IBM has affirmed it’s faith in the ability of Blockchain to transform the way industries conduct business transactions. This will require a complete ecosystem of industry players working together, allowing businesses to benefit from the network effect of blockchain, the company said. To help support these organizations, IBM announced Wednesday a blockchain ecosystem to help accelerate the creation of blockchain networks.
The blockchain ecosystem program is designed for innovators looking to build real networks — venture capitalists (VCs), start-ups, systems integrators (SI), independent software vendors (ISV) and enterprise developers, said IBM.
To support these diverse organizations, IBM will provide education and tools aimed to reduce the time required to go from idea to execution. IBM blockchain professionals will hold “office hours” via the Hyperledger Fabric Slack channel providing support to developers and help with troubleshooting.
This is in addition to the courses and learning modules for business users and developers already available on developerWorks. These will be augmented with code libraries, smart contract templates and tools currently in development to speed the creation of blockchain apps, the company said.
These programs are designed to support the Linux Foundation Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 and the IBM Blockchain platform which is expected to transform the way blockchain networks transact, opening up new possibilities for development.
The Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 will provide a modular approach, much like the network-of-networks model of the Internet.
“The future growth and adoption of blockchain is reliant upon building a strong ecosystem. Business networks will only reach critical mass when innovators, industry experts and infrastructure providers come together in new ways to reinvent how business transactions happen,” said Bridget Van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Industry Platforms. “The growing maturity of the Hyperledger Project code is a major milestone. That’s why IBM is investing to help developers accelerate the creation of blockchain networks by providing an environment where these players can work together.”
Several companies have already joined the IBM blockchain ecosystem, including Everledger, a UK-based startup, and several others.
