Using Private Data in Fabric

This tutorial will demonstrate the use of Private Data Collections (PDC) to provide storage and retrieval of private data on the blockchain network for authorized peers of organizations. The collection is specified using a collection definition file containing the policies governing that collection.

The information in this tutorial assumes knowledge of private data stores and their use cases. For more information, check out Private data.

Note

These instructions use the new Fabric chaincode lifecycle introduced in the Fabric v2.0 release. If you would like to use the previous lifecycle model to use private data with chaincode, visit the v1.4 version of the Using Private Data in Fabric tutorial.

The tutorial will take you through the following steps to practice defining, configuring and using private data with Fabric:

1. Asset transfer private data sample use case
2. Build a collection definition JSON file
3. Read and Write private data using chaincode APIs
4. Deploy the private data smart contract to the channel
5. Register identities
6. Create an asset in private data
7. Query the private data as an authorized peer
8. Query the private data as an unauthorized peer
9. Transfer the Asset
10. Purge Private Data
11. Using indexes with private data
12. Additional resources

This tutorial will deploy the asset transfer private data sample to the Fabric test network to demonstrate how to create, deploy, and use a collection of private data. You should have completed the task Install Fabric and Fabric Samples.

Asset transfer private data sample use case

This sample demonstrates the use of three private data collections, assetCollection, Org1MSPPrivateCollection & Org2MSPPrivateCollection to transfer an asset between Org1 and Org2, using following use case:

A member of Org1 creates a new asset, henceforth referred as owner. The public details of the asset, including the identity of the owner, are stored in the private data collection named assetCollection. The asset is also created with an appraised value supplied by the owner. The appraised value is used by each participant to agree to the transfer of the asset, and is only stored in owner organization’s collection. In our case, the initial appraisal value agreed by the owner is stored in the Org1MSPPrivateCollection.

To purchase the asset, the buyer needs to agree to the same appraised value as the asset owner. In this step, the buyer (a member of Org2) creates an agreement to trade and agree to an appraisal value using smart contract function 'AgreeToTransfer'. This value is stored in Org2MSPPrivateCollection collection. Now, the asset owner can transfer the asset to the buyer using smart contract function 'TransferAsset'. The 'TransferAsset' function uses the hash on the channel ledger to confirm that the owner and the buyer have agreed to the same appraised value before transferring the asset.

Before we go through the transfer scenario, we will discuss how organizations can use private data collections in Fabric.

Build a collection definition JSON file

Before a set of organizations can transact using private data, all organizations on channel need to build a collection definition file that defines the private data collections associated with each chaincode. Data that is stored in a private data collection is only distributed to the peers of certain organizations instead of all members of the channel. The collection definition file describes all of the private data collections that organizations can read and write to from a chaincode.

Each collection is defined by the following properties:

• name: Name of the collection.
• policy: Defines the organization peers allowed to persist the collection data.
• requiredPeerCount: Number of peers required to disseminate the private data as a condition of the endorsement of the chaincode
• maxPeerCount: For data redundancy purposes, the number of other peers that the current endorsing peer will attempt to distribute the data to. If an endorsing peer goes down, these other peers are available at commit time if there are requests to pull the private data.
• blockToLive: For very sensitive information such as pricing or personal information, this value represents how long the data should live on the private database in terms of blocks. The data will live for this specified number of blocks on the private database and after that it will get purged, making this data obsolete from the network. To keep private data indefinitely, that is, to never purge private data, set the blockToLive property to 0.
• memberOnlyRead: a value of true indicates that peers automatically enforce that only clients belonging to one of the collection member organizations are allowed read access to private data.
• memberOnlyWrite: a value of true indicates that peers automatically enforce that only clients belonging to one of the collection member organizations are allowed write access to private data.
• endorsementPolicy: defines the endorsement policy that needs to be met in order to write to the private data collection. The collection level endorsement policy overrides to chaincode level policy. For more information on building a policy definition refer to the Endorsement policies topic.

The same collection definition file needs to be deployed by all organizations that use the chaincode, even if the organization does not belong to any collections. In addition to the collections that are explicitly defined in a collection file, each organization has access to an implicit collection on their peers that can only be read by their organization. For an example that uses implicit data collections, see the Secured asset transfer in Fabric.

The asset transfer private data example contains a collections_config.json file that defines three private data collection definitions: assetCollection, Org1MSPPrivateCollection, and Org2MSPPrivateCollection.

