Blockchain in Frappe with ERPNext

Hi Community,

I would like to create Blockchain application under Frappe and integrated with ERPNext, actually I have not full idea, the scope is very large until moment,
If you have any idea or something else at least motivated words please share it in comments.

My experience is little but we love Frappe & ERPNext as mush as we love the world.

Thank you in advance.:slightly_smiling_face:

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I’m not really sure what you’re looking to do. What would a blockchain application do?

Learn how to develop frappe apps and you can do whatever you want frappeframework.com

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Currently, I’m good with Frappe and I created some apps before,
the idea of Blockchain is the main point of the project.

I’m looking for an idea, that’s all. applicable idea.

Here is a couple of ideas:

  • traceability of products in the agriculture value chain… from the field to the consumers
  • integrity of certificate (Diploma) given in education.
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The difficulty with every intermediary between you and a crypto counterparty is trust.

To start with BRD (for example) would be one intermediary you have to trust.

Building BRD into ERPNext would mean, presumably, installing a private key for each account of each cryptocurrency somewhere in the ERPNext server. Then the client-side app would be enabled to initiate crypto-transactions just by sending over the private key passphrase, along with the payment details.

So you have this third-party multi-currency wallet you might think you can trust and you’re gonna leave it lying wide open in the server room?

I suspect I am scarcely scratching the surface of the security issues. I mean, it used to be that ERPNext’s API access pretty much ignored user permission rules. Has that been fixed yet?

Remember the DAO? Someone found a coding bug and drained about 2/3s of its assets into their own account before they could be stopped. And the only way to stop it was to fork Ethereum. Now there’s two Ethereums one where the guy still has all those coins and the new one where he doesn’t.

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We already have Immutable Ledger In ERPNext, sort of blockchain no? Immutable Ledger

Maybe you could explore integrating ‘Document signing’ capability.

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Wait a sec!

I haven’t paid too much attention to this new Immutable Ledger “philosophy”, so it never occurred to me that “immutable” meant crypto-hard. If I go into MariaDb as admin and tweak a ledger record, does the ERPNext client immediately alert. “No Valid Ledger Found!” ???

THAT would be interesting!

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@MartinHBramwell Imutable ledger doesn’t belongs only for blockchain, due the hype of blockchain, people think they are the same thing, but they aren’t, they are slightly different.

Under the perspective of accounting Imutable Ledger, means a forward only approach for accounting.

It imply that your ledger only will increase, and never will be changed. If you want cancel a document it will generate more entries on the ledger.

Regarding Imutable ledger on blockchain, it’s also true, but the hashing of the previous transactions will be taken into consideration to validate the hashing of the new entry.

It means that you can validate and trace changes in any record, just recomputing the hash of every transaction.

Into the case of ERPNEXT, it’s not doable, if someone change directly into the DB an entry of the ledger you never will know, until you try to compare the related document, with it’s ledger.

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Thank you, they are a great idea.

Exactly, you are right, but eventually, we have to do some apps in Frappe based on Blockchain

The Immutable Ledger is a great step at a convenient time, and the Document signing is a grate idea.

Immutable Ledger is an accounting principle before being a programming code.

You are right, the Immutable ledger is used by blockchain, and now ERPNext using it.

No!

Accounting Immutability and cryptographic immutability are VERY different!

In the former it means that accounting procedures treat mutability as harmful and avoidable.

In the latter immutability means that the slightest tampering with any record immediately invalidates the entire copy of the chain.

ERPNext is using the former. I very much doubt it is using the latter to achieve the former.

I can’t imagine a scenario in which a company would want to put their account books onto a blockchain. It’s not a matter of immutability. The issue is decentralization.

The whole point of a blockchain is that it is shared by many people, none of whom have to trust each other. Truth is defined by democratic consensus. Why would you want people voting on which of your transactions happened?

I don’t like the idea of adding some blockchain project just for fun. Blockchains, especially Bitcoin, solve a very specific Problem: transferring virtual values between parties that don’t trust each other. Unless you have this problem, you don’t need the solution.

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Hmm… Maybe modify this a concept a bit.

In order to use blockchain in the agri-2-consumer security concept I believe that the core for frappe would have to be overhauled in order to create a secure environment in which to then build a newer versions of ERPNext that allowed for blockchain technology to be applied to the entire process. Too much of the planting to harvesting cycle is handled by ERPNext and those parts would be critical to the entire security function. Due to this requirement I don’t see anything like this ever happening unless someone decided to fork the entire project and execute the re-write. Huge undertaking and highly unlikely.

However the integrity of a Diploma in the educational module is another prospect completely. It likely would not take much to create a separate app with the needed security to then add the traceable functions with a blockchain security app. The core frappe/erpnext would simply be passing the completed diploma off to the diploma security app and let the separate app handle the traceable functions. This keeps the core code from being impacted by such a drastic rewrite.

Overall an interesting concept, but one that could likely only be applied via external apps due to the overhaul the core would require in order to handle the security measures.

Just an opinion…

BKM

Diplomas and blockchains are completely incompatible concepts. By definition, diplomas are issued by a trusted authority. The blockchain exists to allow trustless transactions in the absence of an authority.

If the point is to come up with a Frappe project that utilizes blockchain tech, why not a payment gateway?

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