Central Banks Back Hyperledger Blockchain Project

The Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston are among 11 new members of the Linux Foundation-led Hyperledger blockchain initiative.

Announced today, the two central banks join a group of more than 100 startups, financial institutions and enterprise firms that are backing the project. They are the first institutions of their kind to become part of Hyperledger. And while the Boston Fed has published research on the tech, the Bank of England, by contrast, has pursued a range of applications, including the potential issuance of a digital currency.

The slate of new members includes health care group Kaiser Permanente, the academic research group Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3) and China Merchants Bank. Among the startups that joined is Monax, which has submitted a codebase to the group with an ethereum virtual machine.

Executive director Brian Behlendorf said in a statement:

“We’re now at 122 members and seeing even more diverse organizations across industry sectors invest their energy and resources in understanding how blockchain technology can strengthen their own business processes. This new set of members’ combined backgrounds and experiences will be invaluable to the community, as we strive to increase production deployments through this year.”

The group has been steadily adding new members since the start of the year, including automaker Daimler AG and credit card giant American Express.

The development comes as Hyperledger’s backers move closer to its next software release, expected sometime in March or April.

Image via Wikimedia

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