Red Date Technology and Digital Asset (the company) have reportedly entered an agreement that involves integrating DAML smart contract tech with China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN).
DAML, which is a blockchain “agnostic” smart contract programming language created by the company Digital Asset, will serve as the standard for creating decentralized applications (dApps) on the BSN.
As noted in a release shared with CI:
“The companies will begin with a rapid pilot demonstrating the deployment of a DAML application interoperating across two ledgers – Hyperledger Fabric and WeBank’s FISCO BCOS – as well as integration into the core BSN architecture, targeted for completion by November 2020. Following the pilot, general availability for developers building with DAML on BSN is anticipated in 2021.”
The BSN is meant to serve as a low-cost deployment tool, across several protocols, to businesses creating dApps. Adding DAML will allow applications to interoperate with each other, regardless of the type of distributed ledger tech (DLT) being used by them.
Currently, each blockchain platform uses its own smart contract language and corresponding framework for creating dApps. This could lead to applications that have to be written in a manner that’s customized or special for each protocol, which usually means they are unable to interoperate (exchange assets or information) with each other.
DAML and the BSN aim to help software developers with creating their own smart contracts just once, and then adding them to their platform of choice. These contracts are able to interoperate with multiple blockchains which may use different protocols.
BSN aims to serve as a global infrastructure. It’s backed by the State Information Center of China (SIC), and will focus on supporting applications developers and firms by helping them launch “next generation” dApps in a more accessible and efficient manner “under one uniform standard.”
As stated in the announcement:
“Red Date Technology, a Beijing-based software company, is one of the founding companies behind the BSN. Red Date initiated the project in 2018 and has been spearheading the network’s technical design. The other founding companies are China UnionPay and China Mobile.”
DAML is an open-source, smart contract programming language. It comes with a software development toolkit (SDK) for creating more connected apps that are able to access different data silos and work through different “trust boundaries.” DAML is reportedly the only smart contract tech that can run “seamlessly” across several different platforms.
DAML has integrated with several major platforms such as VMware Blockchain, Corda, Hyperledger Fabric, Sawtooth and Besu, PostgreSQL, and Amazon’s QLDB and its cloud-enabled Aurora database.
WeBank has confirmed that it intends to add DAML with FISCO BCOS, one of the major DLT platforms offered within the BSN ecosystem.
Zhiguang Shan, State Information Center and Chairman of the BSN Development Association, claims:
“BSN is the largest blockchain infrastructure initiative in China.”
Shan also mentioned:
“Since its inception, our goal [with BSN] has been to break down blockchain silos and create an ecosystem that is open, interoperable and accessible to all.”
Min Tan, China Mobile, and Secretary General of the BSN Development Association, remarked:
“The BSN needs a unified smart contract programming language for our developer community and open source DAML smart contract technology is the perfect fit.”
She added:
“We are impressed by DAML’s selection as the smart contract technology of choice by major global firms and industry associations, including Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing Limited, Australian Securities Exchange, Singapore Exchange, The Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation, BNP Paribas, HSBC, UBS, Change Healthcare, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association and many more.”