Add release notes for v2.0.0-beta

Signed-off-by: David Enyeart <enyeart@us.ibm.com>

Author: denyeart

release_notes/v2.0.0-beta.md

@@ -0,0 +1,196 @@
+v2.0.0-beta Release Notes - December 12, 2019
+=============================================
+
+What's New in Hyperledger Fabric v2.0
+-------------------------------------
+
+The following new major features are included in the v2.0.0 Beta release.
+For additional details, see the What's New documentation.
+
+**FAB-11237: Decentralized chaincode governance**
+
+Fabric 2.0 introduces decentralized governance for chaincode, with a
+new process for installing a chaincode on your peers and starting it on a
+channel. The new Fabric chaincode lifecycle allows multiple organizations to
+come to agreement on the parameters of a chaincode, such as the chaincode
+endorsement policy, before it can be used to interact with the ledger.
+
+**FAB-13584: External chaincode launcher**
+
+While chaincode is still run in a docker container by default in Fabric v2.0,
+the external chaincode launcher feature empowers operators to build and launch
+chaincode with the technology of their choice.
+
+**Private data enhancements**
+- **FAB-10889: Implicit org-specific collections**
+- **FAB-15066: Endorsement policies for collections**
+- **FAB-13581: memberOnlyWrite collection configuration option**
+- **FAB-13527: GetPrivateDataHash chaincode API**
+- **FAB-12043: Option to include private data in block events**
+
+The private data enhancements enable new private data application patterns.
+
+**FAB-103: State database cache for CouchDB**
+
+A new peer cache improves performance when using CouchDB state database.
+
+
+Fixes
+-----
+All fixes as of release v1.4.4 are also included in v2.0.0-beta.
+
+For the full list of fixes, refer to the release change log.
+
+
+Changes
+-------
+**FAB-11144: Removal of native token support**
+
+The native token support included in v2.0.0-alpha has been removed.
+An improved implementation is being evaluated for future releases.
+
+**FAB-5177: The ccenv build image no longer includes the shim**
+
+The shim package and dependencies for go chaincode are no longer included in
+the chaincode build environment. Chaincode packages that do not include their
+own dependencies will no longer successfully build on the peer.  We strongly
+recommend that existing go chaincode be updated to vendor the
+github.com/hyperledger/fabric-chaincode-go/shim package and its dependencies.
+While there are many tools for managing vendored dependencies, we recommend
+moving directly to go modules and vendoring with `go mod vendor`.
+
+**FAB-15366: Logger removed from chaincode shim**
+
+Chaincode that used the shim's NewLogger() will need to shift to a new
+logging mechanism. Chaincode logging is intended to be the responsibility
+of the application developer. As such it should be handled using tools and
+libraries that make the most sense to the chaincode developer and the
+application in general. Chaincode developers can forward STDOUT and STDERR
+from the chaincode container to the peer container by setting
+`CORE_VM_DOCKER_ATTACHSTDOUT=true`. While not recommended for production,
+once enabled, each chaincode will receive its own logging channel and
+STDOUT and STDERR will be integrated in the peers log on a per-line basis.
+A production grade approach would be to run a log aggregation service and
+forward your logs to the aggregation service.
+
+**FAB-16213: The go chaincode entities extension has been removed**
+
+Chaincode implementations that used the entities extension package from an
+earlier version of Fabric will need to vendor a 1.x version of the package
+for as part of their chaincode package.
+
+**FAB-14720: Support for CAR chaincode package format removed**
+
+**FAB-15285: Support for invoking system chaincodes from user chaincodes
+has been removed.**
+
+System chaincodes, for example QSCC, are intended to be
+invoked by a client rather than by a user chaincode. Invoking from a user
+chaincode caused deadlocks in prior releases.
+
+**FAB-15390: Support for peer's Admin service has been removed.**
+
+The peer's Admin service exposed APIs such as GetLogSpec() and SetLogSpec().
+Instead of using these services, utilize the HTTP operations service that was
+introduced in v1.4.0.
+
+**FAB-16303: GetHistoryForKey returns results from newest to oldest**
+
+In prior releases, the GetHistoryForKey chaincode API had no
