Intel, Microsoft and Accenture have banded together with a group of banks to create the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), based on the Ethereum blockchain platform and driven by the ConsenSys Ethereum studio.
Ethereum is a decentralised platform for applications that run exactly as programmed without any chance of fraud, censorship or third-party interference.
The founding members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance rotating board include Accenture, Banco Santander, BlockApps, BNY Mellon, CME Group, ConsenSys, IC3, Intel, JP Morgan, Microsoft, and Nuco.
Earlier this year, ConsenSys chief of staff Jeremy Millar described the thinking behind the formation of the EEA. “By banding together the key adopters, supporters and shapers of enterprise usage of Ethereum, we are seeking to provide a platform not only for the technology, but also to provide the governance and tools to create a standard for ‘Enterprise Ethereum’.
“It is a group of builders and doers, developing sufficient governance for enterprise requirements but not ‘death by committee’ and without ‘pay to play’.
“Some of our collaborators have noted the refreshing nature of this approach and the pace of technical progress that is achievable from working off a single standard and open source code base,” he adds.
“Moreover, Enterprise Ethereum will build upon the current Ethereum scaling roadmap and maintain compatibility and interoperability with public Ethereum. In fact, we believe Enterprise Ethereum will contribute significantly to the overall development of Ethereum.”
In a nutshell, the initiative will build, promote, and broadly support Ethereum-based technology best practices, standards, and a reference architecture, EntEth 1.0.
A number of financial and commercial organisations have been working on their own versions of an Ethereum platform, to use in a private enterprise setting. However, the platform gains real value when organisations can work on the same platform and protocols, and developing their own applications.
The EEA was launched in New York yesterday, with JP Morgan demonstrating interbank transactions using the technology in a multi-node environment.
Other companies that are also collaborating in the EEA are AMIS, Andui, BBVA, brainbot technologies, BP, Chronicled, Credit Suisse, Cryptape, Fubon Financial, ING, The Institutes, Monax, String Labs, Telindus, Tendermint, Thomson Reuters, UBS, VidRoll, and Wipro.