What’s Offered?

The getting started example uses Docker images to generate the Fabric network components. The scenario includes a consortium of three members, each managing and maintaing a peer node, as well as a “SOLO” Ordering Service and a Certificate Authority (CA). The cryptographic identity material, based on standard PKI implementation, has been pre-generated and is used for signing + verification on both the server (peer + ordering service) and client (SDK) sides. The CA is the network entity responsible for issuing and maintaing this identity material, which is necessary for authentication by all components and participants on the network. This sample uses a single CA. However, in enterprise scenarios each Member would likely have their own CA, with more complex security/identity measures implemented - e.g. cross-signing certificates, etc.

The members will transact on a private channel, with a shared ledger maintained by each peer node. Requests to read and write data to/from the ledger are sent as “proposals” to the peers. These proposals are in fact a request for endorsement from the peer, which will execute the transaction and return a response to the submitting client.

The sample demonstrates two methods for interacting with the network - a programmatical approach exercising the Node.js SDK APIs and a CLI requiring manual commands.

It’s recommended to follow the sample in the order laid forth - application first, followed by the optional CLI route.