+guarantees on the order of returned results.
+Starting in Fabric v2.0, the GetHistoryForKey chaincode API
+will return results from newest to oldest in terms of ordered transaction
+height (block height and transaction height within block).
+This will allow applications to iterate through the top results
+to understand recent changes to a key.
+
+**FAB-16722: The 'provisional' genesis method of generating the system channel
+for orderers has been removed.**
+
+Existing users of the provisional genesis method
+should instead set BootstrapMethod to 'file', and generate a genesis block file
+using configtxgen. Orderer nodes will then use the generated file for the
+orderer system channel.
+
+**FAB-16477 and FAB-17116: New configuration for orderer genesismethod and genesisfile**
+
+The orderer config `general.genesismethod` and `general.genesisfile` are replaced
+by the new `general.bootstrapmethod` and `general.bootstrapfile`.
+
+**FAB-15343: System Chaincode Plugins have been removed.**
+
+As part of a general
+move away from go plugins as an extension mechanism for Fabric, the ability to
+add system chaincodes via go plugins has been removed.  Users wishing to extend
+Fabric with custom system chaincodes may rebuild the peer binary with the
+system chaincode built into the binary.  This system chaincode should then be
+defined and initialized like any other user chaincode would be.  This new model
+is very similar to the plugin model (which required that the plugin to be built
+at the same exact commit of Fabric), and addresses the significant shortcomings
+around the lifecycle and validation of system chaincode transactions.
+
+**FAB-11096: Docker images with Alpine Linux**
+
+Hyperledger Fabric Docker images will now use Alpine Linux,
+a security-oriented, lightweight Linux distribution.
+
+**FAB-11096: Bash not available in Docker images with Alpine Linux**
+Bash is no longer available in Fabric images. Utilize Alpine's built-in
+sh or ash instead.
+
+**FAB-16987: Go version has been updated to 1.13.4.**
+
+
+Deprecations
+------------
+
+**FAB-15754: The 'Solo' consensus type is deprecated.**
+
+The 'Solo' consensus type has always been marked non-production and should be in
+use only in test environments, however for compatibility it is still available,
+but may be removed entirely in a future release.
+
+**FAB-16408: The 'Kafka' consensus type is deprecated.**
+
+The 'Raft' consensus type was introduced in v1.4.1 and has become the preferred
+production consensus type.  There is a documented and tested migration path from
+Kafka to Raft, and existing users should migrate to the newer Raft consensus type.
+For compatibility with existing deployments, Kafka is still supported,
+but may be removed entirely in a future release.
+
+**FAB-7559: Support for specifying orderer endpoints at the global level
+in channel configuration is deprecated.**
+
+Utilize the new 'OrdererEndpoints' stanza within the channel configuration of an organization instead.
+Configuring orderer endpoints at the organization level accommodates
+scenarios where orderers are run by different organizations. Using
+this configuration ensures that only the TLS CA certificates of that organization
+are used for orderer communications, in contrast to the global channel level endpoints which
+would cause an aggregation of all orderer TLS CA certificates across
+all orderer organizations to be used for orderer communications.
+
+Known Issues and Workarounds
+----------------------------
+**FAB-12134: Same chaincode source receiving fingerprint mismatch error**
+
+When using the legacy chaincode lifecycle, chaincode installed in different
+ways may result in "chaincode fingerprint mismatch data mismatch" error
+upon instantiation.  This may happen when installing chaincode by using
+different SDKs. To workaround the problem, package the chaincode prior to
+installation and instantiation, by using the "peer chaincode package" command.
+
+
+Known Vulnerabilities
+---------------------
+**FAB-8664: Peer should detect and react when its org has been removed**
+
+This is a relatively low severity problem, because it requires a significant
+conspiracy of network admins, but it will be addressed in a future release.
+
+
+Resolved Vulnerabilities
+------------------------
+None.
+
+For the full list of improvements and fixes, refer to the release change log:
+https://github.com/hyperledger/fabric/blob/master/CHANGELOG.md#v200-beta