Customer Loyalty Program with blockchain

A customer loyalty program allows companies to reward customers who frequently make purchases. Program members are able to earn points on purchases, which can translate into some type of reward such as discount, freebie or special customer treatment. The members work toward a certain amount of points to redeem their reward. These programs can have multiple companies as partners on the program, to cater to a customer base. However, current loyalty program systems are restraint on relations between partners, and with visibility to members. These restraints can be removed by creating the customer loyalty program on a blockchain network.

This blockchain model for a customer loyalty program enhances the value of points to loyalty program members and brings in new value to the partners by creating trusted transactions. Participants in this network have a more level relation among each other and points are in the centric position to connect all participants.

In this code pattern, we will create a customer loyalty program as a blockchain web application using Hyperledger Fabric and Node.js. The application will allow members to register on the network where they will create their account. They will be identified on the network with their account number and will create an access key which they will use to sign in. This access key is used as the card id for the member to make transactions and query records. The member once signed in, can make transactions to earn points and redeem points from the partners on the network. They can view their transactions as part of the blockchain ledger. This code pattern illustrates the use of permissions as part of the network where a member can only view their transactions.

Similarly for the partner, they will register by creating an identity on the network and an access key which will be used to view their records. Partners are allowed to view only transactions they were part of, and thus can keep track of all their transactions where they allocated or redeemed points. The web application shows a basic dashboard for the partner displaying the total points that they have allocated and redeemed to members. As transactions get complex, the partner can perform analysis on their transactions to create informative dashboards.

This code pattern is for developers looking to start building blockchain applications with Hyperledger Fabric and IBM Blockchain extension for VSCode. When the reader has completed this code pattern, they will understand how to:

Setup a Hyperledger Fabric network on IBM Blockchain Platform Extension for VSCode.
Install and instantiate a smart contract through the IBM Blockchain Platform Extension for VSCode on a local fabric connection.
Develop a Node.js web application with the Hyperledger Fabric SDK to interact with the deployed network

Architecture Flow

Note The blockchain network will have multiple members and partners

Member is registered on the network
Member can sign-in to make transactions to earn points, redeem points and view their transactions
Partner is registered on the network
Partner can sign-in to view their transactions and display dashboard

Included Components

IBM Blockchain Platform gives you total control of your blockchain network with a user interface that can simplify and accelerate your journey to deploy and manage blockchain components on the IBM Cloud Kubernetes Service.
IBM Blockchain Platform Extension for VS Code is designed to assist users in developing, testing, and deploying smart contracts -- including connecting to Hyperledger Fabric environments.

Featured technology

Hyperledger Fabric v1.4 is a platform for distributed ledger solutions, underpinned by a modular architecture that delivers high degrees of confidentiality, resiliency, flexibility, and scalability.
Node.js is an open source, cross-platform JavaScript run-time environment that executes server-side JavaScript code.
Express.js is a minimal and flexible Node.js web application framework that provides a robust set of features for web and mobile applications.
Bootstrap Bootstrap is an open source toolkit for developing with HTML, CSS, and JS.

Running the application locally

Follow these steps to set up and run this code pattern.

Prerequisites

You will need to follow the requirements for the IBM Blockchain Platform Extension for VS Code:

Steps

Clone the repo
Package the smart contract
Setup network locally and deploy the smart contract
Run the application

1. Clone the repo

Clone this repository in a folder your choice:

git clone https://github.com/IBM/customer-loyalty-program-hyperledger-fabric-VSCode.git
cd customer-loyalty-program-hyperledger-fabric-VSCode

2. Package the smart contract

We will use the IBM Blockchain Platform Extension for VSCode to package the customerloyalty smart contract.

Open Visual Studio code and open the contract folder from this repository that was cloned earlier.

Press the F1 key to see the different VS code options. Choose IBM Blockchain Platform: Package Open Project.

Click the IBM Blockchain Platform extension button on the left. This will show the packaged contracts on top and the blockchain connections on the bottom.

3. Setup network locally and deploy the smart contract

You should see FABRIC ENVIRONMENTS on the left side of the editor. Under this section, you should see Local Fabric. Click it to start the Local Fabric.

The extension will now provision the Docker containers that will act as nodes in your network. Once the provisioning is finished and the network is up and running, you will see the options to install and instantiate the smart contract, the Channels information, the Nodes and the organization msps under Organizations. You are now ready to install the smart contract.

In the FABRIC ENVIRONMENTS section near the bottom, click on Smart Contracts > Installed > + Install. You will see a pop-up similar to the graphic below.

Then select the packaged contract: customerloyalty@0.0.1 Packaged Note The 0.0.1 comes from your package.json line: "version": "0.0.1"

After the install is complete, you should get a message Successfully installed on peer peer0.org1.example.com. You should also see that the contract is listed under Installed under FABRIC ENVIRONMENTS.

Under Smart Contracts you will see a section that says Instantiated. Click on + Instantiate under it.
The extension will then ask you which contract and version to instantiate — choose customerloyalty@0.0.1 Installed.

The extension will then ask you which function to call on instantiate — type in instantiate

Next, it will ask you for the arguments to the function. There are none, so just hit enter.

Next, the extension will then ask you do you want to use a provide a private data collection configuration file? - Click on No.

Lastly, the extension will then ask you do you want to choose a smart contract endorsement policy. Choose Default (single endorser, any org).

Once instantiation of the contract completes, you should get the message Successfully instantiated smart contract and you should see customerloyalty@0.0.1 under Instantiated under FABRIC ENVIRONMENTS.

4. Run the application

Enroll admin
- First, navigate to the web-app directory, and install the node dependencies.
```
cd web-app/
npm install
```
- Run the enrollAdmin.js script
```
node enrollAdmin.js
```
- You should see the following in the terminal:
```
msg: Successfully enrolled admin user app-admin and imported it into the wallet
```
Run the application server
- From the web-app directory, start the server.
```
npm start
```

You can find the app running at http://localhost:8000/

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

garyzava/customer-loyalty-program-hyperledger-fabric-VSCode