Corporate Blockchains

In the previous chapter, we learned about different types of blockchains, such as sector-specific blockchains and private blockchains. Now it's time to describe another important, but largely unfamiliar to most people, part of the blockchain universe: private permissioned blockchains, or in other words, corporate blockchains. In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Introduction to corporate blockchains
• R3 Corda
• Hyperledger
• Enterprise Ethereum Alliance
• Private blockchains for business

Introduction to corporate blockchains

Corporate blockchains are different from public blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other projects discussed so far, mainly in one key aspect: access to the network. While in public blockchains, anyone can download some open source software, join the network, and use it, in private blockchains, access to the network is restricted. Corporations, government entities, or other organizations can build their own private blockchains to serve their business or administrative purposes. Such private blockchains are typically more centralized and much closer to a distributed database or ledger in their architecture and functions. This is because they don't need a decentralized trust model like Bitcoin and other public blockchains.

If all blockchain participants are known, and have been pre-approved and vetted, there isn't much need...

R3 Corda

R3 started as an alliance of nine banks in 2015, with the aim of developing blockchain infrastructure for the financial sector. It has grown to include over 200 financial institutions in 2018. Banks believe that blockchain technology could save them money by making their operations faster, more efficient, and more transparent. They are racing to build products using the technology that will generate new revenue, with dozens of patent applications filed for blockchain-based products by banks around the world.

R3's main project is Corda, a blockchain, or as they call it, a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, designed specifically for financial agreements between regulated financial institutions. The main difference between Corda and the public blockchains we are already familiar with, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, is that Corda is based on consensus only...

Hyperledger

The Hyperledger project is a cross-industry blockchain collaboration launched by the Linux Foundation in December 2015. It focuses on blockchain industrial solutions for finance, banking, IoT, supply chains, healthcare, manufacturing, technology, and other sectors. Currently, it has over 190 member organizations, including industry leaders such as IBM, Intel, American Express, Daimler, Airbus, Fujitsu, Hitachi, Cisco, Accenture, JPMorgan, SAP, NEC, and Baidu.

Hyperledger is an umbrella project, which incubates separate blockchain projects focused on distinct industrial use cases and solutions. Hyperledger projects are built from the ground up to address specific business models and their issues. They are intended as a plug-and-play solution to boost the consortium members' business performance. For that purpose, the fundamental principle to all Hyperledger projects...

Enterprise Ethereum Alliance

In March 2017, various blockchain startups, research groups, and Fortune 500 companies announced the creation of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) with 30 founding members. It aims to customize Ethereum for industry players, and thus boost industrial enterprise blockchain solutions using the open source public Ethereum technology.

In 2018, the alliance has grown to over 200 members, making it the largest open source blockchain initiative in the world. Prominent members include established industry leaders across many sectors of the global economy, such as Microsoft, Intel, Samsung, Cisco, Hewlett Packard, Mastercard, JPMorgan, UBS, Credit Suisse, Banco Santander, BNY Mellon, British Petroleum, Shell, Pfizer, Merck, Deloitte, Accenture, Thomson Reuters, and Toyota, as well as emerging leaders in the new blockchain industry, such as ConsenSys and...

Private blockchains for business

This will conclude our overview of industrial private blockchain projects. To recap, in the previous sections, we presented three leading initiatives for developing and promoting enterprise-grade blockchain technology for industrial use: R3, Hyperledger, and EEA. Each has its own community of members, developers, and other contributors, and they all have their own version of foundational blockchain technology serving as a basis for further ecosystem development, as shown in the following diagram:

The premise, upon which Hyperledger Fabric, R3 Corda, and other private permissioned blockchain projects build upon, is that enterprise-grade blockchain solutions will operate in a trusted environment. This is due to the nature of how businesses tend to operate in the real world with known and endorsed partners. This premise has implications on the architecture...

Summary

The Ethereum technology is still in its nascent stage and will have to overcome several roadblocks – technical and regulatory – before it becomes fully-functional and eligible for mass business adoption. In this chapter, we learned that initiatives, such as the EEA, are important forums for established industry leaders and disruptive start-ups must work and innovate together toward changing the world for the better. We learned about various corporate blockchains and how they affect daily business.

Well, as the old saying goes: time will tell. Let's now take a look at some practical examples of how blockchain business adoption is progressing. Then we'll discuss the present issues the technology is facing, and how are they being addressed, so that public blockchains can get to the next level and solve the scalability, interoperability, privacy, and...