Yesterday, Indian IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) launched a blockchain development kit, Quartz DevKit, for enterprises to build and deploy applications on any blockchain platform quickly.
The kit caters to the development of smart contracts and claims it can save 40% of an enterprise’s coding time. This is achieved through a combination of code templates for applications as well as pre-built infrastructure components for platform setup, administration and deployment, security authentication, encryption, and identity management for both users and the nodes.
The DevKit and other Quartz solutions are built in a way to enable interoperability with other third-party solutions and blockchain networks. Currently, a blockchain app developed using Quartz can be deployed on Hyperledger Fabric, Ethereum and R3’s Corda. While the actual development of the application is simplified with templates, additional coding can be done for integration with a specific blockchain platform.
“Many of our customers, across industries, are leveraging blockchain technology to establish frictionless transactions across their extended ecosystem,” said R Vivekanand, Global Head, Quartz, TCS. “We developed the Quartz DevKit to help their teams rapidly put together high-quality pilots using smart contracts on any platform with reduced coding effort.”
Quartz DevKit provides a ‘web-based integrated development environment’ to speed up the process of designing, compiling, packaging and deploying smart contracts on a blockchain.
However, this is just one part of the TCS’ suite of blockchain solutions. An important aspect is the Quartz Smart Solutions — a set of pre-developed applications which can be implemented in business processes. These solutions include cross border remittances, know your client, contract authoring, reward points, loan securitization and others,
Quartz Gateway acts as an intermediary between the enterprise and a blockchain platform. It essentially integrates applications developed using the DevKit with blockchains. The last component is the Quartz Command Center, which acts as a monitoring tool for the entire ecosystem.
The Indian firm first forayed into blockchain sometime back. Two months ago, TCS launched a blockchain-based customer loyalty platform. The platform takes a consumer-centric approach and enables tracking of different loyalty programs they have joined.
Back in April, the company completed a cross-border securities settlement transaction between central depositories Maroclear and Kuwait Clearing Company. The firm is also working with SAP on a blockchain medical device supply chain initiative.
