Open Source Blockchain Effort for the Enterprise Elects Leadership Positions and Gains New Investments

 Hyperledger Project Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee chair elected; new member investments underscore demand for open source blockchain platform development 

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Collaboration Summit – March 29, 2016 – The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, today is announcing the Hyperledger Project has filled key leadership positions and is welcoming new members. The Hyperledger Project is a collaborative effort to establish, build and sustain an open, distributed ledger platform that will satisfy a variety of use cases across multiple industries.

The results of the Board of Directors and Technical Steering Committee elections for the Hyperledger Project include the following:

• Technical Steering Committee Chair: Chris Ferris, distinguished engineer and CTO of open technology at IBM
• Technical Steering Committee members include: Tamás Blummer, Digital Asset Holdings; Mic Bowman, Intel; Richard Brown, R3; Stanislav Liberman, CME Group; Hart Montgomery, Fujitsu; Satoshi Oshima, Hitachi; Stefan Teis, Deutsche Börse; Emmanuel Viale, Accenture; Pardha Vishnumolakala, DTCC; and David Voell, J.P. Morgan.
• Board Chair: Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings
• Governing Board members: Charles Cascarilla, CEO, itBit; Toshiya Cho, Hitachi; Jerry Cuomo, IBM; Chris Ferris, IBM; Dirk Hohndel, Intel; Todd McDonald, cofounder and COO, R3; Robert Palatnick, DTCC; Kireeti Reddy, CME Group; Stefan Teis, Deutsche Börse; Dave Treat, Accenture; Yoshinobu Sawano, Fujitsu; Santiago Suarez, J.P. Morgan; and Craig Young, CTO, SWIFT. itBit’s Cascarilla and SWIFT’s Young are newly elected board representatives since the formation in December 2015.

These appointments are made by member vote. The TSC drives technical direction of the Hyperledger Project, while the Governing Board manages business direction, including governance, marketing and operational decisions.

The Hyperledger Project today is also announcing ten new companies are joining the effort and investing in the future of an open blockchain ledger: Blockstream, Bloq, eVue Digital Labs, Gem, itBit, Milligan Partners, Montran Labs, Ribbit.me, Tequa Creek Holdings and Thomson Reuters.

“There is no other effort advancing an open blockchain with this level of broad industry representation and level of leadership,” said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. “The Hyperledger Project is among our fastest growing projects at The Linux Foundation. The opportunity is great. This leadership team and the community investments among members across industries put the project in the best position possible to accomplish its mission.”

Peer-to-peer in nature, distributed ledger technology is shared, transparent and decentralized, making it ideal for application in finance and countless other areas such as manufacturing, banking, insurance and the Internet of Things. Research reports estimate that the investment in blockchain by financial institutions alone will grow to $400 million by 2019 (see: Aite Group Blockchain Players in Capital Markets: Where Are the Pioneers Headed?, 2015). By creating a cross-industry open standard for distributed ledgers, virtually any digital exchange with value, such as real estate contracts, energy trades, marriage licenses, can securely and cost-effectively be tracked and traded.

“The Hyperledger Project is gaining traction on a daily basis, displaying how vital this effort is in advancing distributed ledger technology,” said Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings and Board chair for the Hyperledger Project. “Uniting the industry to drive this initiative forward is paramount to the success of distributed ledger technology. The Linux Foundation and its members are collaborating on an open source infrastructure that will increase privacy and scalability, among many other benefits.” 

“These member investments demonstrate that blockchain technology continues to grow in importance as the alternative approach to multinational business transactions,” said Chris Ferris, IBM Distinguished Engineer, CTO Open Technology, and Technical Steering Committee chair, Hyperledger Project. “By providing a community for members to collaborate and contribute to an open source blockchain solution, we’re able to advance the technology collectively and ultimately drive quicker adoption and higher value across industries.”

Comments from new Hyperledger members

Blockstream
“Blockchain technology is at the bleeding edge of computer science and ushers in a new paradigm of programmable trust,” said Dr. Adam Back, president of Blockstream. “We’re excited to offer our operational blockchain experience and collaborate with members of the Hyperledger Project to advance new applications of open ledger technology.”

Bloq
“Blockchain technology impacts every aspect of business – commerce, trading, security, to name a few,” said Matthew Roszak, co-founder, Bloq. “By developing this critical technology in an open source community, we’re able to collaborate, innovate and advance the technology to meet growing enterprise demands.”

eVue Digital Labs
“We understand the importance of uniting industry leaders to advance a technology forward,” said Bryce Weiner, chief operating officer, eVue Digital Labs. “eVue is extremely excited to collaborate with other Hyperledger Project members and contribute to this open source community.”

Gem
“Here at Gem, we understand the critical importance of establishing trust and transparency in the Blockchain economy,” said Micah Winkelspecht, founder and CEO, Gem. “We’re excited to collaborate with members of the Hyperledger Project to accelerate the open source, decentralized technology needed for industry-wide adoption.”

itBit
“As a financial services company that provides blockchain-based solutions, we understand the technology gaps that need to be filled to ensure enterprise demands are met,” said Charles Cascarilla, itBit’s co-founder and CEO. “Open source projects like the Hyperledger Project unite the world’s leading companies to address critical needs and advance a technology for greater adoption.”

Milligan Partners
“We’re eager to help standardize Blockchain technology by joining the Hyperledger Project,” said Matt Milligan, managing partner, Milligan Partners. “We understand the importance of collaborative development to overcome interoperability challenges in tolling operations, and we look forward to working together with project members from other disciplines.”

Montran Labs
“Secured, shared and transparent digital ledger systems are at the core of what we do,” said Alexandar Esca, director, Montran Labs. “Collaborating with other companies who are paving the way for blockchain-based technologies allows us to innovate in a way we couldn’t achieve working within our company walls.” 

Ribbit.me
“Blockchain is essential to Ribbit.me’s business,” said Gregory Simon, CEO and co-founder, Ribbit.me. “It was a natural step for us to join the Hyperledger Project to help advance this critical technology.” 

Tequa Creek Holdings
“In the future, as multiple companies rapidly collaborate to solve customer problems, providing decentralized provability of transactions between these partners is essential for them to trust each other,” said Robin Bayer, general manager, Tequa Creek Holdings. “We’re excited to be part of this open source community and contribute to the development of leading edge blockchain technologies.”

Thomson Reuters
“We’re excited about our partnership with the Hyperledger Project and collaborating with other members to accelerate deeper collaboration and a shared vision for the evolving blockchain technology and its applications in financial services, government, and enterprises,” said Bob Schukai, head of applied innovation, Thomson Reuters.

For more information about the Hyperledger Project, please visit: https://www.hyperledger.org/ 

About The Linux Foundation
The Linux Foundation is the organization of choice for the world’s top developers and companies to build ecosystems that accelerate open technology development and commercial adoption. Together with the worldwide open source community, it is solving the hardest technology problems by creating the largest shared technology investment in history. Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training and events to scale any open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one company. More information can be found atwww.linuxfoundation.org.

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