By Pete Harris, Principal, Lighthouse Partners, Inc. and WSBA Perspectives Blog Curator
In my last post, I gave an overview of some high profile open source blockchain platforms that are currently available or emerging.
But not everyone wants to go open source. So this time, I'll look at proprietary choices from ...
Axoni - Axoni’s offering AxCore has been tested in several proof-of-concepts, including for processing of foreign exchange, equity swaps, corporate bond reference data and credit default swaps. In the CDS marketplace, Axoni is now working on a production rollout for the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC). As a result of the DTCC deal, Axoni is expected to open source its platform, or at least a version of it.
Chain - Chain was one of the first blockchain platform vendors to emerge in 2015, and quickly signed up the likes of Citi, Nasdaq and Visa as investors and customers. Recently it open-sourced a developer version of its Chain Core platform.
Coin Sciences – Creator of the MultiChain platform, which it provides for free download to developers. The company has signed up a number of partners to work on production opportunities, including Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Digital Asset Holdings – Digital Asset has acquired technology from a number of startups and is working on significant projects with the Australian Stock Exchange, SIX Securities Services and the DTCC. It is also a contributor to the Hyperledger-managed Fabric open-source platform, and is planning to open source its Digital Asset Modeling Language for the creation of smart-contract-like agreements.
Gem – Formed in 2014, Gem now offers its GemOS platform, with a focus on healthcare and supply chain markets, including health data management and identity, claims processing and the management of carbon offset credits in the natural gas marketplace.
Guardtime – Formed in Estonia in 2007, Guardtime has been building keyless signature infrastructure — “blockchain without a ledger” — for a number of industry verticals and applications, including defense, financial services, government, healthcare and telecommunications
IBM – IBM recently announced the availability of its “production ready” IBM Blockchain platform, which is based on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric development. The company has added a few things to Fabric in its proprietary offering, starting with a cloud platform to host and features like secure hardware storage of encryption keys as well as configuration and governance tools that enterprises require. Also of note is the Composer tool that IBM has developed (and also open sourced via Hyperledger) for rapid development of blockchain applications.
Manifold Technologies – Manifold Technology is focusing its efforts on creating blockchain technology that offers improved security, privacy and scalability. The startup counts Royal Bank of Canada among its clients, which is implementing its loyalty rewards program using its technology.
Monax Industries – This startup has focused on creating a smart contracts platform based on a modified version of the Ethereum virtual machine, and has open sourced it via the Hyperledger project.
OTC Exchange Network (OTCXN) – While OTCXN is primarily building a blockchain-based service for peer-to-peer foreign exchange trading, it is also actively exploring making its core technology available to others as a general purpose platform.
Paxos – A spin-out from bitcoin exchange itBit, Paxos has built its Bankchain distributed ledger platform and is focusing it on the post-trade securities space. Via a partnership with clearing network Euroclear, it is building a blockchain-based settlement system for gold.
PeerNova – A one-time bitcoin mining company, PeerNova has developed trading applications for Overstock.com (which is an investor) and addressed data provenance-related issues for State Street Bank.
R3 – Wait a minute, isn't R3's Corda supposed to be open source? Indeed it is. But it seems that the company does plan to release a proprietary enterprise version at some point.
SETL – SETL has built distributed ledger technology, dubbed OpenCSD, that is being deployed for equities settlement by Computershare in Australia and post-trade foreign exchange processing by Cobalt DL in the U.K.
Symbiont – With a smart contracts platform running on its proprietary Assembly distributed ledger technology, Symbiont has been involved in a number of projects, for the management of syndicated loans, the issuance of securities for companies forming in the State of Delaware and the digitization of gold.
t0 – The blockchain subsidiary of online retailer Overstock.com, t0 has acquired order routing software and brokerage licenses in order to roll out its securities trading system, through which it has issued its own stock and now supports secondary market trading. The plan for the future is to list other companies as well as open up the platform to additional asset classes.
So that’s it for now. The blockchain platform landscape is a shifting one. Let me know whether I’ve missed any provider and I’ll include it in a future update.
Chain - Chain was one of the first blockchain platform vendors to emerge in 2015, and quickly signed up the likes of Citi, Nasdaq and Visa as investors and customers. Recently it open-sourced a developer version of its Chain Core platform.
Coin Sciences – Creator of the MultiChain platform, which it provides for free download to developers. The company has signed up a number of partners to work on production opportunities, including Accenture, Boston Consulting Group and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Digital Asset Holdings – Digital Asset has acquired technology from a number of startups and is working on significant projects with the Australian Stock Exchange, SIX Securities Services and the DTCC. It is also a contributor to the Hyperledger-managed Fabric open-source platform, and is planning to open source its Digital Asset Modeling Language for the creation of smart-contract-like agreements.
Gem – Formed in 2014, Gem now offers its GemOS platform, with a focus on healthcare and supply chain markets, including health data management and identity, claims processing and the management of carbon offset credits in the natural gas marketplace.
Guardtime – Formed in Estonia in 2007, Guardtime has been building keyless signature infrastructure — “blockchain without a ledger” — for a number of industry verticals and applications, including defense, financial services, government, healthcare and telecommunications
IBM – IBM recently announced the availability of its “production ready” IBM Blockchain platform, which is based on the open-source Hyperledger Fabric development. The company has added a few things to Fabric in its proprietary offering, starting with a cloud platform to host and features like secure hardware storage of encryption keys as well as configuration and governance tools that enterprises require. Also of note is the Composer tool that IBM has developed (and also open sourced via Hyperledger) for rapid development of blockchain applications.
Manifold Technologies – Manifold Technology is focusing its efforts on creating blockchain technology that offers improved security, privacy and scalability. The startup counts Royal Bank of Canada among its clients, which is implementing its loyalty rewards program using its technology.
Monax Industries – This startup has focused on creating a smart contracts platform based on a modified version of the Ethereum virtual machine, and has open sourced it via the Hyperledger project.
OTC Exchange Network (OTCXN) – While OTCXN is primarily building a blockchain-based service for peer-to-peer foreign exchange trading, it is also actively exploring making its core technology available to others as a general purpose platform.
Paxos – A spin-out from bitcoin exchange itBit, Paxos has built its Bankchain distributed ledger platform and is focusing it on the post-trade securities space. Via a partnership with clearing network Euroclear, it is building a blockchain-based settlement system for gold.
PeerNova – A one-time bitcoin mining company, PeerNova has developed trading applications for Overstock.com (which is an investor) and addressed data provenance-related issues for State Street Bank.
R3 – Wait a minute, isn't R3's Corda supposed to be open source? Indeed it is. But it seems that the company does plan to release a proprietary enterprise version at some point.
SETL – SETL has built distributed ledger technology, dubbed OpenCSD, that is being deployed for equities settlement by Computershare in Australia and post-trade foreign exchange processing by Cobalt DL in the U.K.
Symbiont – With a smart contracts platform running on its proprietary Assembly distributed ledger technology, Symbiont has been involved in a number of projects, for the management of syndicated loans, the issuance of securities for companies forming in the State of Delaware and the digitization of gold.
t0 – The blockchain subsidiary of online retailer Overstock.com, t0 has acquired order routing software and brokerage licenses in order to roll out its securities trading system, through which it has issued its own stock and now supports secondary market trading. The plan for the future is to list other companies as well as open up the platform to additional asset classes.
So that’s it for now. The blockchain platform landscape is a shifting one. Let me know whether I’ve missed any provider and I’ll include it in a future update.