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consensys/quorum

4,771GoAudience · pm founderComplexity · 4/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

GoQuorum is an enterprise version of Ethereum that adds privacy controls and permissioned membership for business consortiums. Companies can run a shared blockchain where selected transactions stay confidential between approved partners, while keeping full Ethereum smart contract compatibility.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((GoQuorum))
    Privacy
      Private transactions
      Tessera messaging
      Encrypted data sharing
    Consensus
      QBFT
      Istanbul BFT
      Raft consensus
    Permissions
      Node membership control
      Approved organizations only
      Plugin key vaults
    Ethereum Base
      Go Ethereum fork
      Smart contracts
      Public state
    Tooling
      Cakeshop IDE
      Kubernetes deploy
      Quickstart network
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Run a private blockchain network where only approved business partners can join and certain transactions stay confidential between selected participants.

USE CASE 2

Share a ledger between consortium members, for example banks settling trades, where deal details are visible only to the parties involved.

USE CASE 3

Build enterprise smart contracts that behave like public Ethereum contracts but operate on a permissioned network with instant transaction finality.

USE CASE 4

Prototype a private Ethereum network locally in under two minutes using the built-in quickstart tool before deploying to production on Kubernetes.

Tech stack

GoEthereumTesseraQBFTIstanbul BFTRaftKubernetesCakeshop

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Quickstart tool sets up a local test network in under two minutes. Production deployment supports Kubernetes. Tessera must be configured separately for private transactions.

Open source project maintained by ConsenSys, license terms not explicitly stated in the explanation.

In plain English

GoQuorum is a version of Ethereum built for business and enterprise use rather than for public blockchain participation. Ethereum is a public network where anyone can join and transactions are visible to all, which does not work for companies that need to share data with select partners without exposing it to the world. GoQuorum addresses this by adding privacy controls and alternative ways for nodes to agree on transactions, while keeping the core Ethereum programming model intact. The key difference from standard Ethereum is that GoQuorum separates public and private state. A transaction can be marked private so that only the intended participants can see its contents. The actual private data is exchanged directly between those participants using an encrypted messaging layer called Tessera, while a hash of the transaction appears on the shared chain so all nodes know something happened without seeing the details. This lets a group of businesses run a shared ledger where certain deals remain confidential. Because GoQuorum is meant for known participants rather than an open public network, it does not use the energy-intensive proof-of-work mining process. Instead it offers several consensus options suited for permissioned networks: QBFT and Istanbul BFT both provide immediate transaction finality (a transaction is confirmed the moment it is included, with no chance of reorganization), while Raft-based consensus focuses on speed and creating blocks only when there are transactions to process. Node membership is controlled through a permissioning system, so only approved organizations can join the network. Account management can be extended through plugins to connect with external key vaults or other credential systems. GoQuorum is a fork of the official Go implementation of Ethereum and tracks its releases. It can be deployed on Kubernetes, has an integrated development environment called Cakeshop, and comes with a quickstart tool that sets up a local test network in under two minutes. The project is open to community contributions and is supported by ConsenSys.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Explain how GoQuorum private transactions work: I want to understand how a transaction can be hidden from some network participants but still recorded on the shared chain.
Prompt 2
I am building a consortium blockchain for supply chain partners using GoQuorum. What smart contract patterns should I use to keep shipment data private between buyer and supplier?
Prompt 3
Compare QBFT, Istanbul BFT, and Raft consensus in GoQuorum. Which should I choose for a financial settlement network that needs instant finality and high throughput?
Prompt 4
How do I set up a local GoQuorum test network using the quickstart tool, and what does the default network include?
Prompt 5
What is Tessera and how does it handle private data in GoQuorum? Explain it as if I have never used blockchain before.
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