When IBM, one of the largest technology firms in the world, generating nearly $100bn in 2014 revenue, announced it was interested in blockchain technology, the wider world took notice.
IBM revealed it would lend its support to the Open Ledger Project this December, an announcement that was followed by a wave of popular press proclaiming that the initiative would become a new blockchain for business, one perhaps better suited to enterprises than alternatives like bitcoin.
Organized under the umbrella of the Linux Foundation, the Open Ledger Project attracted banks, financial institutions, technology firms, as well as two blockchain startups based in New York, Digital Asset Holdings and R3CEV, the consortium that has attracted 40 major banks.
In interview, the tech giant used similarly striking language when referring to the blockchain, with IBM fellow Jerry Cuomo calling distributed ledger technology "a fundamental way of reimagining core business processes".
"The art of the possible with blockchain is really what brings us to the table," Cuomo told CoinDesk.
Those backing the project hope that the Open Ledger Project will serve as a development library that will be tapped for use by other firms looking to build permissioned ledgers of their own.
Cuomo said: "We’ve done [proofs-of-concept] for customers with almost all of those. And I would say the world is a better place because those things were and are pioneers in the space. But we, and several others in the industry, got a twinkle in our eye looking at this and thinking [whether] this could be used for more than just cryptocurrency." Gathering of interest
Another key factor is IBM’s past work with the Linux Foundation , the nonprofit organization that supports the open-source Linux operating system.Cuomo said that last year the two sides reached similar conclusions about bitcoin and the blockchain, and from that general agreement movement […]
