community is filled with active contributors
from both member and non-member organizations.
The developer community is governed by the Technical Steering Committee, which approves
projects and guides them through their development lifecycle. Individual projects each havetheir own communities, with maintainers serving in the leadership roles.
There are also various Special Interest and Working Groups that take on work relating to
specific industries or technical challenges.
Hyperledger has a truly global community with hundreds of Meetup groups hosting events
across numerous countries. There are also many regional chapters that facilitate collaboration
among people in their local languages and geographies.

3 Hyperledger Technologies and Their Impact
This section covers the benefits of Hyperledger technologies for enterprises, provides an
overview of Hyperledger projects, describes three markets Hyperledger is already transforming(supply chain, trade and finance, and healthcare) and lists emerging markets and businessmodels where Hyperledger is making an impact.
3.1 Why Enterprise Blockchain? Why Hyperledger?
Blockchain solves a core problem: Many organizations want to share data in a distributed
database, but no single owner will be trusted by every user. Blockchain technologies enabledirect transactions in a secure, transparent way, baking trust into systems that operate withthe efficiency of a peer-to-peer network.
5For enterprises, adopting this technology requires a fundamental change in how they
conduct business. It is the pathway to digitizing a range of processes and industries.
However, as the Hyperledger community has proven, enterprise blockchain is a team sport.
The technologies are building blocks for core, cross-industry systems that will continue
to scale in size, complexity, effectiveness, and value. Because Hyperledger technologies
are open source code bases built with collaborative design and governance, enterprises
embrace them as trusted infrastructure for building blockchain solutions.
In just a few years, the first wave of enterprises adopting Hyperledger technologies moved
from early-stage testing to proofs of concept to production systems. These deployments
confirmed that strategically developed and implemented blockchain delivers unprecedented
gains in speed, security, and transparency.
And now the race is on to put this technology to work. Concerns about public health, climatechange, social justice, misinformation, privacy, and other issues are fueling the urgency for
multiparty systems that increase trust, boost efficiency, and ensure authenticity. All this isaccelerating adoption of enterprise blockchain technologies.
According to PwC’s “Time for Trust” report, most businesses will be using blockchain by
2025, and the technology is on track to deliver US $1.76 trillion to the global economy by2030. The economists at PwC predict the use cases with the potential to yield the mosteconomic value are payments, provenance, identity, contract and dispute resolution, andcustomer engagement.
3.2 Hyperledger Technologies
The Hyperledger Foundation hosts a wide array of community-led, open source projects thatare all freely available under the Apache 2.0 license. These projects fall into a number ofcategories, including:•Distributed Ledgers - A distributed ledger is a multiparty database with no central
trusted authority. When transactions are processed in blocks according to the orderingof a blockchain, the result is a distributed ledger. Hyperledger hosts a variety of
distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) or platforms that serve as the foundation forblockchain networks across a range of industries and use cases.

•

Libraries - Hyperledger libraries are tested and proven code bases that can be
deployed easily to address core requirements or add key functionality for a varietyof enterprise blockchain use cases. Hyperledger libraries include toolkits for digitalcredentials, smart contracts, and cryptographic code.

•

Tools - Hyperledger tools improve the implementation of enterprise blockchains. They
give those deploying Hyperledger—and, in some cases, other DLTs—an edge whentackling complex challenges such as interoperability, performance, and security.

•

Labs - Dozens of other technologies are being nurtured in the Hyperledger Labs.
While a full project goes through a formal review and acceptance process with theTechnical Steering Committee (TSC), a code base can become a Hyperledger Lab
through a simple request to one of the lab stewards. The aim of Hyperledger Labs is toencourage more developers to get involved in the community and to experiment withthe technologies.

The mix of Hyperledger projects reflects the different approaches and challenges to building
enterprise blockchains and the priorities of those looking to build or reshape different
markets with the technology. Because they are community developed, Hyperledger projects
create a landscape of technologies that are open, trusted, and at work in a fast-growing listof production blockchain networks.

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3.3 Hyperledger in Action
As an ever-growing library of case studies shows, Hyperledger technologies are alreadytransforming a number of market spaces. As shown in the following table, these include
supply chains, trade finance, and healthcare.

MARKET

SUPPLY CHAINSTRADE FINANCE

HEALTHCAREKEY HYPERLEDGER PROJECTSHyperledger FabricHyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Grid

Hyperledger FabricHyperledger Indy

Hyperledger FabricHyperledger Indy
Hyperledger Aries

CHALLENGE

Supply chains are the driving force
for industries around the world.

