Alibaba Cloud BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) is an enterprise-level PaaS (Platform as a Service) that lets you deploy, operate, and develop blockchain networks without managing the underlying infrastructure. Built on Alibaba Cloud Container Service for Kubernetes clusters and powered by the Ant Financial Blockchain Team, BaaS handles operational complexity so you can focus on building blockchain-enabled applications.
Blockchain establishes a peer-to-peer network where each participant in the network has access to a shared ledger. Transactions and history records cannot be removed or altered. The smart contract and consensus algorithms enable transactions between multiple participants and confirm the transactions and ledger records.
BaaS supports two blockchain technologies, each suited to a different enterprise profile:
| Technology | Type | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Ant Blockchain | Proprietary financial-grade blockchain by Ant Financial | High performance, globally distributed, privacy-sensitive workloads |
| Hyperledger Fabric | Open source enterprise blockchain hosted by the Linux Foundation | Organizations that need a modular, plug-and-play consortium network |
Choose Ant Blockchain if your use case requires strict privacy protection and global reach. Choose Hyperledger Fabric if your organization already works within the Hyperledger ecosystem or needs to swap out components such as consensus and membership services.
Why Alibaba Cloud BaaS
Enterprise blockchain deployments have core requirements:
Permissioned networks with verified participant identities
High transaction throughput and low confirmation latency
Multi-tenant isolation between business participants
Strong data privacy and confidentiality
Cross-region connectivity for geographically distributed consortia
BaaS addresses all of these through its cloud-native architecture:
| Capability | How BaaS delivers it |
|---|---|
| Managed infrastructure | Provisions compute, storage, networking, and security on Alibaba Cloud. Supports public cloud deployments and private cloud deployments, based on multiple architectures. |
| Multi-tenant isolation | Consortium blockchain networks run on isolated compute, storage, and network resources. Each business participant manages their own resources independently. |
| Cross-region networking | Operators and participants can be deployed across different regions — for example, a consortium network spanning three cities. |
| Flexible integration | Connect blockchain services to your applications through multiple integration methods. Scale resources on demand and select services at the cost level that fits your needs. |
| Data security | Built-in advanced protection for data security and privacy across all deployment models. |
For a full list of capabilities, see Product advantages.
Product editions
Hyperledger Fabric and Ant Blockchain each offer multiple product editions. For descriptions and a comparison, see Product editions.
Get started
Ant Blockchain
The consortium manager creates a consortium blockchain and invites participants to join. Participants access consensus nodes and perform read and write operations after accepting the invitation.
Activate the service. See Purchase Guide for activation steps.
Create or join a blockchain. Apply to join an existing blockchain or create a consortium blockchain in the console. See Manage consortium blockchains.
Manage the blockchain. Invite participants, review membership applications, manage nodes, and view blockchain details. See Create a consortium.
Connect to the network. See the Development Guide for connection instructions.
Hyperledger Fabric
Create a blockchain network. Manually create organizations, create and join a consortium, and create a channel. See Operation process.
Deploy chaincodes. Upload, install, and instantiate the chaincode. See Deploy chaincodes.
Access the network. Manage users and download the SDK configuration. See Manage users for user management, and Download the SDK configuration for network access setup.
BaaS API
The BaaS API extends the native APIs of the underlying blockchain technologies. It simplifies management and invocation tasks while also exposing cloud resource objects — letting you manage and maintain blockchain consortiums, organizations, peers, channels, smart contracts, logs, and configurations.
The API supports HTTP and HTTPS requests. Authentication uses an Access Key ID and Access Key Secret generated from your Alibaba Cloud account.
To explore and debug the API visually, use Alibaba Cloud OpenAPI Explorer. For the full API reference, see API Reference.