Hyperledger Sets Working Group

Hyperledger, a collaborative effort to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies, has launched a Performance and Scalability Working Group (PSWG) aimed at measuring how blockchains cope with increasing popularity.

The new working group’s misson is to discuss, research, and identify key use cases and metrics that relate to the performance and scalability of a blockchain and blockchain-related technologies. The PSWG will serve as a cross-project forum for architects and technologists from the community to exchange ideas. They can also explore the performance and scalability aspects of the technologies, both software and hardware.

The working group proposes to start at ‘the base’ of the mountain in terms of performance and scalability. The PSWG will identify multiple key use-cases across different vertical markets. For each use-case, key metrics are vital. Each metric will be defined, along with measurement criteria. This will lead to defining a framework and how to measure.

The PSWG would also maintain a matrix of the key performance metrics and corresponding data for the different blockchain and distributed ledger implementations.

“The key will be how to define and implement a consistent and fair test suite for each use case,” said Performance and Scalability Working Group head Mark Wagner. “This is important to the industry and to the end user, as it will provide a fair measure of how a specific implementation will perform in different use cases. This will allow the user (customer) to select the proper implementation for their use case.”

Wagner added that this effort will not limit itself to Hyperledger. PSWG envisions working across industry sectors to establish consistent set of metrics and measurements. “Anyone can participate and all interested parties are encouraged to join. As more people and organizations join the effort, the group will grow stronger and fairly represent different aspects of the implementations.” he said.