Auditability and efficiency are vitalin the financial market, especially forenabling backend transactions tokeep commerce and trade flowing.

Technology is a cornerstone oftoday’s complex healthcare market.

For products to reach their markets,
they flow from farms, mines, forests,
and factories through a network of
manufacturers, suppliers, shippers,
and distributors. Often the journey
starts with raw materials orcomponents that are assembled
along the route. Multiple parties
are each tasked with a segment ofa product’s journey but all have a
stake in its successful delivery.
HYPERLEDGER’S IMPACT

Hyperledger technologies are being
used to create shared, secure audit
trails in a range of supply chain
deployments and networks. These
solutions make it possible to track
and trace products and components
in near real-time as they maketheir way from party to party in the
supply chain.
Companies such as Walmart, Daimler
and Telefonica use Hyperledger in
networks focused on traceability
for applications such as:•

ensuring safe handling offood and other perishables•

improving responses forrecalls•

proving the authenticity
of products ranging fromdiamonds and wine toprescription medicines•

documenting sustainable,
ethical, and organic
sourcing of materials•

streamlining shippingrelated dispute resolutions
and invoicing

Find out more from theHyperledger Supply Chain
Special Interest Group.

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Institutions are looking to digitize
lending and other services to lower
operational costs, reduce fraud,
cut settlement times, support new
asset classes, and streamline crossborder payments.

Hyperledger technologies areplaying an increasing role in digitaltrade, supporting new crossindustry networks that reducereliance on central authorities toauthenticate transactions.

Despite the increasingly digital
infrastructure designed to linkproviders, payers, patients, andpublic health officials, gaps remain
in how critical data is captured,
secured, and shared.

Hyperledger technologies havebeen put to work by government
agencies, insurance groups,
hospitals, and pharmaceuticalcompanies in many ways, including:•managing new challenges
relating to COVID-19
testing and credentials•

increasing the efficiencyof critical, data-intensive
workflows like clinical trials
or insurance claims•

supporting new models
that make it easier forpatients to access andshare critical healthcare
information without
sacrificing privacy•

increasing efficiencies inrecords management andbilling to create a better
patient experience

Hyperledger software is powering
critical platforms that ensure:•banks and other trading
partners can work
cooperatively on acommon network that issecure and seamless•

transactions are recorded
in a fully transparent audit
trail open to all approved
participants in the network•

trading partners can sharekey documents in public or
private channels with smart
contracts to trigger trades
and other notifications•

lenders have a faster andmore transparent way
to assess risk, which
increases the availabilityof capital for small andmedium enterprises

Find out more from theHyperledger Trade FinanceSpecial Interest Group.

Find out more from theHyperledger Healthcare Special
Interest Group.

3.4 New Markets and Business Models
In addition, Hyperledger technologies are being applied to a number of new markets andbusiness models. As shown in the following table, these include digital identity; digital
payments and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs); and decentralized finance (DeFi),
non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other new asset classes.

MARKET

DIGITAL IDENTITY

DIGITAL PAYMENTS
AND CBDCS

DEFI, NFTS, AND OTHER NEWASSET CLASSESKEY HYPERLEDGER PROJECTSHyperledger Indy
Hyperledger Aries
Hyperledger Ursa

Hyperledger Besu
Hyperledger FabricHyperledger Iroha

Hyperledger Besu
Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Cactus

OPPORTUNITY

People often need to verify theirstatus, whether to prove a birthdate,board a plane, comply with vaccine
mandates, prove their education,or access money.

Blockchain technology has alreadyhelped rewrite some of the rules
for currencies and payments.

Decentralized transactions open
the door to many new financial
models and token-based assets.
Adding smart contracts paired withassets to define rules and trigger
actions creates more opportunity
to automate transactions.

Reshaping how digital information
is managed and verified canincrease online trust and privacy.
Digital identity can create verified
credentials that are effective, secure,accessible, and privacy preserving.

Governments around the world
are now moving towards Central
Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
or digital forms of their official
currency. These will give central
banks a more flexible, more secureform of their national currencies
and lower the risks from alternative
cryptocurrencies.
Backed by a central bank, any
CBDC, whether developed forwholesale or retail use, will be
legal tender with the stability andregulation that confers.

HYPERLEDGER’S IMPACT

Hyperledger technologies are being
adopted to put individuals in chargeof their own identity.

Governments are moving carefully,
but many of the early projects areusing Hyperledger platforms.

The goal is never to put personal
information into the public domain,
but to create a model where banks,
universities, healthcare providers,or government agencies generatea digital certificate of a person’s
status. The person can present thatas needed, with the authenticityof the credential verified using a
blockchain.

