Watch Me Build A Blockchain Insurance App (5 Videos)

This project demonstrates the application of blockchain technology in the insurance domain for efficient claim processing. It involves four main participants: insurance companies, police, repair shops, and product shops, each having their own dedicated peer node.

The insurance company peer handles the insurance coverage for products and manages the claim processing. The police peer verifies theft claims, ensuring their legitimacy. Repair shop peers are responsible for repairing the products, while the shop peers focus on product sales to consumers.

Running this application on the cloud offers several benefits. It enables easy customization of the network infrastructure, including node locations, hardware specifications (CPU and RAM), endorsement policies for consensus, and the ability to add new organizations and members to the network. This flexibility ensures scalability, adaptability, and streamlined operations within the insurance ecosystem.

Technologies Used

The following technologies were used in the development of the Blockchain Insurance App:

• Google Cloud - Cloud computing platform

• Docker - Containerization platform

• Docker Compose - Tool for defining and running multi-container Docker applications

• Git - Version control system

• Node.js - JavaScript runtime environment

• NPM - Node.js Package Manager

• NVM - Node.js Version Manager

• Python - Programming language

• GitHub - Version control and collaboration platform

• Vimeo - Video hosting platform

SECTION #1

Video # 1 - Introduction and Google Cloud server setup

This video shows you how to create a brand new virtual machine (VM) on Google Cloud.
To create your own free Google Cloud account, go to https://cloud.google.com/free/
To download PuTTY go to https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/latest.html

SECTION #2

Video # 2 - Install Docker, Docker Compose, and Git

1. SET UP THE REPOSITORY

1.1. Update the apt package index:

$ sudo apt-get update

1.2. Install packages to allow apt to use a repository over HTTPS:

$ sudo apt-get install \
apt-transport-https \
ca-certificates \
curl \
gnupg-agent \
software-properties-common

1.3. Add Docker’s official GPG key:

$ curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo apt-key add -

1.4. Verify that you now have the key with the fingerprint 9DC8 5822 9FC7 DD38 854A E2D8 8D81 803C 0EBF CD88, by searching for the last 8 characters of the fingerprint.

$ sudo apt-key fingerprint 0EBFCD88

1.5. Set up the stable repository

$ sudo add-apt-repository \
   "deb [arch=amd64] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \
   $(lsb_release -cs) \
   stable"

2. INSTALL DOCKER ENGINE - COMMUNITY (CE)

2.1. Update the apt package index.

$ sudo apt-get update

2.2. Identify the candidate for installation

$ apt-cache policy docker-ce

2.3. Install the latest version of Docker Engine - Community and containerd (it installs git as well):

$ sudo apt-get install docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

2.4. Verify that Docker Engine - Community is installed correctly by running the hello-world image.

$ sudo docker run hello-world

2.5. Verify Docker version

$ sudo docker -v

3. INSTALL DOCKER COMPOSE

3.1. Download the current stable release of Docker Compose:

$ sudo curl -L "https://github.com/docker/compose/releases/download/1.24.1/docker-compose-$(uname -s)-$(uname -m)" -o /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

3.2. Set the permissions:

$ sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/docker-compose

3.3. Check the version:

$ docker-compose --version

SECTION #3

Video # 3 - Install Node.js, the Node.js Package Manager (NPM), and the Node.js Version Manager (NVM)

1. Refresh your local package index by typing:

$ sudo apt update

2. Install Node.js from the repositories:

$ sudo apt install nodejs

3. Install npm

$ sudo apt install npm

4. Install nvm

$ sudo apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev
$ curl -sL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.34.0/install.sh -o install_nvm.sh
$ bash install_nvm.sh
$ source ~/.profile
$ nvm ls-remote

SECTION #4

Video # 4 - Install Python

1. Install Prerequisites

$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall
$ sudo apt-get install libreadline-gplv2-dev libncursesw5-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev libbz2-dev

2. Download Python 2.7

$ cd /usr/src
$ sudo curl -o Python-2.7.16.tgz https://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.16/Python-2.7.16.tgz
$ sudo tar xzf Python-2.7.16.tgz

3. Compile Python Source

$ cd Python-2.7.16
$ sudo ./configure --enable-optimizations
$ sudo make altinstall

SECTION #5

Video # 5 - Run the Blockchain Insurance App

1. Clone the repository:

$ sudo git clone https://github.com/IBM/build-blockchain-insurance-app

2. Login using your docker hub credentials.

$ sudo docker login

3. Run the build script

$ cd build-blockchain-insurance-app
$ sudo ./build_ubuntu.sh

4. Check the status of installation using command:

$ sudo docker logs web