China’s Blockchain Services Network (BSN) has named programming language Digital Asset Management Language (DAML) the “exclusive standard” for developing smart contract applications on the platform, its architects said on Monday.
Why it matters: The BSN’s developers hope DAML will bring the platform closer to its most ambitious goal: seamless interoperability between all the major blockchain protocols.
- The platform aims to power the development of a blockchain-powered internet. Interoperability between different protocols and applications is the key and most difficult goal.
Blockchain Services Network (BSN)
What: A platform for blockchain development, bringing together cloud services and different chain protocols on city nodes.
Why: To reduce the cost of blockchain application design and deployment while powering communication between chains. It will be made available around the world through local cloud providers, ultimately creating a global internet of blockchains.
Who: It is part of the government’s Global Blockchain Strategy unveiled by Chinese President Xi Jinping in November 2019, spearheaded by the China State Information Center, China Mobile, China Union Pay, and Red Date Technology.
READ MORE: China’s BSN and Irisnet are building an ‘internet of blockchains’
Details: DAML is an open-source blockchain-agnostic language, meaning it can work with different ledger protocols like Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum.
- DAML’s integration in the BSN will push its capabilities of interoperability. The language is mainly used to build different decentralized applications, but not to make them interoperable.
- BSN architect Red Date Technology and New York-based Digital Asset Holdings, the company that developed DAML, said they plan to complete a pilot in November and make the language available to developers in 2021.
- The pilot will test DAML’s interoperability across two ledgers, Hyperledger Fabric and Webank’s FISCO BCOS, as well as its integration with the fundamental architecture of the platform.
“By selecting DAML as the exclusive smart contract language of the BSN itself, our developers will gain the choice of using one unifying smart contract language seamlessly and interoperably across every blockchain.”
—Yifan He, Red Date CEO in a statement on Monday
Context: The BSN operates 130 nodes across China, according to Red Date.