No single company can unlock the potential and full business value of blockchain on its own. Productive ecosystems establish a true platform and drive the value of any real blockchain network. IBM Blockchain ecosystem networks provide organizations that are building on blockchain platforms a range of opportunities to access valuable new channels, strategic partnerships and innovative technology and resources to accelerate growth.

Organizations now have the potential to unlock market changing blockchain capabilities powered by The Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, as well as other blockchain platforms and networks, to establish valuable new relationships and channels, business and technical interconnectivity, as well as a range of go-to-market opportunities. A great example of this is the team at IBM. We have learned that blockchain technology is often just a fraction of the overall solution. The business models, process transformation, legal and other organizational change management components are the majority of work effort and most critical for success.

Learn how industries are revolutionizing business with IBM Blockchain

Bringing industries, governments and citizens together with blockchain

Pulling together the business network, consortia and sustainable business model is no simple task. Our global, cross-discipline blockchain team excels in convening networks and consortia, providing the consortium launch capabilities to establish the governance, intellectual property and legal determinations, as well as the organizational change and business process capabilities to drive true business outcomes and client value.

Blockchain is truly a team sport that requires many players to work together, see common objectives, and drive to aligned goals. This team sport is not the typical way to do business as it brings together competitors, cross-industry partners, and even government regulators. Pulling together such diverse partners requires a real convenor with innovative methods to drive the new business models to fuel and facilitate such transformative action.

This focused effort began at IBM to change the way business is done and trust is brought back into transactions though blockchain technology. And we at IBM quickly realized it is less about the technology than it is about pulling together the right players in a sustainable business valued network. Less tech more business. Through repeated success in assembling productive consortia the IBM team is now a proven global convener of blockchain networks across industries and ecosystems to create shared value, new business models and new markets. Blockchain creates new ways to work and IBM is employing new methods, technology, business models, and ecosystem players to make it happen faster, at scale, then ever before experienced.

How does IBM collaborate with other blockchain providers and platforms?

The cross-organizational blockchain team is focused on helping clients build, grow and accelerate blockchain capabilities and solutions — across multiple platforms — guided by industry-leading expertise, enterprise-grade technology and an open community of business consultants and developers. The team offers business value design, technical and business strategy and flexible deployment options to implement, scale, and integration blockchain capabilities. This includes on-premise deployments, working across multiple client-specific cloud providers, as well as hybrid cloud environments to deploy blockchain for client valued needs and outcomes.

Given that blockchain is a team sport, and that the most value and potential will ultimately be achieved through a true “network of networks,” we collaborate and co-create with clients using multiple blockchain platforms and networks in addition to the IBM Blockchain Platform, such as Stellar, Ethereum and R3/Corda.

We actively encourage clients to join us and participate and interoperate in a world of many networks, building business and identity solutions on top of open standards like W3C DID and Verifiable Credentials, Decentralized Identity Foundation (DIF), Oasis and others.

Here are just a few examples of this creative, open, progressive approach:

• IBM, SWIFT, Ripple and approximately 100 other organizations have joined a new blockchain association to promote adoption. A European Commission initiative, the International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) has been established as a “global multi-stakeholder forum” to bring together developers and users of blockchain technology to promote mainstream adoption across multiple sectors. The group includes other notable members including banks such as Barclays and BBVA, as well as Ethereum development studio ConsenSys AG, blockchain tech firm Bitfury, R3, cryptocurrency hardware wallet maker Ledger and cryptocurrency protocol developer IOTA.
• Decentralized identity, as another example, is the point-to-point exchange of information about people, organizations or things — enabled by blockchain — created specifically for a world of many networks, implemented on global standards. IBM is helping to create, operate and maintain permissioned decentralized identity networks built using Hyperledger Indy DLT, such as Sovrin. Sovrin provides a global public identity utility, a new home for self-sovereign identity applications.

Helping build your network of networks

This continues to demonstrate IBM Blockchain market leadership, with skills in business value design and platforms beyond Hyperledger to diversely deploy as clients request with the ultimate objective of being the general contractor of choice for blockchain capabilities and sustainable consortia and business networks to benefit our clients, IBM and the world.

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