Developing a Blockchain-Based eVault for Legal Records

The objective of this project is to develop a blockchain-based eVault system for legal records that can ensure security, transparency, and accessibility for all stakeholders. The system should be able to store, manage, and share legal records securely and efficiently.

Requirements:

1. The eVault system is based on a blockchain platform Hyperledger Fabric: A permissioned blockchain framework supporting modular architecture and private channels for confidentiality.
2. The system has user-friendly interfaces for lawyers, judges,and, clients to interact with the eVault, with features such as uploading and retrieving documents, tracking changes, and sharing information.
3. The system ensures the privacy and confidentiality of legal records.

Expected Outcomes:

A functional prototype of the blockchain-based eVault system for legal records, with a user-friendly interface and features such as document upload, retrieval, and sharing. A detailed design document outlining the architecture, features, and technical specifications of the eVault system.

Impact:

The development of a blockchain-based eVault system for legal records can have a significant impact on improving access to justice in India. It can lead to faster, more efficient court proceedings, reduced costs, and increased trust in the justice system. Moreover, it can provide a secure and transparent platform for storing and sharing legal records, making it easier for clients to access their own records and for lawyers to access relevant case information.

PROJECT

UI file: Click me

WorkFlow Progress:

Why Hyperledger Fabric?

Hyperledger stands out due to its modular architecture, providng greater flexibility and customisation options. It incorparates security features such as permissioned access, encryption, and authentication mechanisms. It allows you to create a private and permissioned blockchain network which is beneficial for legal records, as it enables fine-grained control over who can participate and access data.

The Linux Foundaton hosts this global collaboration, which comprises professionals in finance, banking, the IOT, supply chains, manufacturing and technology.

Strengths:

1. Permissioned network design suitable for private legal records
2. Modular and flexible architecture for customising components.
3. Support for various consensus mechanisms.
4. Strong focus on enterprise use cases and integration.
5. Chain code using various programming languages

Considerations:

• Requires a good understanding of blockchain concepts and enterprisearchitecture.

• Might require more development effort compared to public blockchains.

• May have a steeper learning curve for newcomers.

Layers of HyperLedger:

Organizational structure of hyperledger technology:

API (Application Programming Interface ), SDK(Software Development Kit) , CLI(Command Line Interface)

API includes membership services such as a set of cryptographic certificates, signifies that peer belongs to the same organisation and communication between peers f same membership services.

SDK includes blockchain and transaction layer which constitutes the core code of the blockchain, consist of consensus algorithm and peer-to-peer protocol.

CLI includes membership services which consists of chaincode and logic to run in operaton on the hyperledger.

Chaincode in Hyperledger is used for smart contracts that defines the logic of decentralised applications running on it.

Understanding chaincode:

Testing and Running the chaincode

SUCCESSFUL HALT AND REMOVAL OF HYPERLEDGER FABRIC NETWORK

Hyperledger Fabric Network using Docker and Docker Compose. The key points are:

1. Containers Removed:

‘cli’ , ‘peer0.org2.example.com’ , ‘peer0.org1.example.com’, couchdb0 . Couchdb0, orderer.example.com, ca_orderer, ca_org2

2. Networks Removed:

fabric_test and compose_default (with warning which was not found)

3. Volume Removed:

compose_orderer.example.com, compose_orderer2.exmaple.com,compose_peer0.org1.exmaple.com,etc

4. Error Messages:

Error: Network compose_default not found

Error response from daemon : get docker_orderer.example.com: no such volume

5.Deleted Generated Chaincode Docker Images:

Images related to ‘peer0.org2.example.com-filebasic_1.0.1’ were untagged and deleted.

CREATION OF HYPERLEDGER FABRIC NETWORK USING DOCKER AND DOCKER COMPOSE AND SETUP THE INITIAL CONFIGURATION AND IDENTITIES FOR Org1

1. Objective: Creating a channel named 'mychannel', and Bringing up a Hyperledger Fabric network using Docker and Docker Compose.

2.Versions Used: LOCAL_VERSION: v2.5.4 DOCKER_IMAGE_VERSION: v2.5.4 CA_LOCAL_VERSION v1.5.7 CA_DOCKER_IMAGE_VERSION: v1.5.7

3.CertificateGeneration Using Fabric CA: Creation of a network named "fabric_test." and Creation of Certificate Authorities (CAs) for orderer, org1, and org2.

4.Organization Identity Setup (Org1): Enrolling the CA admin for org1, Registering peer0 with its credentials (peer0pw), Registering a user named user1 with credentials (user1pw), and Registering the organization admin (org1admin) with credentials (org1adminpw).

