Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Blockchain Project Reveals Code Proposals & New Members
The Hyperledger Project, an open-source blockchain working group overseen by the Linux Foundation has announced several new updates in a press release today.
They include the announcement of 30 founding members, code proposals from several participating companies, a new technical committee to oversee the group’s technical direction and a new open governance structure, fitting that of an open-source endeavor.
The Hyperledger Project was an announcement that came as a surprise when first revealed. It emerged as a high-profile undertaking of a blockchain project that took its cues from the distributed ledger technology powering a technological innovation, Bitcoin.
The difference this time, when compared to other banking-led blockchain endeavors, was a prominent ever-present of the tech industry leading the collaborative effort in IBM.
Furthermore, it was announced as an open-source project, one which was under the guidance of the Linux Foundation, a prominent nonprofit organization with a proven track record in pushing for open source technology in a widened scale.
In a media release today, the Linux Foundation has announced several new updates to the open-source ‘Hyperledger’ project.
Code Contributions
At the time of its reveal in December, the open-source project was revealed to have code contributions from IBM and blockchain-startup Digital Asset out of a working group that is now revealed to contain 30 founding members.
Now, several other companies have started contributing code to the project, including the likes of Blockstream and Ripple, along with Digital Asset and IBM, the Foundation revealed.
Furthermore, it is now established that the trademark of the ‘Hyperledger’ name –owned by Digital Asset – is now donated by the New York-based firm to the Linux Foundation.
Additional insight into the Hyperledger’s efforts reveal that the collaborate effort will go beyond the financial services industry to span multiple industries to help streamline business processes.
An excerpt from the release read:
Peer-to-peer in nature, distributed ledger technology is shared, transparent and decentralized, making it ideal for application in finance and countless other areas such as manufacturing, banking, insurance and the Internet of Things.
By creating a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers, virtually any digital exchange with value, such as real estate contracts, energy trades, marriage licenses, can securely and cost-effectively be tracked and traded.
A Technical Committee Overseeing the Hyperledger Blockchain
The open-source effort will be receptive and welcome all technical contributions “at any time, from anyone,” the Foundation revealed. All contributions “will be reviewed by a newly formed Technical Steering Committee (TSC),” which will be put together as a group of “industry-leading technical experts.”
Significantly the TSC will oversee the project’s entire technical direction and working groups, as well as calling the shots on managing contributions to the code base of the Hyperledger blockchain.
The TSC will be evaluating proposed contributions and go through an open community process to build out the initial and unified codebase.
Open Governance Among Members
Today’s announcement also includes a “ratified governance strucutrue” which will see the Board of Directors making business and marketing decisions. The Board is also tasked to ensure common objectives between participating & contributing technical communities and Hyperledger’s members.
The process to nominate members to the all-important Technical Steering Committee is currently open.
In a statement, executive director at the Linux Foundation, Jim Zemlin talked up the rapid growth and interest poured into the open-source blockchain effort. He stated:
The Hyperledger Project has ramped up incredibly fast, a testament to how much pent-up interest, potential and enterprise demand there is for a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers.
Working on its own even the largest global corporation could not match the speed at which our new members are moving blockchain technology forward.
The thirty founding members of the Hyperledger initiative are:
ABN AMRO, Accenture, ANZ Bank, Blockchain, BNY Mellon, Calastone, Cisco, CLS, CME Group, ConsenSys, Credits, The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), Deutsche Börse Group, Digital Asset Holdings, Fujitsu Limited, Guardtime, Hitachi, IBM, Intel, IntellectEU, J.P. Morgan, NEC, NTT DATA, R3, Red Hat, State Street, SWIFT, Symbiont, VMware and Wells Fargo.
Images from Shutterstock and Hyperledger.
