JP Morgan, Banco Santander, Intel, Microsoft Corp and the oil and gas giant BP are among those supporting the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), which has officially launched in New York.
The EEA will build a blockchain-centred platform based on an open-source software project JP Morgan started last year called Quorum and the launch took place at JP Morgan’s offices in Brooklyn.
According to founder Jeremy Millar, the Alliance aims to give both large corporations and small start-ups a stronger sense of accountability for their investment in distributed ledger technology (DLT). “The goal of the EEA is to align the various interest groups – the users, the start-ups, the large technology platforms, to a single roadmap so that we can take those steps together,” said Millar.
“Ethereum is already one of, if not the, most widely used technologies for developing and deploying enterprise blockchains. Enterprises love the availability of open-source implementations, a single standard, the rapidly growing developer ecosystem, and availability of talent.
“But enterprises expect resilient secure systems and a robust controls environment. EEA aims to bring these together, both to provide enterprises the forum they need and also to advance Ethereum generally.
“They who have the most developers win. Ethereum, as well as being in my mind the most sophisticated general-purpose blockchain available, far and away, by tens of thousands, has the largest developer community globally.”
The Alliance was established with two main objectives. The first is to create an enterprise-grade blockchain solution that makes it easier for its members to comply with the regulatory requirements applicable to their industry. At the same time,the aim is to help them better capitalise on the benefits of faster transaction times and higher volumes possible with a blockchain.
Secondly, the EEA is experimenting with new governance models designed to give the kind of control regulated enterprises need. However, the overall aim is to maximise “the potential of the EEA’s blockchain to finally be the catalyst that brings blockchain into the mainstream.”