Project Identifier

LCDP- -00001

Sponsor(s)

Tim O'Brien  Tim.n.obrien@outlook.com

Abstract

Overture is a No-Code Development Platform (NCDP) that has been under research and development for 2 years. Overture allows users to create programs, including  Ethereum smart contracts and Fabric chaincode using a  drag-and-drop visual  languages.  Contracts can be deployed directly from the platform to Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric or any EVM based blockchain. Before a contract is deployed it undergoes a rigorous formal verification process using state of the art formal methodologies . Our technology uses several never before seen inventions that allow us to add never before seen capability to blockchain including the ability make the cost of running a process on blockchain independent of the   complexity of the process and the ability to use advanced for  Our roadmap includes using Reinforcement Learning and providing integration with Apache Camel and Spring integration to achieve our vision of allowing companies to transparently add blockchain capabilities-Trustlessness and Transparency - to business processes with minimum blockchain knowledge or skills requirements.  Our roadmap also includes performance tuning our application an deploying to kubernetes cloud. 


Watch the video of Overture below. 


 



Context

We can fill the void left by the departure of Hyperledger Composer. 

Dependent Projects

None

Motivation

our product removes the risk of starting a blockchain project 

Status

We are GA with our product and have designed for a follow up version. 


Solution




Overture is a No-Code Application Development platform that lets you build smart contracts and other applications using a drag and drop interface (see video). Once built smart contracts can be  deployed from our platform to  Hyperledger, Ethereum or any blockchain that supports the EVM. Overture can be used to (1) integrate blockchain with enterprise back office systems using  industry best practices including integration design patterns and tested connectors; (2)  supports a multi-view architecture that encourages collaboration between business and IT by allowing each user, business, power user, and engineer to select a visual language that fits their need for a balance of capability and abstraction.; (3) de-risks blockchain projects by reducing the number of moving parts and providing realtime in-platform pre-deployment formal verification. (4) Supports the use of blockchain in mission critical applications by using powerful formal verification and emulation techniques (5) supports mapping complex business processes into blockchain including Ethereum and EVM based blockchains,  


Overture is a deployed as a  SAAS based No-Code Development Platform (NCDP)  for supporting enterprises with digital transformation. NCDPs are becoming popular in enterprise development with Gartner projecting 65% of software being developed with NDCP by 2024.   

The logical diagram in figure 1 describes the layers in our stack. 

  1. Interface layer with public facing web and mobile interface and a public facing REST based API. 
  2. A set of persona targeted languages with synthesizers that translate the languages   instruction sets that supply the control logic of a program. 
  3. A set of 370+ adapters and components that implement the 65 integration patterns documented in the book by Bob Woolf website.    
  4. A set of programs (standalone or  smart contracts) that know how to interpret our control logic instructions set. 





Overture Design Studio is a SAAS based cloud application that supports (i) creation of programming  logic using visual language; (ii) creation of a specification, (iii) testing the design against the specification (iv) persisting the models to a database for storage and deployment(v) Synthesizing the models into a compact mathematical  based format.

 


How To

We can provide you with a link to the application used in the demo below for verification.  The application  installs as a NodeJS application and can be configured to use any number of blockchains.




  References

Closure

We have a working product now (see video in Solution section).  We think we would be a valuable addition to the Hyperledger product line and an excellent progression from Hyperledger Composer. 



Reviewed By

5 Comments

  1. Gari Singh

    I'm a bit confused here - what exactly is the ask?  You want to contribute this project to Hyperledger?  Is the code currently available under open source somewhere?

  2. Tim OBrien

    Hi Gari,

    The project is not open source yet but will be soon-ideally I would select the open source license that is optimal to the developer community that adopted it. 

    The ask is to become a project under Hyperledger. I did try to open source under Hyperledger Labs a couple month ago and it was rejected. I think the maturity of the project warrants being accelerated .


    1. Hart Montgomery

      Hi Tim,

      I think the labs stewards also like to see code before they accept a project.  I'm not a labs steward, but my impression has been that projects without code are generally not accepted into the labs.

      I'd recommend you do the following to move forward:  open-source the project to your github account (or really any one with public access), and then apply for Hyperledger Labs when that is done.  The process is much easier and less rigorous than applying for incubation status.  You can also get useful feedback from the labs stewards.  If your project is mature enough (or, more precisely, if the TSC thinks you'll reach maturity with high probability), has a diverse contributor group, and seems to be of interest to the Hyperledger community, then it's worth applying for project incubation status.

      Another point:  this looks like a company effort.  I don't believe a project has ever been accepted into incubation status with contributors from only one company.  If this is the case for you, then it's almost certainly best to find more collaborators before trying for incubation status.

      I hope this helps!  As someone who has gone through these processes multiple times, I understand it can be difficult and frustrating at times.  I'd encourage you to reach out to TSC members, LF staff, and other people involved with Hyperledger with questions if you're unsure of steps in the process or what the best way to do something is.

  3. Gari Singh

    Hmm .... not sure what the approach should be here.  If there's a new idea with no code, then I can see accepting a labs proposal.
    But given this exists, I'd say I'd rather see the codebase in open source before considering moving this into Hyperledger.
    But that might just be me.

  4. Arnaud J Le Hors

    This looks interesting but I would agree with Gari on the code. I don't think we've ever started a project without a code base that can be looked at. For what it's worth, Hyperledger requires the use of the Apache Software License but as the owner of the code you could always change the license under which you make that code available.

    Besides, I think the stated motivation: "our product removes the risk of starting a blockchain project" lacks a bit of justification. How is this achieved? And what risk is this referring to? I would argue there are many risks this does not address so I would suggest something a bit more pragmatic and less marketingish. (smile)

    I would also point out that there is no such thing as a "Hyperledger product line". I understand that this is a product for your company and there is nothing wrong with that but as far as Hyperledger is concerned we only deal with technologies, projects, etc. I don't mean to be pedantic. I think this highlights the change of mind bringing your technology to Hyperledger would require among other things.