Amazon unveils two new AWS blockchain products at re:Invent

Amazon’s idea of not getting into blockchain with AWS has changed. The company announced two new blockchain related products, Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) and Amazon Managed Blockchain, at the re:Invent conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

QLDB is a fully managed ledger database designed to provide a transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable log of transactions. The database can execute two to three times more transactions than the other existing products and is overseen by a central trusted authority.

“It will be really scalable, you’ll have a much more flexible and robust set of APIs for you to make any kind of changes or adjustments to the ledger database,” said Andy Jassy, AWS CEO, in describing the new QLDB offering.

The second product – AWS Managed Blockchain – is a “fully managed service that allows you to set up and manage a scalable blockchain network with just a few clicks,” Amazon said. The IT services product not only eliminates the overhead required to create the network, but it also manages your certificates, invites new users to the network, and tracks operational metrics such as usage of compute, memory and storage resources.

Managed Blockchain can also duplicate and store a copy of your blockchain network activity into Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB), thereby allowing you to analyze the network activity remotely and gain insights into trends. The Managed Blockchain product will support the two popular blockchain platforms – Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.