Mature enterprise Ethereum, open source community-driven for standards

Ethereum is fast becoming an integral part of the corporate blockchain ecosystem. As more and more businesses begin to leverage corporate public networks, it’s important to note that the Ethereum space is still relatively new to businesses. As a result, some development is required before companies can take full advantage of the Ethereum blockchain.

For example, Dan Burnett, executive director of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance – an initiative that enables companies to adopt and use Ethereum technology in their day-to-day operations – told Cointelegraph that Ethereum is on the rise, and more. As such, Ethereum is turning into a solid chain for businesses.

However, Burnett pointed out that standardization work is becoming increasingly important for Ethereum to be fully mature. The challenge here, however, is that the standardization for Enterprise Ethereum must take into account the openness of Ethereum while also considering a proprietary business implementation.

Standards are required for the development of Ethereum in companies

To promote the development of the right standard for Enterprise Ethereum, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) and Oasis Open – an organization that promotes the development of open source software and standards – today founded the “EEA Community Project” announced.

According to Burnett, the EEA Community Projects were founded to merge the development of traditional standards with those from open source software. Burnett explains that a combination of these two development standards is required to accelerate the adoption of Ethereum businesses in companies:

“With Ethereum, there is always this interesting tension between the developer community, which is open and personal, and the business side, which is commercially oriented and often deals with regulations and complexities. . The EEA community projects bring together the implementation of proprietary standards with open source standards developed across the Ethereum community. “

Burnett also mentioned that the Ethereum Oasis Open Project, an open oasis initiative for several Ethereum projects, is now operating under the banner of the EEA Community Project.

Why are standards important?

To put the need for standards into perspective, Burnett mentioned that one of the reasons Ethereum is so valuable is because there is no single entity controlling the network. However, once this value is realized, the participants of the Ethereum ecosystem will likely work with different entities to ensure interoperability.

Guy Martin, executive director of Oasis Open, told Cointelegraph that the Baseline Protocol is an example of standards used for interoperability. The Baseline Protocol coordinates confidential workflows between companies using messaging, zero-knowledge cryptography and the Ethereum blockchain.

Martin explains that Baseline essentially used its API and framework for its standards to ensure interoperability between one computer language and another. Hence “it must be written in different languages ​​and used in different environments.” He added, “Standards are templates and agreements that enable interoperability and other things.”

Although the EEA Community Project is only just beginning, Burnett explains that the need for interoperability around the scaling solutions of the second tier has become clear: “We are working on many solutions for the second tier. Which are based on Ethereum and now there are more and more discussions “. about the need for common ground there. “As a result, Burnett predicts that second level interoperability standards could be raised as a result of EEA collaborative projects.

Equally important, Burnett pointed out that the EEA community projects will not jeopardize what the Ethereum community has done:

“We haven’t made any governance changes that have diminished the openness, transparency, and community-centric nature of our work. It took us a while to figure out how to make sure that all constituencies are happy and that no one takes over the network or changes it in any way. “

With that in mind, it’s important to understand why open source standards are necessary for Ethereum to grow as a business. Anaïs Ofranc, head of the standards and specifications working group at Oasis Open, told Cointelegraph that open source is the most practical and reliable way for the EEA to drive the development and adoption of Ethereum in enterprises – both in terms of technology and standards :

“Open source reduces / removes barriers to collaboration, so it’s a great way to get input from diverse stakeholders, explore different use cases in the industry, and explore business applications of Ethereum blockchain technology. It is also an effective way for the EEA to showcase its work. “

Ofranc also points out that the right contributors – both individuals and corporations – need to be present for open source standards to work: “In the blockchain space, there’s a lot of competition for talent and experience that contributors need to be justify the time. ”and the effort involved in working on enterprise blockchain projects. “

Is Enterprise Ethereum Maturity?

Despite the challenges that can arise in implementing the standard, it’s worth noting that the Ethereum space for businesses is growing to the point that standards are now required. The Ethereum standards for business are likely to be important as well once Ethereum 2.0 is finalized.

Related: IBM is contributing blockchain platform code to Hyperledger to drive the adoption of blockchain in enterprises

John Wolpert, Chair of the Technical Steering Committee at Baseline Protocol and Vice President of the Main Network Working Group at EEA, elaborated on this point, telling Cointelegraph that forming EEA collaborative projects is very important to use Ethereum in a growing company:

“We now have an industry-leading body that works hand in hand with a leading IT standards organization, engaging a broad community of individual developers, architects, and corporations to set standards for verified multi-party workflows that use the public Ethereum mainnet as a verification anchor . “

In the future, Burnett believes that the work of the EEA Community Projects has the potential to rise to international standardization bodies. “This gives us a great opportunity to work on the ground and then move into a corporate environment where larger companies will feel comfortable.”