Blockchain, as IBM sees it, has moved past the days of proof of concept and is now focused on platform industrialization and best practices. As for industries, financial systems remain its primary target although areas like digital identity, provenance, and asset management are gaining interest fast. To that end the company is offering the IBM Blockchain Platform on a free trial basis. The Platform promises to make any developer a blockchain developer fast. According to IBM, hundreds of companies on dozens of blockchain networks are solving business challenges across varied industries, not just financial services.
Although IBM has been a blockchain pioneer, especially in the enterprise segment, which is getting more crowded. Specifically, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), which lists over 500 members, recently made available to the public the release of its Enterprise Ethereum Architecture Stack. According to EEA, the stack defines the building blocks needed to drive the Web 3.0 era of decentralized, connective intelligence that will work anywhere and is capable of facilitating smart contracts without intermediaries. The stack, available as a free public document to download here, incorporates components developed by the EEA.
IBM is not saying much about EEA, preferring instead to focus on Hyperledger. This much, however, an IBMer was willing to say: Our main POV is that Hyperledger is the only blockchain platform designed for enterprises from the ground up. Ethereum is better suited for crypto currencies and ICOs. But we know they are working to move into the enterprise space. Interestingly, of the 500 companies listed as EEA members, including many of IBM’s consulting and vendor peers but not IBM.
The IBMer continued: we have had many clients start with Ethereum and discover that it does not meet their business needs … and then they move to Hyperledger, which as a permissioned blockchain network does meet enterprise business needs. Permissioned means you have to be approved to join the network, presumably making it more secure.
IBM clearly has locked onto the idea of a permissioned blockchain network as important, at least among enterprise customers. The IBMer continued: we state that you can have a public permissioned blockchain network—and you’ll start to see more of these around payments.
The IBMer noted: it’s unclear what Ethereum’s permissioning method is; what their governance model is. There is lack of agreement around new types of consensus.
In case you have missed the blockchain buzz of the past few years blockchain is a shared, immutable ledger for recording the history of transactions. Immutable means that once a transaction has been accepted by the other nodes on the blockchain it cannot be removed or deleted. It sits there as a permanent record for the life of the blockchain. Of course, corrections can be made but they are added as another immutable record. As such, depending on the number of nodes in the blockchain, you can end up with a long chain of immutable records, sort of an auditor’s dream or nightmare.
A business blockchain, such as IBM Blockchain and the Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Project, provides a permissioned network with known identities. And unlike Bitcoin, there is no need for cryptocurrency exchange. Where any payments are required, you make them as you would in any transaction. Except with blockchain the transaction exists forever as an immutable record. From initial order to delivery acceptance to payment it all exists as a permanent record. Warning: sleazy business partners should avoid blockchain transactions since you won’t be able to weasel out so easily.
To make blockchain easy, IBM is developing what it describes as enterprise-ready solutions. For example, to address the provenance of diamonds and avoid buying what are called blood diamonds, IBM has backed TrustChain, which tracks six styles of diamond and gold engagement rings on a blockchain network, enabling dealers to know who handled the diamond from the mine to processor to the buyer’s finger.
Similarly, IBM’s Food Trust blockchain includes Dole, Driscoll’s, Golden State Foods, Kroger, McCormick and Company, McLane Company, Nestle, Tyson Foods, Unilever, and Walmart to address food safety. So the next time you eat something and get a stomach ache, just turn to Food Trust to track down the culprit.
DancingDinosaur is Alan Radding, a veteran information technology analyst, writer, and ghost-writer. Please follow DancingDinosaur on Twitter, @mainframeblog. See more of his IT writing at technologywriter.com and here.
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