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Decentralized Energy with Hyperledger Composer

A key application of Blockchain being currently explored is a Decentralized Energy network. The idea stems from a neighborhood where certain Residents are producing energy through Solar panels or other means, and can sell excess energy to Residents needing energy. The transactions would be based on coins in each Resident's account. As per a pre-determined contract and rate, the coins would be debited from the consumer and credited to the producer, for a certain billing period. Each transaction would need to be atomic and added to a Blockchain ledger for trust and verification. The network can include Banks to transact coins for Fiat currency (USD). The network can have Utility Company who can buy or provide energy through the network.

In this code pattern, we will create such a Blockchain application using Hyperledger Composer. The network consists of Residents, Banks and Utility Companies. Residents can exchange coins for energy among each other. The application assumes a pre-paid system where transactions occur after the energy is consumed and the values are updated. The Resident can exchange coins for Fiat money (USD) with Banks on the network. The Residents can also transact coins for energy with a Utility company on the network.

This code pattern is for developers looking to start building Blockchain applications with Hyperledger Composer. When the reader has completed this code pattern, they will understand how to:

Create business network using Hyperledge Composer and recording transactions on Blockchain ledger
Deploying the networking to an instance of Hyperledger Fabric
Building an Angular app to interact with the network through REST API

Architecture Flow

The administrator interacts with Decentralized Energy UI comprising of Angular framework
The application processes user requests to the network through a REST API.
Implements requests to the Blockchain state database on Hyperledger Fabric v1
The REST API is used to retrieve the state of the database
The Angular framework gets the data through GET calls to the REST API

Included Components

Hyperledger Composer v0.20
Hyperledger Fabric v1.2
Angular Framework
Loopback

Running the Application

Follow these steps to setup and run this code pattern. The steps are described in detail below.

Prerequisite

Operating Systems: Ubuntu Linux 14.04 / 16.04 LTS (both 64-bit), or Mac OS 10.12
Docker (Version 17.03 or higher)
npm (v5.x)
Node (version 8.9 or higher - note version 9 is not supported)
- to install specific Node version you can use nvm
Hyperledger Composer
- to install composer cli npm install -g composer-cli@0.20
- to install composer-rest-server npm install -g composer-rest-server@0.20
- to install generator-hyperledger-composer npm install -g generator-hyperledger-composer@0.20

1. Clone the repo

Clone the Decentralized-Energy-Composer code locally. In a terminal, run:

git clone https://github.com/IBM/Decentralized-Energy-Composer
cd Decentralized-Energy-Composer

2. Setup Fabric

These commands will kill and remove all running containers, and should remove all previously created Hyperledger Fabric chaincode images:

docker kill $(docker ps -q)
docker rm $(docker ps -aq)
docker rmi $(docker images dev-* -q)

Set the fabric version to v1.2:

export FABRIC_VERSION=hlfv12

All the scripts will be in the directory /fabric-tools. Start fabric and create peer admin card:

cd fabric-dev-servers/
./downloadFabric.sh
./startFabric.sh
./createPeerAdminCard.sh

3. Generate the Business Network Archive

Next generate the Business Network Archive (BNA) file from the root directory:

cd ../
npm install

The composer archive create command in package.json has created a file called decentralized-energy-network@0.1.15.bna.

4. Deploy to Fabric

Now, we are ready to deploy the business network to Hyperledger Fabric. This requires the Hyperledger Composer chaincode to be installed on the peer, then the business network archive (.bna) must be sent to the peer, and a new participant, identity, and associated card must be created to be the network administrator. Finally, the network administrator business network card must be imported for use, and the network can then be pinged to check it is responding.

First, install the business network:

composer network install --card PeerAdmin@hlfv1 --archiveFile decentralized-energy-network@0.1.15.bna

Start the business network:

composer network start --networkName decentralized-energy-network --networkVersion 0.1.15 --networkAdmin admin --networkAdminEnrollSecret adminpw --card PeerAdmin@hlfv1 --file networkadmin.card

Import the network administrator identity as a usable business network card:

composer card import --file networkadmin.card

Check that the business network has been deployed successfully, run the following command to ping the network:

composer network ping --card admin@decentralized-energy-network

5. Run Application

First, go into the angular-app folder and install the dependency:

cd angular-app/
npm install

To start the application:

npm start

The application should now be running at: http://localhost:4200

The REST server to communicate with network is available here: http://localhost:3000/explorer/

6. Create Participants

Once the application opens, create participants and fill in dummy data. Create Residents, Banks and Utility Companies.

7. Execute Transactions

Execute transactions manually between Residents, Resident and Bank, and Resident and Utility Company. After executing transactions, ensure the participants account values are updated.

At the end of your session, stop fabric:

cd ~/fabric-tools
./stopFabric.sh
./teardownFabric.sh

Extending Code Pattern

This application demonstrates a basic idea of a decentralized energy network using Blockchain and can be expanded in several ways:

Adding specific permissions and participant access
Setting up real time transactions among participants
Integrating with IoT to read from power meter and distribute energy

Deploy to IBM Cloud

The blockchain network can be deployed to IBM Cloud. You can use the IBM Blockchain platform and start for free under Starter Membership Plan. Follow these instructions to deploy the business network to IBM Blockchain platform.

Additional Resources

License

This code pattern is licensed under the Apache Software License, Version 2. Separate third party code objects invoked within this code pattern are licensed by their respective providers pursuant to their own separate licenses. Contributions are subject to the Developer Certificate of Origin, Version 1.1 (DCO) and the Apache Software License, Version 2.

Apache Software License (ASL) FAQ