THE LINUX FOUNDATION has announced another collaborative effort, this time dedicated to the advance of blockchain technology.
The Foundation already manages groups from across the industry dedicated to areas such as security and containerisation.
Blockchain is the database technology that powers crypto-currencies such as bitcoin. With partners from technology and banking, the company will look at ways to ensure best practice and stronger blockchain methodology than that used by the non-banking sector crypto-currencies.
Initial contributors include Accenture, ANZ Bank, Cisco, CLS, Credits, Deutsche Börse, Digital Asset Holdings, DTCC, Fujitsu, IC3, IBM, Intel, JP Morgan, London Stock Exchange Group, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, R3, State Street, Swift, VMware and Wells Fargo.
“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."
As custodians of the Core Infrastructure Initiative set up in the wake of the Heartbleed vulnerability, Linux has significant form in shaping safe transactional data. The blockchain system has the potential to be a safe and secure way to conduct financial transactions because there is no centralised database of transactions. It's one of the reasons criminals favour bitcoins.
The possibilities go even further with the distributed systems able to track almost any financial transaction, including bonds, stocks and personal assets. Furthermore, there isn't 'a blockchain' but rather a standard that can be used to create as many blockchains as demand requires.
The newly created Digital Asset Holdings, which has been exploring the idea of an alternative to blockchain, has donated the name 'hyperledger' in the hope that this will eventually be adopted as the name of the resulting technology.
