Introducing the Hyperledger Fabric Chrome Extension
For my internship project for Hyperledger I was tasked with building a Chrome extension that provides a easy to use api that can connect to a Fabric Network.
This project was inspired by MetaMask (https://metamask.io/) which works on the Ethereum network.
Whats great about MetaMask, is it provides a secure way for developers to build a website that can connect to the Ethereum network. It also provides an easy way to send transactions, and cryptocurrencies.
Similarly to Metamask, the Chrome extension works the same way, just using Hyperledger Fabric instead of Ethereum. The extension UI allows you to enter the network endpoint and will automatically configure the rest.
The benefits of this extension is it will allow applications to become more decentralized. This is due to transactions not being done by some corporate server, but by the user.
The extension works by injecting an api into the web page. The web developer would use these to prompt a transaction.
To prevent the website from sending malicious transactions, the user is required to confirm the transaction from a popup.
Whats next:
Currently, the Extension does not yet support a login system that some networks require. Due to this you are currently not able to add credentials.
Despite this, it currently works on most basic networks.
Feel free to check it out/contribute: https://github.com/hyperledger-labs/fabric-chrome-extension
