HERMES: Fault-tolerant middleware for blockchain interoperability

Blockchain interoperability reduces the risk of investing in blockchain systems by avoiding vendor lock-in, enabling a new digital economy, and providing migration capabilities. However, seamless interoperability among enterprises requires service providers to comply with different regulations, e.g., data privacy regulations and others that apply to financial services. For supporting interoperability, organizations can connect to each blockchain via a gateway. However, these gateways should be resilient to crashes to maintain a consistent state across ledgers. To realize this vision, we propose Hermes, a fault-tolerant middleware that connects blockchain networks and is based on the Open Digital Asset Protocol (ODAP). Hermes is crash fault-tolerant by allying a new protocol, ODAP-2PC, with a log storage API that can leverage blockchain to secure logs, providing transparency, auditability, availability, and non-repudiation. We briefly explore a use case for cross-jurisdiction asset transfers, illustrating how one can leverage Hermes to support cross-chain transactions compliant with legal and regulatory frameworks. (C) 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Blockchain interoperability is crucial in reducing investment risks, enabling the development of the digital economy, providing migration capabilities, and supporting seamless interoperability among enterprises. Organizations can connect to each blockchain via gateways to achieve interoperability, but these gateways must be resilient to avoid crashes.