// collections_config.json

[
   {
   "name": "assetCollection",
   "policy": "OR('Org1MSP.member', 'Org2MSP.member')",
   "requiredPeerCount": 1,
   "maxPeerCount": 1,
   "blockToLive":1000000,
   "memberOnlyRead": true,
   "memberOnlyWrite": true
   },
   {
   "name": "Org1MSPPrivateCollection",
   "policy": "OR('Org1MSP.member')",
   "requiredPeerCount": 0,
   "maxPeerCount": 1,
   "blockToLive":3,
   "memberOnlyRead": true,
   "memberOnlyWrite": false,
   "endorsementPolicy": {
       "signaturePolicy": "OR('Org1MSP.member')"
   }
   },
   {
   "name": "Org2MSPPrivateCollection",
   "policy": "OR('Org2MSP.member')",
   "requiredPeerCount": 0,
   "maxPeerCount": 1,
   "blockToLive":3,
   "memberOnlyRead": true,
   "memberOnlyWrite": false,
   "endorsementPolicy": {
       "signaturePolicy": "OR('Org2MSP.member')"
   }
   }
]

The policy property in the assetCollection definition specifies that both Org1 and Org2 can store the collection on their peers. The memberOnlyRead and memberOnlyWrite parameters are used to specify that only Org1 and Org2 clients can read and write to this collection.

The Org1MSPPrivateCollection collection allows only peers of Org1 to have the private data in their private database, while the Org2MSPPrivateCollection collection can only be stored by the peers of Org2. The endorsementPolicy parameter is used to create a collection specific endorsement policy. Each update to Org1MSPPrivateCollection or Org2MSPPrivateCollection needs to be endorsed by the organization that stores the collection on their peers. We will see how these collections are used to transfer the asset in the course of the tutorial.

This collection definition file is deployed when the chaincode definition is committed to the channel using the peer lifecycle chaincode commit command. More details on this process are provided in Section 3 below.

Read and Write private data using chaincode APIs

The next step in understanding how to privatize data on a channel is to build the data definition in the chaincode. The asset transfer private data sample divides the private data into three separate data definitions according to how the data will be accessed.

// Peers in Org1 and Org2 will have this private data in a side database
type Asset struct {
       Type  string `json:"objectType"` //Type is used to distinguish the various types of objects in state database
       ID    string `json:"assetID"`
       Color string `json:"color"`
       Size  int    `json:"size"`
       Owner string `json:"owner"`
}

// AssetPrivateDetails describes details that are private to owners

// Only peers in Org1 will have this private data in a side database
type AssetPrivateDetails struct {
       ID             string `json:"assetID"`
       AppraisedValue int    `json:"appraisedValue"`
}

// Only peers in Org2 will have this private data in a side database
type AssetPrivateDetails struct {
       ID             string `json:"assetID"`
       AppraisedValue int    `json:"appraisedValue"`
}

Specifically, access to the private data will be restricted as follows:

• objectType, color, size, and owner are stored in assetCollection and hence will be visible to members of the channel per the definition in the collection policy (Org1 and Org2).
• AppraisedValue of an asset is stored in collection Org1MSPPrivateCollection or Org2MSPPrivateCollection , depending on the owner of the asset. The value is only accessible to the users who belong to the organization that can store the collection.

All of the data that is created by the asset transfer private data sample smart contract is stored in PDC. The smart contract uses the Fabric chaincode API to read and write private data to private data collections using the GetPrivateData() and PutPrivateData() functions. You can find more information about those functions here. This private data is stored in private state db on the peer (separate from public state db), and is disseminated between authorized peers via gossip protocol.

The following diagram illustrates the private data model used by the private data sample. Note that Org3 is only shown in the diagram to illustrate that if there were any other organizations on the channel, they would not have access to any of the private data collections that were defined in the configuration.

Reading collection data

The smart contract uses the chaincode API GetPrivateData() to query private data in the database. GetPrivateData() takes two arguments, the collection name and the data key. Recall the collection assetCollection allows peers of Org1 and Org2 to have the private data in a side database, and the collection Org1MSPPrivateCollection allows only peers of Org1 to have their private data in a side database and Org2MSPPrivateCollection allows peers of Org2 to have their private data in a side database. For implementation details refer to the following two asset transfer private data functions:

• ReadAsset for querying the values of the assetID, color, size and owner attributes.
• ReadAssetPrivateDetails for querying the values of the appraisedValue attribute.

When we issue the database queries using the peer commands later in this tutorial, we will call these two functions.

Writing private data

The smart contract uses the chaincode API PutPrivateData() to store the private data into the private database. The API also requires the name of the collection. Note that the asset transfer private data sample includes three different private data collections, but it is called twice in the chaincode (in this scenario acting as Org1).

1. Write the private data assetID, color, size and owner using the collection named assetCollection.
2. Write the private data appraisedValue using the collection named Org1MSPPrivateCollection.

If we were acting as Org2, we would replace Org1MSPPrivateCollection with ``Org2MSPPrivateCollection.

For example, in the following snippet of the CreateAsset function, PutPrivateData() is called twice, once for each set of private data.

// CreateAsset creates a new asset by placing the main asset details in the assetCollection
// that can be read by both organizations. The appraisal value is stored in the owners org specific collection.
func (s *SmartContract) CreateAsset(ctx contractapi.TransactionContextInterface) error {

    // Get new asset from transient map
    transientMap, err := ctx.GetStub().GetTransient()
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("error getting transient: %v", err)
    }

    // Asset properties are private, therefore they get passed in transient field, instead of func args
    transientAssetJSON, ok := transientMap["asset_properties"]
    if !ok {
        //log error to stdout
        return fmt.Errorf("asset not found in the transient map input")
    }

    type assetTransientInput struct {
        Type           string `json:"objectType"` //Type is used to distinguish the various types of objects in state database
        ID             string `json:"assetID"`
        Color          string `json:"color"`
        Size           int    `json:"size"`
        AppraisedValue int    `json:"appraisedValue"`
    }

    var assetInput assetTransientInput
    err = json.Unmarshal(transientAssetJSON, &assetInput)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal JSON: %v", err)
    }

    if len(assetInput.Type) == 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("objectType field must be a non-empty string")
    }
    if len(assetInput.ID) == 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("assetID field must be a non-empty string")
    }
    if len(assetInput.Color) == 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("color field must be a non-empty string")
    }
    if assetInput.Size <= 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("size field must be a positive integer")
    }
    if assetInput.AppraisedValue <= 0 {
        return fmt.Errorf("appraisedValue field must be a positive integer")
    }

    // Check if asset already exists
    assetAsBytes, err := ctx.GetStub().GetPrivateData(assetCollection, assetInput.ID)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to get asset: %v", err)
    } else if assetAsBytes != nil {
        fmt.Println("Asset already exists: " + assetInput.ID)
        return fmt.Errorf("this asset already exists: " + assetInput.ID)
    }

    // Get ID of submitting client identity
    clientID, err := submittingClientIdentity(ctx)
    if err != nil {
        return err
    }

    // Verify that the client is submitting request to peer in their organization
    // This is to ensure that a client from another org doesn't attempt to read or
    // write private data from this peer.
    err = verifyClientOrgMatchesPeerOrg(ctx)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("CreateAsset cannot be performed: Error %v", err)
    }

    // Make submitting client the owner
    asset := Asset{
        Type:  assetInput.Type,
        ID:    assetInput.ID,
        Color: assetInput.Color,
        Size:  assetInput.Size,
        Owner: clientID,
    }
    assetJSONasBytes, err := json.Marshal(asset)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal asset into JSON: %v", err)
    }

    // Save asset to private data collection
    // Typical logger, logs to stdout/file in the fabric managed docker container, running this chaincode
    // Look for container name like dev-peer0.org1.example.com-{chaincodename_version}-xyz
    log.Printf("CreateAsset Put: collection %v, ID %v, owner %v", assetCollection, assetInput.ID, clientID)

    err = ctx.GetStub().PutPrivateData(assetCollection, assetInput.ID, assetJSONasBytes)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to put asset into private data collecton: %v", err)
    }

    // Save asset details to collection visible to owning organization
    assetPrivateDetails := AssetPrivateDetails{
        ID:             assetInput.ID,
        AppraisedValue: assetInput.AppraisedValue,
    }

    assetPrivateDetailsAsBytes, err := json.Marshal(assetPrivateDetails) // marshal asset details to JSON
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to marshal into JSON: %v", err)
    }

    // Get collection name for this organization.
    orgCollection, err := getCollectionName(ctx)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to infer private collection name for the org: %v", err)
    }

    // Put asset appraised value into owners org specific private data collection
    log.Printf("Put: collection %v, ID %v", orgCollection, assetInput.ID)
    err = ctx.GetStub().PutPrivateData(orgCollection, assetInput.ID, assetPrivateDetailsAsBytes)
    if err != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("failed to put asset private details: %v", err)
    }
    return nil
}

To summarize, the policy definition above for our collections_config.json allows all peers in Org1 and Org2 to store and transact with the asset transfer private data assetID, color, size, owner in their private database. But only peers in Org1 can store and transact with the appraisedValue key data in the Org1 collection Org1MSPPrivateCollection and only peers in Org2 can store and transact with the appraisedValue key data in the Org2 collection Org2MSPPrivateCollection.

As an additional data privacy benefit, since a collection is being used, only the private data hashes go through orderer, not the private data itself, keeping private data confidential from orderer.

Start the network

Now we are ready to step through some commands which demonstrate how to use private data.

Try it yourself

Before installing, defining, and using the private data smart contract, we need to start the Fabric test network. For the sake of this tutorial, we want to operate from a known initial state. The following command will kill any active or stale Docker containers and remove previously generated artifacts. Therefore let’s run the following command to clean up any previous environments:

cd fabric-samples/test-network
./network.sh down

From the test-network directory, you can use the following command to start up the Fabric test network with Certificate Authorities and CouchDB:

./network.sh up createChannel -ca -s couchdb

This command will deploy a Fabric network consisting of a single channel named mychannel with two organizations (each maintaining one peer node), certificate authorities, and an ordering service while using CouchDB as the state database. Either LevelDB or CouchDB may be used with collections. CouchDB was chosen to demonstrate how to use indexes with private data.

Note

For collections to work, it is important to have cross organizational gossip configured correctly. Refer to our documentation on Gossip data dissemination protocol, paying particular attention to the section on “anchor peers”. Our tutorial does not focus on gossip given it is already configured in the test network, but when configuring a channel, the gossip anchors peers are critical to configure for collections to work properly.

Deploy the private data smart contract to the channel

We can now use the test network script to deploy the smart contract to the channel. Run the following command from the test network directory.

./network.sh deployCC -ccn private -ccp ../asset-transfer-private-data/chaincode-go/ -ccl go -ccep "OR('Org1MSP.peer','Org2MSP.peer')" -cccg ../asset-transfer-private-data/chaincode-go/collections_config.json

Note that we need to pass the path to the private data collection definition file to the command. As part of deploying the chaincode to the channel, both organizations on the channel must pass identical private data collection definitions as part of the Fabric chaincode lifecycle. We are also deploying the smart contract with a chaincode level endorsement policy of "OR('Org1MSP.peer','Org2MSP.peer')". This allows Org1 and Org2 to create an asset without receiving an endorsement from the other organization. You can see the steps required to deploy the chaincode printed in your logs after you issue the command above.

When both organizations approve the chaincode defition using the peer lifecycle chaincode approveformyorg command, the chaincode definition includes the path to the private data collection definition using the --collections-config flag. You can see the following approveformyorg command printed in your terminal:

peer lifecycle chaincode approveformyorg -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --channelID mychannel --name private --version 1.0 --collections-config ../asset-transfer-private-data/chaincode-go/collections_config.json --signature-policy "OR('Org1MSP.member','Org2MSP.member')" --package-id $CC_PACKAGE_ID --sequence 1 --tls --cafile $ORDERER_CA

After channel members agree to the private data collection as part of the chaincode definition, the data collection is committed to the channel using the peer lifecycle chaincode commit command. If you look for the commit command in your logs, you can see that it uses the same --collections-config flag to provide the path to the collection definition.

peer lifecycle chaincode commit -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --channelID mychannel --name private --version 1.0 --sequence 1 --collections-config ../asset-transfer-private-data/chaincode-go/collections_config.json --signature-policy "OR('Org1MSP.member','Org2MSP.member')" --tls --cafile $ORDERER_CA --peerAddresses localhost:7051 --tlsRootCertFiles $ORG1_CA --peerAddresses localhost:9051 --tlsRootCertFiles $ORG2_CA

Register identities

The private data transfer smart contract supports ownership by individual identities that belong to the network. In our scenario, the owner of the asset will be a member of Org1, while the buyer will belong to Org2. To highlight the connection between the GetClientIdentity().GetID() API and the information within a user’s certificate, we will register two new identities using the Org1 and Org2 Certificate Authorities (CA’s), and then use the CA’s to generate each identity’s certificate and private key.

First, we need to set the following environment variables to use the Fabric CA client:

export PATH=${PWD}/../bin:${PWD}:$PATH
export FABRIC_CFG_PATH=$PWD/../config/

We will use the Org1 CA to create the identity asset owner. Set the Fabric CA client home to the MSP of the Org1 CA admin (this identity was generated by the test network script):

export FABRIC_CA_CLIENT_HOME=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/

You can register a new owner client identity using the fabric-ca-client tool:

fabric-ca-client register --caname ca-org1 --id.name owner --id.secret ownerpw --id.type client --tls.certfiles "${PWD}/organizations/fabric-ca/org1/tls-cert.pem"

You can now generate the identity certificates and MSP folder by providing the enroll name and secret to the enroll command:

fabric-ca-client enroll -u https://owner:ownerpw@localhost:7054 --caname ca-org1 -M "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/owner@org1.example.com/msp" --tls.certfiles "${PWD}/organizations/fabric-ca/org1/tls-cert.pem"

Run the command below to copy the Node OU configuration file into the owner identity MSP folder.

cp "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/msp/config.yaml" "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/owner@org1.example.com/msp/config.yaml"

We can now use the Org2 CA to create the buyer identity. Set the Fabric CA client home the Org2 CA admin:

export FABRIC_CA_CLIENT_HOME=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/

You can register a new owner client identity using the fabric-ca-client tool:

fabric-ca-client register --caname ca-org2 --id.name buyer --id.secret buyerpw --id.type client --tls.certfiles "${PWD}/organizations/fabric-ca/org2/tls-cert.pem"

We can now enroll to generate the identity MSP folder:

fabric-ca-client enroll -u https://buyer:buyerpw@localhost:8054 --caname ca-org2 -M "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/users/buyer@org2.example.com/msp" --tls.certfiles "${PWD}/organizations/fabric-ca/org2/tls-cert.pem"

Run the command below to copy the Node OU configuration file into the buyer identity MSP folder.

cp "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/msp/config.yaml" "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/users/buyer@org2.example.com/msp/config.yaml"

Create an asset in private data

Now that we have created the identity of the asset owner, we can invoke the private data smart contract to create a new asset. Copy and paste the following set of commands into your terminal in the test-network directory:

Try it yourself

export PATH=${PWD}/../bin:$PATH
export FABRIC_CFG_PATH=$PWD/../config/
export CORE_PEER_TLS_ENABLED=true
export CORE_PEER_LOCALMSPID="Org1MSP"
export CORE_PEER_TLS_ROOTCERT_FILE=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/tls/ca.crt
export CORE_PEER_MSPCONFIGPATH=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/owner@org1.example.com/msp
export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS=localhost:7051

We will use the CreateAsset function to create an asset that is stored in private data — assetID asset1 with a color green, size 20 and appraisedValue of 100. Recall that private data appraisedValue will be stored separately from the private data assetID, color, size. For this reason, the CreateAsset function calls the PutPrivateData() API twice to persist the private data, once for each collection. Also note that the private data is passed using the --transient flag. Inputs passed as transient data will not be persisted in the transaction in order to keep the data private. Transient data is passed as binary data and therefore when using terminal it must be base64 encoded. We use an environment variable to capture the base64 encoded value, and use tr command to strip off the problematic newline characters that linux base64 command adds.

Run the following command to create the asset:

export ASSET_PROPERTIES=$(echo -n "{\"objectType\":\"asset\",\"assetID\":\"asset1\",\"color\":\"green\",\"size\":20,\"appraisedValue\":100}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"CreateAsset","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_properties\":\"$ASSET_PROPERTIES\"}"

You should see results similar to:

[chaincodeCmd] chaincodeInvokeOrQuery->INFO 001 Chaincode invoke successful. result: status:200

Note that command above only targets the Org1 peer. The CreateAsset transaction writes to two collections, assetCollection and Org1MSPPrivateCollection. The Org1MSPPrivateCollection requires an endorsement from the Org1 peer in order to write to the collection, while the assetCollection inherits the endorsement policy of the chaincode, "OR('Org1MSP.peer','Org2MSP.peer')". An endorsement from the Org1 peer can meet both endorsement policies and is able to create an asset without an endorsement from Org2.

Query the private data as an authorized peer

Our collection definition allows all peers of Org1 and Org2 to have the assetID, color, size, and owner private data in their side database, but only peers in Org1 can have Org1’s opinion of their appraisedValue private data in their side database. As an authorized peer in Org1, we will query both sets of private data.

The first query command calls the ReadAsset function which passes assetCollection as an argument.

// ReadAsset reads the information from collection
func (s *SmartContract) ReadAsset(ctx contractapi.TransactionContextInterface, assetID string) (*Asset, error) {

     log.Printf("ReadAsset: collection %v, ID %v", assetCollection, assetID)
     assetJSON, err := ctx.GetStub().GetPrivateData(assetCollection, assetID) //get the asset from chaincode state
     if err != nil {
         return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read asset: %v", err)
     }

     //No Asset found, return empty response
     if assetJSON == nil {
         log.Printf("%v does not exist in collection %v", assetID, assetCollection)
         return nil, nil
     }

     var asset *Asset
     err = json.Unmarshal(assetJSON, &asset)
     if err != nil {
         return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal JSON: %v", err)
     }

     return asset, nil

 }

The second query command calls the ReadAssetPrivateDetails function which passes Org1MSPPrivateDetails as an argument.

// ReadAssetPrivateDetails reads the asset private details in organization specific collection
func (s *SmartContract) ReadAssetPrivateDetails(ctx contractapi.TransactionContextInterface, collection string, assetID string) (*AssetPrivateDetails, error) {
     log.Printf("ReadAssetPrivateDetails: collection %v, ID %v", collection, assetID)
     assetDetailsJSON, err := ctx.GetStub().GetPrivateData(collection, assetID) // Get the asset from chaincode state
     if err != nil {
         return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to read asset details: %v", err)
     }
     if assetDetailsJSON == nil {
         log.Printf("AssetPrivateDetails for %v does not exist in collection %v", assetID, collection)
         return nil, nil
     }

     var assetDetails *AssetPrivateDetails
     err = json.Unmarshal(assetDetailsJSON, &assetDetails)
     if err != nil {
         return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to unmarshal JSON: %v", err)
     }

     return assetDetails, nil
 }

Now Try it yourself

We can read the main details of the asset that was created by using the ReadAsset function to query the assetCollection collection as Org1:

peer chaincode query -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAsset","Args":["asset1"]}'

When successful, the command will return the following result:

{"objectType":"asset","assetID":"asset1","color":"green","size":20,"owner":"x509::CN=appUser1,OU=admin,O=Hyperledger,ST=North Carolina,C=US::CN=ca.org1.example.com,O=org1.example.com,L=Durham,ST=North Carolina,C=US"}

The “owner” of the asset is the identity that created the asset by invoking the smart contract. The private data smart contract uses the GetClientIdentity().GetID() API to read the name and issuer of the identity certificate. You can see the name and issuer of the identity certificate, in the owner attribute.

Query for the appraisedValue private data of asset1 as a member of Org1.

peer chaincode query -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org1MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

You should see the following result:

{"assetID":"asset1","appraisedValue":100}

Query the private data as an unauthorized peer

Now we will operate a user from Org2. Org2 has the asset transfer private data assetID, color, size, owner in its side database as defined in the assetCollection policy, but does not store the asset appraisedValue data for Org1. We will query for both sets of private data.

Switch to a peer in Org2

Run the following commands to operate as an Org2 member and query the Org2 peer.

Try it yourself

export CORE_PEER_LOCALMSPID="Org2MSP"
export CORE_PEER_TLS_ROOTCERT_FILE=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/peers/peer0.org2.example.com/tls/ca.crt
export CORE_PEER_MSPCONFIGPATH=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/users/buyer@org2.example.com/msp
export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS=localhost:9051

Query private data Org2 is authorized to

Peers in Org2 should have the first set of asset transfer private data (assetID, color, size and owner) in their side database and can access it using the ReadAsset() function which is called with the assetCollection argument.

Try it yourself

peer chaincode query -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAsset","Args":["asset1"]}'

When successful, should see something similar to the following result:

{"objectType":"asset","assetID":"asset1","color":"green","size":20,
"owner":"x509::CN=appUser1,OU=admin,O=Hyperledger,ST=North Carolina,C=US::CN=ca.org1.example.com,O=org1.example.com,L=Durham,ST=North Carolina,C=US" }

Query private data Org2 is not authorized to

Because the asset was created by Org1, the appraisedValue associated with asset1 is stored in the Org1MSPPrivateCollection collection. The value is not stored by peers in Org2. Run the following command to demonstrate that the asset’s appraisedValue is not stored in the Org2MSPPrivateCollection on the Org2 peer:

Try it yourself

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org2MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

The empty response shows that the asset1 private details do not exist in buyer (Org2) private collection.

Nor can a user from Org2 read the Org1 private data collection:

peer chaincode query -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org1MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

By setting "memberOnlyRead": true in the collection configuration file, we specify that only clients from Org1 can read data from the collection. An Org2 client who tries to read the collection would only get the following response:

Error: endorsement failure during query. response: status:500 message:"failed to
read asset details: GET_STATE failed: transaction ID: d23e4bc0538c3abfb7a6bd4323fd5f52306e2723be56460fc6da0e5acaee6b23: tx
creator does not have read access permission on privatedata in chaincodeName:private collectionName: Org1MSPPrivateCollection"

Users from Org2 will only be able to see the public hash of the private data.

Transfer the Asset

Let’s see what it takes to transfer asset1 to Org2. In this case, Org2 needs to agree to buy the asset from Org1, and they need to agree on the appraisedValue. You may be wondering how they can agree if Org1 keeps their opinion of the appraisedValue in their private side database. For the answer to this, lets continue.

Try it yourself

Switch back to the terminal with our peer CLI.

To transfer an asset, the buyer (recipient) needs to agree to the same appraisedValue as the asset owner, by calling chaincode function AgreeToTransfer. The agreed value will be stored in the Org2MSPDetailsCollection collection on the Org2 peer. Run the following commands to agree to the appraised value of 100 as Org2:

export ASSET_VALUE=$(echo -n "{\"assetID\":\"asset1\",\"appraisedValue\":100}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"AgreeToTransfer","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_value\":\"$ASSET_VALUE\"}"

The buyer can now query the value they agreed to in the Org2 private data collection:

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org2MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

The invoke will return the following value:

{"assetID":"asset1","appraisedValue":100}

Now that buyer has agreed to buy the asset for the appraised value, the owner can transfer the asset to Org2. The asset needs to be transferred by the identity that owns the asset, so lets go acting as Org1:

export CORE_PEER_LOCALMSPID="Org1MSP"
export CORE_PEER_MSPCONFIGPATH=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/users/owner@org1.example.com/msp
export CORE_PEER_TLS_ROOTCERT_FILE=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/tls/ca.crt
export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS=localhost:7051

The owner from Org1 can read the data added by the AgreeToTransfer transaction to view the buyer identity:

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadTransferAgreement","Args":["asset1"]}'

{"assetID":"asset1","buyerID":"eDUwOTo6Q049YnV5ZXIsT1U9Y2xpZW50LE89SHlwZXJsZWRnZXIsU1Q9Tm9ydGggQ2Fyb2xpbmEsQz1VUzo6Q049Y2Eub3JnMi5leGFtcGxlLmNvbSxPPW9yZzIuZXhhbXBsZS5jb20sTD1IdXJzbGV5LFNUPUhhbXBzaGlyZSxDPVVL"}

We now have all we need to transfer the asset. The smart contract uses the GetPrivateDataHash() function to check that the hash of the asset appraisal value in Org1MSPPrivateCollection matches the hash of the appraisal value in the Org2MSPPrivateCollection. If the hashes are the same, it confirms that the owner and the interested buyer have agreed to the same asset value. If the conditions are met, the transfer function will get the client ID of the buyer from the transfer agreement and make the buyer the new owner of the asset. The transfer function will also delete the asset appraisal value from the collection of the former owner, as well as remove the transfer agreement from the assetCollection.

Run the following commands to transfer the asset. The owner needs to provide the assetID and the organization MSP ID of the buyer to the transfer transaction:

export ASSET_OWNER=$(echo -n "{\"assetID\":\"asset1\",\"buyerMSP\":\"Org2MSP\"}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"TransferAsset","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_owner\":\"$ASSET_OWNER\"}" --peerAddresses localhost:7051 --tlsRootCertFiles "${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org1.example.com/peers/peer0.org1.example.com/tls/ca.crt"

You can query asset1 to see the results of the transfer:

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAsset","Args":["asset1"]}'

The results will show that the buyer identity now owns the asset:

{"objectType":"asset","assetID":"asset1","color":"green","size":20,"owner":"x509::CN=appUser2, OU=client + OU=org2 + OU=department1::CN=ca.org2.example.com, O=org2.example.com, L=Hursley, ST=Hampshire, C=UK"}

The “owner” of the asset now has the buyer identity.

You can also confirm that transfer removed the private details from the Org1 collection:

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org1MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

Your query will return empty result, since the asset private data is removed from the Org1 private data collection.

Purge Private Data

For use cases where private data only needs to be persisted for a short period of time, it is possible to “purge” the data after a certain set number of blocks, leaving behind only a hash of the data that serves as immutable evidence of the transaction. An organization could decide to purge private data if the data contained sensitive information that was used by another transaction, but is not longer needed, or if the data is being replicated into an off-chain database.

The appraisedValue data in our example contains a private agreement that the organization may want to expire after a certain period of time. Thus, it has a limited lifespan, and can be purged after existing unchanged on the blockchain for a designated number of blocks using the blockToLive property in the collection definition.

The Org2MSPPrivateCollection definition has a blockToLive property value of 3, meaning this data will live on the side database for three blocks and then after that it will get purged. If we create additional blocks on the channel, the appraisedValue agreed to by Org2 will eventually get purged. We can create 3 new blocks to demonstrate:

Try it yourself

Run the following commands in your terminal to switch back to operating as member of Org2 and target the Org2 peer:

export CORE_PEER_LOCALMSPID="Org2MSP"
export CORE_PEER_TLS_ROOTCERT_FILE=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/peers/peer0.org2.example.com/tls/ca.crt
export CORE_PEER_MSPCONFIGPATH=${PWD}/organizations/peerOrganizations/org2.example.com/users/buyer@org2.example.com/msp
export CORE_PEER_ADDRESS=localhost:9051

We can still query the appraisedValue in the Org2MSPPrivateCollection:

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org2MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

You should see the value printed in your logs:

{"assetID":"asset1","appraisedValue":100}

Since we need to keep track of how many blocks we are adding before the private data gets purged, open a new terminal window and run the following command to view the private data logs for the Org2 peer. Note the highest block number.

docker logs peer0.org1.example.com 2>&1 | grep -i -a -E 'private|pvt|privdata'

Now return to the terminal where we are acting as a member of Org2 and run the following commands to create three new assets. Each command will create a new block.

export ASSET_PROPERTIES=$(echo -n "{\"objectType\":\"asset\",\"assetID\":\"asset2\",\"color\":\"blue\",\"size\":30,\"appraisedValue\":100}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"CreateAsset","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_properties\":\"$ASSET_PROPERTIES\"}"

export ASSET_PROPERTIES=$(echo -n "{\"objectType\":\"asset\",\"assetID\":\"asset3\",\"color\":\"red\",\"size\":25,\"appraisedValue\":100}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"CreateAsset","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_properties\":\"$ASSET_PROPERTIES\"}"

export ASSET_PROPERTIES=$(echo -n "{\"objectType\":\"asset\",\"assetID\":\"asset4\",\"color\":\"orange\",\"size\":15,\"appraisedValue\":100}" | base64 | tr -d \\n)
peer chaincode invoke -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"CreateAsset","Args":[]}' --transient "{\"asset_properties\":\"$ASSET_PROPERTIES\"}"

Return to the other terminal and run the following command to confirm that the new assets resulted in the creation of three new blocks:

docker logs peer0.org1.example.com 2>&1 | grep -i -a -E 'private|pvt|privdata'

The appraisedValue has now been purged from the Org2MSPDetailsCollection private data collection. Issue the query again from the Org2 terminal to see that the response is empty.

peer chaincode query -o localhost:7050 --ordererTLSHostnameOverride orderer.example.com --tls --cafile "${PWD}/organizations/ordererOrganizations/example.com/orderers/orderer.example.com/msp/tlscacerts/tlsca.example.com-cert.pem" -C mychannel -n private -c '{"function":"ReadAssetPrivateDetails","Args":["Org2MSPPrivateCollection","asset1"]}'

Using indexes with private data

Indexes can also be applied to private data collections, by packaging indexes in the META-INF/statedb/couchdb/collections/<collection_name>/indexes directory alongside the chaincode. An example index is available here .

For deployment of chaincode to production environments, it is recommended to define any indexes alongside chaincode so that the chaincode and supporting indexes are deployed automatically as a unit, once the chaincode has been installed on a peer and instantiated on a channel. The associated indexes are automatically deployed upon chaincode instantiation on the channel when the --collections-config flag is specified pointing to the location of the collection JSON file.

Clean up

When you are finished using the private data smart contract, you can bring down the test network using network.sh script.

./network.sh down

This command will bring down the CAs, peers, and ordering node of the network that we created. Note that all of the data on the ledger will be lost. If you want to go through the tutorial again, you will start from a clean initial state.

Additional resources

For additional private data education, a video tutorial has been created.

Note

The video uses the previous lifecycle model to install private data collections with chaincode.