After the success of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as defined by ernesto.net, the attention fell on blockchain technology. The technology was slowly proving to be very important and according to some, it is defined as the best thing that has happened since the internet revolution. However, just like any technology, it is not stationary but continues to evolve and to be refined. Along the way, something known as Hyperledger Sawtooth was born.

1. HyperLedger Sawtooth – ernesto.net
After the success of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as defined by ernesto.net, the
attention fell on blockchain technology. The technology was slowly proving to
be very important and according to some, it is defined as the best thing that
has happened since the internet revolution. However, just like any technology,
it is not stationary but continues to evolve and to be refined. Along the way,
something known as Hyperledger Sawtooth was born.
Image source: Linux Foundation
This article looks at Hyperledger Sawtooth and why it is considered to be a step
in the right direction.
The development of Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Sawtooth is the latest edition from the Hyperledger community,
the creators of Hyperledger Fabric. The project began at Intel Labs in 2014
through a research project known then as Sawtooth Lake.
The project wanted to address security and scalability issues affecting the then
growing adoption of Bitcoin. It also wanted to find ways to migrate blockchain
technology to the enterprise. In 2016, a milestone was achieved when the Proof
of Elapsed Time consensus algorithm was delivered as a free and safe
alternative to Bitcoin’s Proof of work consensus algorithm.
Intel then made Sawtooth available to Hyperledger, which was just getting
started at around that time. The Hyperledger community grew significantly and
several organizations such as Amazon Web Services, Wind River, Ericsson,
Huawei, IBM, Microsoft Azure, Bitwise.io, Cloudsofts, Context Labs, Active
Ticketing, Dot BC Media, and Hacera joined the ship.
What is Hyperledger Sawtooth
Hyperledger Sawtooth is a modular enterprise distributed ledger used to build,
deploy, and run enterprise blockchain apps and networks. It was wholly
designed to keep enterprise blockchains as decentralized as possible while
improving the safety of smart contracts.

2. Sawtooth distinguishes itself from traditional blockchains in the sense that it is
highly modular. This gives companies the opportunity to make customized
policies that are tailor-made for the specific enterprise.
Another major advantage of Sawtooth is that its core system is differentiated
from the application domain. Moreover, it is flexible and uses the principles of
a black box. It is not rigid on the language that developers can use to develop
applications and can easily formulate rules that are specific to the business
needs. Moreover, the developers can create applications without knowing how
the core system was designed.
Hyperledger Sawtooth has the following key features:
 Dynamic consensus
 Ethereum support
 On-chain governance
 An advanced engine for transaction execution
 Multiple language support
Dynamic Consensus
Different blockchain platforms use different but fixed consensus algorithms.
Bitcoin uses the proof-of-work system. The network users compete to solve a
particular cryptographic problem. Whoever solves the problem is rewarded with
Bitcoins.
Another consensus algorithm used is the proof-of-stake. It is based on the
proof of ownership. Another consensus algorithm used is the proof-of-elapsed-
time.
What makes Hyperledger Sawtooth so special is that it is not hardwired to use
only one consensus algorithm. It can use any system and interchange between
them. Each system has its own advantages and disadvantages. Hyperledger
Sawtooth users can choose a consensus algorithm that is good for their specific
needs.
Smart contracts
Smart contracts are small programs that execute business logic. Their
functions are similar to that of a computer. They accept an input, process and
execute it, and give out an output. They live on a layer of the blockchain where
use cases that are specific to the particular business case are required.
Although Bitcoin is largely responsible for the limited use of smart contracts, it
is Ethereum that pioneered their use. The smart contracts that are included in
Sawtooth are:

3.  Settings – provides a platform for the storage of configuration settings
 Identity – deals with the permissions on the blockchain
 Validator registry – registers ledger validators and components important for
the security of Proof-of-elapsed time.
On-chain governance
The ‘settings’ option makes on-chain governance possible on Hyperledger
Sawtooth blockchain. This allows users to store on-chain configuration settings
such as the consensus algorithm used.
Multiple language support
Developers can build smart contracts using several languages including
Python, Javascript, C++, Rust, and Go.
Advanced engine for transaction execution
Parallel processing of transactions in order to speed up the creation and
validation of blocks
What Hyperledger Sawtooth represents
Hyperledger Sawtooth is an enterprise blockchain platform designed based on
the basics of existing platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. It also added
more functionality, modularity, flexibility, and scalability. It allows developers
to work in a number of programming languages. Most importantly, it supports
several types of consensus algorithms.