The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has released Drunix, an open-source blockchain platform designed for enterprise tokenization and multi-organization networks. The platform is available under an Apache 2.0 license on GitHub.
Drunix is a fork of Hyperledger Fabric with architectural changes aimed at improving throughput and scalability. The platform uses peer segregation, where lightweight peers handle transaction endorsement while committing peers validate and write to the ledger. A stateless validation service decouples consensus, and YugabyteDB support allows SQL-based queries alongside the existing CouchDB and LevelDB options.
NPCI already operates the UPI payments network, RuPay card system, and IMPS, processing billions of transactions monthly. The release of Drunix positions the regulator-aligned body to move beyond payments infrastructure into broader digital asset ecosystems. This follows Falcon, NPCI's earlier open-source blockchain orchestration project.
The platform targets enterprise workloads where multiple organizations need to collaborate on tokenization—converting real-world assets into digital tokens for fractional ownership and trading. NPCI says the architecture is backward compatible with Hyperledger Fabric version 2.5.x, though this assumes enterprises already run Fabric.
Adoption will require enterprises and government agencies to integrate Drunix into existing systems. The source text notes that tokenization of real-world assets may face compliance challenges under India's RBI and SEBI frameworks, though no statement from those regulators on Drunix itself has been reported. Cross-chain interoperability between Drunix and other blockchains remains an unsolved complexity, according to the source material.
Drunix represents India's push to develop indigenous digital infrastructure rather than rely on foreign tech stacks. Whether enterprises adopt it depends on whether the technical improvements justify migration costs and whether tokenization itself gains regulatory clarity.