The goals range from modernizing
payment processes to removing
barriers and costs associated withback-end settlements to boosting
financial inclusion.

DeFI, or decentralized finance,covers a host of financial products
and services that bypass traditional
intermediaries. These include
cryptoassets that use blockchain
technologies, tokens, digital wallets,
and smart contracts to enable trade,investing, payments, and more.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) aredigital versions of real-world assets
stored and exchanged using
blockchains. The blockchain creates
proof of ownership and authenticityof the asset, making trades andtransactions easier.
Much of the consumer-facing
DeFi, NFTs, and other token-based
financial activity is hosted on the
Ethereum public network. This
makes the crossover between
public and private blockchains
important.
Hyperledger technologies playa key role in bridging crypto andfiat currencies, making it possible
to build decentralized businesses
without the volatility of crypto
markets.
For businesses looking to minimize
the environmental cost of theirproducts and services, Hyperledger
platforms can be energy-efficient
alternatives to Ethereum or othercrypto-backed networks.

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4 The Roadmap to Widespread Adoption
This section describes the key developments required to support widespread adoption ofblockchain technologies. These developments fall into three areas:•

Growing the Hyperledger technology landscape•Growing the deployment ecosystem•

Growing the Hyperledger community

The enterprise blockchain space is still in its early days. Like the internet, this space will takeyears to fully mature and become commonplace in our everyday lives.
To drive widespread adoption of enterprise blockchain, Hyperledger Foundation must fuelthe development of both the technology and ecosystem of developers, service providers,and users. To support these efforts, the foundation must also foster a growing, global
Hyperledger community that is engaged and committed to advancing the development anddeployment of the technology.
4.1 Growing the Hyperledger Technology Landscape
The Hyperledger landscape is always changing. Existing projects continue to develop andevolve through community efforts. And new technologies are constantly in the works. Incoming
projects are often brought to Hyperledger Labs, the innovation pipeline for the foundation.
The work ahead must ensure that all Hyperledger technologies are built with modularity andinteroperability in mind. One important key to accelerating deployments will be open, flexible
ledgers, tools, and libraries that can work across a mix of platforms and systems. This will
help enterprises to decentralize critical processes and create transparent operations acrossand between organizations.
4.2 Growing the Deployment Ecosystem
Enterprises need certain resources to help them deploy Hyperledger technologies. The barrier
for many organizations is finding people with the expertise to build and manage their solutions.
The Hyperledger Certified Service Provider (HCSP) program serves to fill this need witha growing list of pre-qualified, vetted service providers that have deep experience helping
enterprises successfully adopt Hyperledger. Hyperledger also maintains an extensive
directory of vendors, including all the major cloud providers, that provide Blockchain as aService and offer implementation support. Additionally, Linux Foundation Training offers arobust Hyperledger training and certification program.
The active Hyperledger Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are also helping enterprises get up
the adoption curve more quickly. They focus on solving specific industry or cross-industry
challenges using Hyperledger technologies in segments from accounting to climate action
and industries from healthcare to telecom. These SIGs will be increasingly instrumental in
identifying new markets and building new business models for blockchain technologies, andin shaping the technical roadmap to support these opportunities.
4.3 Growing the Hyperledger Community
The accelerating growth in the size and range of Hyperledger deployments creates a nearly
insatiable need to grow the community. The pace will increase with the growing urgency
to digitize key processes and transactions and tackle issues such as climate change, overstressed supply chains, and new public health requirements.
But this urgency can spark engagement for an open source organization. The trick will be tosideline no resource.
For the Hyperledger Foundation, that means embracing diversity in every sense of the word.
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While there is always more work to be done, Diversity, Civility and Inclusion (DCI) is a key
area of focus for growing and maintaining the community.
With a worldwide calendar of meetups, a growing network of regional chapters, and ongoingtranslation efforts, Hyperledger Foundation is engaging international communities on thelocal level. However, scaling this effort will be key as the energy and innovation of a global
community will drive the Hyperledger technology and ecosystem forward.

5 Conclusion
This paper only scratches the surface of the ways in which blockchain, and especiallyHyperledger technologies, will drive change for organizations and industries around theworld. As with other foundational technologies, the applications for blockchain and related
technologies will continue to expand with time.
By fostering a thriving ecosystem around open source blockchain software development, theHyperledger Foundation is fueling the creation, adoption, and long-term stability of a portfolioof enterprise technologies and the solutions they power.
Join us. All are welcome!

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