5.Generating Peer MSP for peer0 in Org1:Enrolling peer0 with its credentials and generating the MSP (Membership Service Provider) for the peer.

6.Additional Actions: Similar actions are expected for other organizations and peers in the network (Org2).

7. Certificates and Keys: Certificates and keys are stored in specified locations for various entities (admin, user, peer).

GENERATION OF TLS CERTIFICATES FOR ‘peer0’ IN Org1 AND THE ASSOCIATED USER AND ADMIN IDENTITIES

1. TLS Certificate Generation for peer0 in Org1: Command: fabric-ca-client enroll URL: https://peer0:peer0pw@localhost:7054 CA Name: ca-org1 Output: TLS client certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/tls/signcerts/cert.pem TLS root CA certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/tls/tlscacerts/tls-localhost-7054-ca-org1.pem

2. User Identity Generation: Command: fabric-ca-client enroll URL: https://user1:user1pw@localhost:7054 CA Name: ca-org1 Output: User certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/[email protected]/msp/signcerts/cert.pem Root CA certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/[email protected]/msp/cacerts/localhost-7054-ca-org1.pem

3. Admin Identity Generation: Command: fabric-ca-client enroll URL: https://org1admin:org1adminpw@localhost:7054 CA Name: ca-org1

   Output: Admin certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/[email protected]/msp/signcerts/cert.pem Root CA certificate stored at /home/patelkiran18/Desktop/fabric-samples/test-network/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/[email protected]/msp/cacerts/localhost-7054-ca-org1.pem

SIMILARLY FOR Org2........

CREATION OF ORDERER Org IDENTITIES

1. Generating User MSP for User1 in Org2: Enrolling ‘User1’ with its credentials and generating the MSP (Membership Service Provider) for the user and generating certificates and keys.

2. Generating Org Admin Msp for Org2: Enrolling the organization admin gor Org2 (‘[email protected]’) with its credentials, generation of MSP for the organisation admin and storage of certificates and keys.

3.Creating Orderer Org Identities: Enrolling the CA admin for the Orderer Org with its credentials and generation of TLS-enabled certificates for ordered-related entities.

4. Registering Orderer and Orderer Admin: Registration of orderer with its credentials (ordererpw) as a type orderer, Registration of the orderer admin (ordererAdmin) with credentials (ordererAdminpw) as a type admin.

5.Generating Orderer MSP: Enrolling orderer with its credentials and generating the MSP for the orderer and Storage of certificates and keys.

6.Generating Orderer TLS Certificates: Enrolling orderer with its credentials and generating TLS certificates for the orderer with specified Subject Alternative Names.

CREATED: DOCKER CONTAINERS FOR HYPERLEDGER FABRIC NETWORK

Containers are created, container status is running and exposed ports.

CREATED A CHANNEL NAMED ‘mychannel’ AND JOINED THE ORGANISATIONS SETTINGANCHOR PEERS

Channel Creation: Created a channel named mychannel using the scripts/orderer.sh script.

Joining Peers: Joined the Org1 peer to the channel using the peer channel join command and Joined the Org2 peer to the channel using the peer channel join command.

Setting Anchor Peers: For Org1: Fetched the channel configuration, modified it to include the anchor peer information, and submitted the anchor peer update transaction to set the anchor peer for Org1, and For Org2: The process is presumably similar, but the provided output does not show the details.

SUCCESSFUL INSTALLATION OF CHAINCODE ON BOTH ‘peer0.org1’ and ‘peer0.org2’

The chaincode is packaged using peer lifecycle chaincode package command.

The package is then installed on peer0.org1 using peer lifecycle chaincode install command.

The same package is installed on peer0.org2 using the same command.

APPROVE CHAINCODE ,COMMIT CHAINCODE, QUERY AND INVOKE CHAINCODE

Both the organisations have approved the chaincode definition and now chaincode is committed. The approval process involves submitting an approval request for the chaincode definition, and each organisation needs to approve it.

Approved the chaincode definitin for ‘Org1’ using ‘peer lifestyle chaincode approveformyorg’ , checked the commit readliness for ‘Org1’ using ‘peer lifestyle chaincode checkcommitreadiness’ and approved the chaincode definition for ‘Org2‘ and checked the commit readiness.

It has committed the chaincode definition using ‘peer lifecycle chaincode commit’

Queried the committed chaincode definition on both ‘peer0.org1’ and ;peer0.org2’ using ‘peer lifestyle chaincode querycommitted’

Finally, Invoke successfullly the chaincode definition resulting a indication of status 200.

Chaincode with version 1.0.1, sequence 1, and endorsement and validation plugins (escc and vscc) was successfully installed, approved, committed, and queried on both peers from Org1 and Org2.