Barclays and Clearmatics to Help Blockchains Talk to Each Other
The U.K. based bank Barclays and a London-based startup Clearmatics are inviting coders across the world to innovate something amazing with the blockchain technology. They are looking for coders who can introduce ways of integrating ethereum with ‘made-for-enterprise blockchains’ for example, Hyperledger Fabric. Hyperledger Fabric is a framework which is used to develop blockchain based products.
The organizations are holding a hackathon where the participants will have to accept the interoperability challenge. Participants can use a template having company’s open-source interoperability protocol named ‘Ion.’ The hackathon will be held at the Barclays Rise fintech hub in London next month on 5th and 6th.
After paying attention to the big names involved in this project, one will understand the importance of this idea of using the interoperability between major enterprise blockchain platforms. Representatives of major multinational banks like Barclays, HSBC, Santander, and UBS are included in the judging panel. However, the prizes for the winning teams are not yet disclosed.
Dr. Lee Braine of Barclays while giving an exclusive interview to one news platform said that the company would like to have a better and greater insight of the challenges and potential solutions it will come across while building the interoperability between different ledgers. The company is aware of the complexities involved in this. However, this hackathon will allow the crypto industry to experiment with the ‘Ion’ protocol and hence adding feedback to the open source project.
At present, the enterprise blockchain concept has stayed limited to around four prime platforms. One will come across ethereum variants like Quorum, (which is developed by JPMorgan); then the Hyperledger form of protocols; R3’s Corda; and finally the Digital Asset platform.
Unless these platforms are allowed to talk to each other, these systems will keep recreating the insular silos (which, in fact, they were supposed to replace). And hence, underestimating the business use of blockchain technology as an efficiency booster and lubricating trading factor.
For example, a currency backed by and run on ethereum is hard to swap for a stock or bond available on Hyperledger, unless there is a way for each platform to check on the transactions made the other.
Sara Feenan, an executive at Clearmatics, said that interoperability between Hyperledger Fabric and variants ethereum is essential. This is not because of the importance Hyperledger Fabric has in the crypto business space, but also due to the developing relations between the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and the Hyperleder Foundation.
Clearmatics has already proven how its Ion protocol can boost interoperability between different platforms.
