It would appear as if some corporations are well underway to form yet another blockchain consortium. Even though smaller initiatives focusing on distributed ledgers is of the utmost importance, the question remains how well all of these different initiatives will work together in the end. The latest of such initiatives is spearheaded by JP Morgan, Microsoft, and Intel, along with several of their partners.
Yet Another Blockchain Consortium Rises From The Ashes
It is quite intriguing to see JPMorgan not give up on blockchain technology just yet. The group was a part of the R3 blockchain consortium until very recently, although quite a few major banks exited that program at the end of last year. Rather than ditching distributed ledgers altogether, JPMorgan is now partnering with various other companies to create their own “alliance’, so to speak.
Other partners for this project include Intel, Microsoft, and several dozen other companies looking to explore how blockchain can affect their business model. Under the “Enterprise Ethereum Alliance”, this new consortium will focus on developing standards and technology for enterprises looking to use Ethereum blockchain code in their future projects and platforms. Interestingly enough, the choice for Ethereum’s blockchain causes quite a bit of controversy as well.
Most cryptocurrency enthusiasts will recall the Ethereum blockchain is not immutable like bitcoin’s. Instead, the developers have successfully rolled back part of the blockchain to “correct’ some mistakes and hacks. It is this lack of immutability hat attracted the companies spearheading this consortium to Ethereum in the first place. Since they can exert control over the blockchain, it is doubtful a project like this will end up being more than a glorified database.
While it is commendable these companies want to incorporate blockchain technology, they should only do so for the right reasons. Creating a system that is not immutable seems to offer very little benefit compared to traditional databases. The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance seems more than content to use sub-par technology that can be modified and “abused” to suit their needs.This is not why blockchain technology exists in the first place. Moreover, it goes to show private blockchain efforts are all about exerting control, rather than creating a tamper-proof record.
It will be interesting to see how the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance evolves over the next few years. Keeping in mind how most of the companies who make up this group have their work cut out for them before they can incorporate blockchain in the first place, no major announcements are expected anytime soon. While Ethereum’s blockchain can be used to build decentralized applications, it is not a tamper-proof and complete history of Ethereum to date. There is no reason to believe any project using this technology won’t ultimately suffer the consequences from previous developers’ actions.
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