Blockchain as a Service:Purchase guide

Alibaba Cloud BaaS product series include Ant Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric, and Quorum (an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum). This topic describes the features and applicable scenarios of each product series so that you can purchase based on your requirements.

• Purchase process - Ant Blockchain: describes the process of purchasing a blockchain service based on Ant Blockchain.

• Purchase process - Hyperledger Fabric: describes the process of purchasing a blockchain service based on Hyperledger Fabric.

• Purchase reference - Ant Blockchain: describes the performances and applicable scenarios of instances that are based on Ant Blockchain, which helps you purchase based on your requirements.

• Purchase reference - Hyperledger Fabric: describes the performances and applicable scenarios of instances that are based on Hyperledger Fabric, which helps you purchase based on your requirements.

Purchase process - Ant Blockchain

Declaration of Use

The AntChain-based Backend-as-a-Service (BaaS) solution is commercially available. To ensure compliance with relevant laws and regulations and the company's internal requirements, you must file a declaration of use and get approval before you proceed with the subsequent process and purchase a blockchain instance.

1. Log on to the console. In the left-side navigation pane, choose AntChain > Contract Chain and go to the My Consortium page.

2. In the upper-right corner of the page, click Declaration of Use in the yellow area. Select the specific intended use in the pop-up window and click Submit Declaration.

   

   Note

   If you select the Others option, you must enter a brief description of the intended use in the blank box below, with a maximum of 30 characters.

3. Follow the prompted instructions on the page and complete the declaration process.

   Note

   You can enter a maximum of 300 characters regarding the Description of Your Intended Use.

4. View the declaration filing record and confirm the review result.

   1. In the upper-right corner of the My Consortium page,click the Declaration Filing Record.

   2. In the window that pops up, you can view the declaration filing record and the corresponding review result.

      • If the declaration is approved, an Approved record will be displayed.

      • If the declaration is still being reviewed, a record in the To be reviewed state will be displayed.

        Note

        The review process takes about 1 to 2 days. Please wait patiently.

        At the same time, you will see a prompt message on the top of the My Consortium page.

        

      • If the declaration is rejected, a record in the Rejected state will be displayed.

        To file the declaration of use again, click Re-Submit Declaration in the upper red area of the My Consortium page.

        

Begin to purchase

The BaaS service based on Ant Blockchain is commercially available. See the following procedure to apply for the purchase. You can purchase the blockchain network instances based on your business requirements. You can use the BaaS service after you complete the payment.

1. If you are buying for the first time, or if you plan to create a blockchain instance in a new consortium, you first need to go to the console and create the consortium to which the blockchain instance belongs.

2. Chose Ant Blockchain > Contract Blockchains in the console, then click Create Consortium, and fill in the name and description of the consortium in the pop-up window and click Submit to complete the creation of the consortium.

3. Click Manage in the consortium operation item to enter the chain management page.

4. Click Create Blockchain to jump to the purchase page. Or you can refresh the open purchase page directly. The Consortium column on the purchase page will automatically get information about all the consortia you have created.

5. Configure your resource parameters on the purchase page.

   Configuration recommendations:

   • Region: Choose a region that is close to your applications to reduce network latency.

   • Consortium: Select a consortium. You can also create one following the above guidance.

   • Blockchain Name: Enter the name of the blockchain that you want to create. The name must be 1 to 100 characters in length, and can contain digits, letters, and hyphens (-). It is suggested that the name is related to your business. You can modify the name at any time on the console chain management page.

   • Duration: The instances of the BaaS service are subscription-based, and you can choose the appropriate purchase period as needed.

6. Click Buy Now and complete the payment on the payment page.

After the purchase is complete, you can go to the console to view the progress of your blockchain instance creation. Since the blockchain instance is all exclusive configurations, the creation time generally takes 10-30 minutes. For more information about the product specifications and pricing details, see Specifications and billing methods.

Purchase process - Hyperledger Fabric

The BaaS service based on Hyperledger Fabric is commercially available. See the following procedure to apply for the purchase. You can purchase the blockchain network instances based on your business requirements. You can use the BaaS service after you complete the payment.

Before you purchase BaaS resources, you need to apply for the purchase qualification. The procedure is described as follows:

1. You can go to the Alibaba Cloud BaaS product page and click Buy Now. Fill in the purchase information and complete the purchase. For more information about the product specifications and pricing details, see Specifications and billing methods.

2. You can also purchase at the console by clicking Purchase consortium/organization resources

   1. Log on to the Alibaba Cloud BaaS console.

   2. On the Hyperledger Fabric page, click Create Consortium or Create Organization.

   3. Configure the resource parameters based on your business requirements at the purchase page.Recommended configurations:

      • Region: Choose a region that is close to your business applications.

      • Instance parameters: We recommend that you refer to Purchase reference - Hyperledger Fabric and choose the configuration based on your business.

      • Duration: The instances of the BaaS service are subscription-based, and you can choose the appropriate purchase period as needed.

      Note

      • If you have created an instance of Fabric V1.4 or V2.2 before, you can continue to create an instance of Fabric V1.4 or V2.2, and you can also create an instance of Fabric V2.5. Please note that mixed networking between different versions is not supported.

      • If you are a new user, by default you can only create an instance of Fabric version 2.5. If you need to create an instance of Fabric V1.4 or V2.2, please contact us by submitting a ticket.

   4. Click Buy Now and complete the payment on the payment page.

Purchase reference - Ant Blockchain

Blockchain network instances based on Ant Blockchain include Enterprise Edition. The features are shown in the following table.

Purchase reference - Hyperledger Fabric

Blockchain network instances based on Hyperledger Fabric include three specifications: Starter Edition, Basic Edition and Enterprise Edition. The Starter Edition is a test network and owned by a single customer, while the Basic Edition and Enterprise Edition is for building a production network for multiple parties. The features of the three specifications are shown in the following table.

• Consortium Instance

  Feature	Starter Edition	Basic Edition	Enterprise Edition
  High availability	Not supported	Supported	Supported
  Scalable storage	Not supported	Supported	Supported
  Quantity limit of organizations in a consortium	2	5	10
  Quantity limit of channel in a consortium	5	5	10
  Quantity limit of organizations in a channel	2	5	10
  Cryptographic algorithms recommended by China authorities	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  Anti-DDoS Basic	Not supported	Not supported	Supported (Advanced protection, please submit a ticket)
  Service Level Agreement	Not supported	Supported	Supported

• Organization Instance (Regarding to Starter Edition, it means the organization in consortium instance)

  Feature	Starter Edition	Basic Edition	Enterprise Edition
  High availability	Not supported	Supported	Supported
  Join the consortium dynamically	Not supported	Supported	Supported
  Scalable storage	Not supported	Supported	Supported
  Quantity limit of channel can be joined	5	5	10
  Interoperability	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  Quantity limit of trigger for each type of Cloud Service Integration	1	1	3
  CA high-availability services	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  External CA	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  Cryptographic algorithms recommended by China authorities	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  Storage Performance Optimization	Not supported	Not supported	Supported
  REST API	Supported	Supported	Supported
  Anti-DDoS Basic	Not supported	Not supported	Supported (Advanced protection, please submit a ticket)
  TPS (transactions per second)	No performance data	Maximum: 300 TPS	Maximum: 2,000 TPS
  Service Level Agreement	Not supported	Supported	Supported

Scenarios for blockchain network instances of different editions:

Underlying resources for instances of different editions: