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Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

aws.amazon.com

71–80 of 183 posts

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#71
It seems to me the main reason people don't go for such a Blockchain is because they don't 'trust' Amazon. Fair enough - why not then have a blockchain owned by several different competing companies with huge data centers: Google, Amazon, IBM etc. This solves the computation and scalability issue with blockchain while also making it less likely one company gets too powerful (any new transaction will need to be confirmed by all the parties (Amazon, Google) providing a self regulating mechanism).

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#72
post #58

Is it possible to comply with GDPR while using this to store data? Given that it operates like an append-only log, is it possible to actually remove data to comply with a GDPR request?

Ha! Somebody had the same doubt I had!

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct QLDB has been widely used within AWS: https://twitter.com/timbray/status/1067836869021327361 https://twitter.com/colmmacc/status/1067832198059970561

Do you know if the QLDB write API is more like an event store or more like a relational database? It sounds like the read API provides both models (read the journal, or read the snapshot).

It should work for both cases. It's an append-only ledger that captures any mutations on records previously on the ledger. It uses a recent snapshot primarily for efficiency to avoid having to read the entire ledger to enforce any transactional or schema constraints.

So it's an event store in that each write transaction is an event. But it's a relational DB in that it (at least the internal version did) schemas, multi-record updates, and transactions.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#74
post #68
post #58

Is it possible to comply with GDPR while using this to store data? Given that it operates like an append-only log, is it possible to actually remove data to comply with a GDPR request?

You can use cryptoshredding: have an encryption key for each user (stored outside of this ledger) and encrypt all PII with that key. Throw away the key if the user wants you to delete their data.

What if the key leaked before you have thrown it away?

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#76
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes? Name any domain and there's somebody who wants high-throughput auditable transactions in it.

From a centralized source? So sure. Voting. Wouldn't it be great to have an auditable trail? But why would you then go and put all of that in one spot? Wouldn't a better approach be reconfiguring the tech to work in a faster fashion?

Why wouldn't you put it all in one spot? The technical requirement of needing an audit table is ubiquitous and I bet almost every SQL database in history eventually ends up having a history table of some sort. This technical requirement is unrelated to any regulatory requirements about (not) storing data in the cloud, and certainly shouldn't be coupled to it.

Re: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database

#78
post #77

QLDB = Quantum Ledger Database Seeing 'quantum' in that acronym is so cringeworthy. I'd prefer Immutable Ledger Database, or a word that shares more with the technology than media hyperbole.

> Adjective - quantum

> Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.

- https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quantum#Adjective

It makes perfect sense if you know what the word means.

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