Ever since 2013, when Bitcoin reached its peak price, various banks have stated their interest in the underlying blockchain technology. Atop the blockchain, developers can build a distributed ledger which is a permanent, secure tool that can allow virtually anything of value to be tracked and traded.
In an announcement, The Linux Foundation has announced a new collaboration effort to help speed up development of blockchain technology, making it suitable for enterprise use. The project will see an enterprise-grade, open source distributed ledger framework built, thus enabling developers to focus on "industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support business transactions."
The organizations involved with the new initiative include:
- Accenture
- ANZ Bank
- Cisco
- CLS
- Credits
- Deutsche Börse
- Digital Asset Holdings
- DTCC
- Fujitsu Limited
- IC3
- IBM
- Intel
- J.P. Morgan
- London Stock Exchange Group
- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG)
- R3
- State Street
- SWIFT
- VMware
- Wells Fargo
Some members of the group are already thinking about how they could deploy the blockchain by conducting research and development. IBM has already written tens of thousands of lines of code which it plans to contribute. In addition, it will also offer up its corresponding intellectual property.
R3 - a blockchain technology company which leads a consortium of 30 financial companies - will help with work on a new "financial transaction architectural framework" to meet the requirements of its global bank members and other financial institutions.
Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation, believes that distributed ledgers will transform many sectors including banking, shipping and the Internet of Things.
Source: The Linux Foundation | Image via insidebitcoins.com
