Linux Foundation Unites Industry Leaders to Advance Blockchain Technology

SAN FRANCISCO - 17 Dec 2015: The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today announced a new collaborative effort to advance the popular blockchain technology. The project will develop an enterprise grade, open source distributed ledger framework and free developers to focus on building robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support business transactions.

Early commitments to this work come from Accenture, ANZ Bank, Cisco, CLS, Credits, Deutsche B rse, Digital Asset Holdings, DTCC, Eris Industries, Fujitsu, IC3, IBM (NYSE: IBM), Intel, J.P. Morgan, London Stock Exchange Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MFUG), R3, State Street, SWIFT, VMware and Wells Fargo.

Many of the founding members are already investing considerable research and development efforts exploring blockchain applications for industry. IBM intends to contribute tens of thousands of lines of its existing codebase and its corresponding intellectual property to this open source community. Digital Asset is contributing the Hyperledger mark, which will be used as the project name, as well as enterprise grade code and developer resources. R3 is contributing a new financial transaction architectural framework designed to specifically meet the requirements of its global bank members and other financial institutions. These technical contributions, among others from a variety of companies, will be reviewed in detail in the weeks ahead by the formation and Technical Steering Committees.

Blockchain is a digital technology for recording and verifying transactions. The distributed ledger is a permanent, secure tool that makes it easier to create cost-efficient business networks without requiring a centralized point of control. With distributed ledgers, virtually anything of value can be tracked and traded. The application of this emerging technology is showing great promise in the enterprise. For example, it allows securities to be settled in minutes instead of days. It can be used to help companies manage the flow of goods and related payments or enable manufacturers to share production logs with OEMs and regulators to reduce product recalls.

Distributed ledgers are poised to transform a wide range of industries from banking and shipping to the Internet of Things, among others, said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. As with any early-stage, highly-complex technology that demonstrates the ability to change the way we live our lives and conduct business, blockchain demands a cross-industry, open source collaboration to advance the technology for all.

Distributed ledger systems today are being built in a variety of industries but to realize the promise of this emerging technology, an open source and collaborative development strategy that supports multiple players in multiple industries is required. This development can enable the adoption of blockchain technology at a pace and depth not achievable by any one company or industry. This type of shared or external Research & Development (R&D) has proven to deliver billions in economic value.

This collaboration is expected to help identify and address important features and currently missing requirements for a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers that can transform the way business transactions are conducted around the world.

For more information about the project and how to participate in this work, please visit: http://blockchain.linuxfoundation.org

Comments

ANZ Bank

ANZ CTO Patrick Maes said, We are pleased to confirm our participation in the open ledger project as we recognise that there is currently no industry accepted, enterprise-grade blockchain framework today that is fit for purpose for our industry. Our objectives around blockchain initiatives are that we will seek to learn, explore and contribute to the development of a global framework with our ecosystem partners, and ANZ is uniquely placed in this regard since we operate in 34 markets. Nigel Dobson, ANZ's General Manager of Payments Transformation said he sees involvement with the project as an opportunity to explore and contribute to real-world, bank-grade applications of the technology and wider frameworks. I see significant potential opportunities in the future to improve our customer experience and potentially deliver productivity gains by solving real business challenges, with initial use cases in payments and particularly correspondent banking.

Cisco

"The Open Ledger project is a key turning point in the industry establishing enterprise grade blockchain technology. It s key for the industry to enable an open developer community around blockchain and it s great that so many colleagues are joining and supporting the effort to move the entire Internet community forward," said Dave Ward, SVP and chief architect, Cisco Systems.

CLS

CLS is pleased to participate in this broad industry-wide effort to standardize and advance Distributed Ledger Technology, said David Puth, CEO of CLS. A common DLT platform on which product specific solutions can be built is key to the successful adoption of this technology.

Credits

"Distributed Ledger Technology is quickly becoming the most exciting industry to help build out," said Credits CEO & Founder, Nick Williamson. "It s initiatives like the open ledger project that will help cut through the noise stemming from the hype cycle and start bringing substance to this nascent industry."

Deutsche B rse

"Deutsche B rse group sees great potential in blockchain technology, and is delighted to join this initiative. As a market infrastructure covering the entire value chain, we believe that the true value of the blockchain will only materialise as part of industry initiatives such as Hyperledger project," Jeffrey Tessler, Member of the Exec

LINK:	http://www-03.ibm.com/press/uk/en/pressrelease/48525.wss...
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