IBM Blockchain And HACERA Unbounded Registry To Create Catalog Of Distributed Ledger Networks

IBM announced on 13th September that it was joining the HACERA Unbounded Registry as a founding member. The project aims to create a platform that would include all blockchains and blockchain-related companies in a catalog-like format. IBM said that this looks like the Yellow Pages of the blockchain, given the conceptual similarities with the old yellow books popular in the US and other countries, which structured a directory of businesses by brand name and phone number.

https://twitter.com/IBMBlockchain/status/1040283973748809729

Jerry Cuomo, vice president at IBM Blockchain, wrote in a blog post that the directory – called Unbounded Registry – is now up and running, and aggregates a list of decentralized platforms built on various blockchain networks. The goal, as explained by Cuomo, is to have an information hub that can inform companies who are looking to adopt blockchain what options are out there and how they can participate in projects, especially those built on private networks that are invitation-only.

IBM sees HACERA’s Unbounded Registry providing several key capabilities that addressed these common problems:

• Reserved naming for networks, applications, and consortiums.
• The discoverability of blockchain networks and applications.
• A catalog of domain-specific functions and services.
• An independent, open and shared blockchain backed platform to help us all with bootstrapping, launching and growing our communities.

Early participants include heavy hitters like Microsoft, Hitachi, Huawei, IBM, SAP, and Oracle, who are linking to projects being created on their platforms. The registry supports projects based on major digital ledger communities including Hyperledger, Quorum, Cosmos, Ethereum, and Corda. The HACERA Network Registry is built on Hyperledger Fabric, and the code is open source.

IBM and HACERA have been working closely on blockchain technology for a while. HACERA was one of the first members of the IBM Blockchain ecosystem — going back to 2016 — including the HACERA and IBM release-managed Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 a year ago.

This is exactly the kind of underlying infrastructure that the blockchain requires to expand as a technology. Cuomo certainly recognizes this.

”We realized from the start that you cannot do blockchain on your own; you need a vibrant community and ecosystem of like-minded innovators who share the vision of helping to transform the way companies conduct business in the global economy,”

he said.