Enterprise blockchain began pulling in 2017, shortly after Bitcoin reached its peak of nearly $ 20,000. Since then, blockchain enterprises are mainly defined by private blockchain networks used by enterprises for things like supply chain management.
The blockchain space for businesses has changed quite a bit since 2017. 2020, for example, has introduced a number of business blockchain use cases that use public networks rather than private ones. The COVID-19 pandemic has also driven many businesses, both large and small, to use blockchain to guarantee health evidence or to revive tourism. Finally, this year, some blockchain companies began to show an interest in decentralized financing and took steps to drive this new sector.
Below are a total of 12 companies and solutions that have made progress in the blockchain business this year.
Ernst & Young
Big Four firm Ernst & Young has played an active role in adopting businesses. The firm was one of the first to explore the cryptocurrency space in 2016 when the company conducted a survey to better understand the potential of digital assets. Since then, EY has been leading the way in adopting public enterprises.
For example, EY continues to contribute to the development of the Baseline Protocol, which uses the public Ethereum network as a tamper-resistant state machine to record business data. In May 2019, EY opened its Nightfall code for private transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.
In the future, EY plans to make Nightfall and Zero Knowledge Evidence easier for developers to use. Paul Brody, blockchain chief at EY, had earlier told Cointelegraph that developers would eventually move from building decentralized applications to creating zero-knowledge applications, or “ZApps,” with EY’s blockchain solutions.
IBM
Big Blue’s open source blockchain for business platform is powered by Hyperledger Fabric, a key technology that has contributed to the growth of the IBM Blockchain platform. The IBM Food Trust network, for example, is currently being exploited by major food producers, such as Nestlé, Dole and olive oil giant CHO.
The Food Trust network dates back to 2016 – one of the earliest examples of blockchain ventures when IBM used blockchain by Walmart to determine food products that needed to be recalled. Another key project driven by IBM Blockchain is Maersk’s TradeLens platform, which helps giant giants digitize their supply chains.
In addition, the Digital Health Pass platform uses IBM Blockchain to provide verifiable health evidence, which has become extremely important as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. IBM Blockchain’s partnership with US software company Red Hat is also striking in terms of open source development and a cloud strategy that relies heavily on blockchain technology.
Hedera Hashgraph
The decentralized public network Hedera Hashgraph was developed in 2016 with the aim of enabling developers to build secure applications with near-real-time finality. Since then, Hedera’s network has grown to own and manage an impressive list of companies, including Google, IBM and Boeing.
Hedera recently demonstrated a major blockchain use case with the release of its “SAFE HealthCheck” app, which is applied for COVID-19 remote testing. The app is currently in use at Arizona State University, where it provides more than 70,000 students and staff with distance testing and digital health status verification. The Hedera Consensus service, the company’s blockchain solution for businesses, is also used for other important use cases, including acting as an air strike warning system in Syria.
IconLoop
South Korean blockchain company IconLoop was founded in 2016 to enable real-world blockchain applications in the banking, healthcare and government sectors. The company is headquartered in Seoul and has raised more than $ 15 million in funding. IconLoop recently announced that Jeju Island, a tourism hotspot in South Korea, will use its decentralized identity chain to provide secure COVID-19 contact tracing.
It is also noteworthy that the Financial Services Commission recently approved IconLoop’s decentralized identity verification service in the “Innovative Financial Services and Regulations Sandbox.” In October this year, Cointelegraph reported that IconLoop had secured $ 8 million in a Series A funding round, which will be used to launch a blockchain-based digital identity verification service called my-ID.
World Economic Forum
The World Economic Forum Global Blockchain Council was developed to help promote blockchain technology for the general public interest. As such, the WEF council has launched a number of initiatives to leverage blockchain for public development. In May this year, the council developed a list of blockchain principles to protect the rights of those in the blockchain community.
The risks and benefits of blockchain and the right to store and manage cryptographic keys are included in the list. The blockchain board also recently launched a proof-of-concept to track greenhouse gas emissions from mining and metallurgical enterprises in a blockchain network. It is also noteworthy that the WEF believes that blockchains can enable sustainable digital financing.
PayPal
PayPal, one of the largest online payment systems, has been investing heavily in cryptocurrency and blockchain since 2014. During this time, the company announced that it would enable traders to accept Bitcoin (BTC) via Braintree via various partnerships. The company noted that it was looking for a way to understand how to utilize blockchain to better serve merchants and users. ‘
In 2016, PayPal’s administration was interested in developing its own blockchain to enable high-speed transactions with digital currencies. However, PayPal really shook up the crypto sector this year when the company announced plans for a new cryptocurrency support service from early 2021. In November this year, PayPal launched its crypto trading and payment platform for US users. PayPal’s recent entry into the cryptocurrency market is expected to affect the price of Bitcoin going forward.
Microsoft
Software giant Microsoft is offering a blockchain-as-a-service through its cloud computing arm, Azure. While many companies like GE Aviation and Starbucks use Microsoft’s blockchain platform for supply chain management, the company has taken on a much larger role in blockchain development.
Recently, Microsoft announced a partnership with EY to use the Ethereum blockchain for Xbox royalties. As for the pandemic, Albany Airport is working on a “Wellness Trace App” to tidy up the surfaces inside the airport. The program is powered by the Microsoft Azure blockchain. In June this year, Microsoft joined the InterWork Alliance to help create global standards for proven ecosystems.
Visa
The payment giant Visa has been showing interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency since 2015 when it made an investment in the blockchain startup chain Chain. In October 2016, Visa announced a preview of “Visa B2B Connect” as a system powered by Chain to quickly and securely process business to business worldwide.
Visa’s early efforts in the blockchain space eventually flourished into groundbreaking developments in fintech. Visa, for example, now provides a number of crypto-debit cards, such as those of Binance and BlockFi. In December this year, Visa joined forces with blockchain services company Circle to make USD Coin (USDC) stable currency transactions compatible with certain credit cards.
However, Visa’s growing interest in fintech has also been thoroughly investigated. In January, Visa acquired the fintech firm Plaid, which has been criticized by the U.S. Department of Justice, and filed a lawsuit against the payment provider.
JPMorgan
JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States and one of the largest financial holdings in the world. The organization showed interest in blockchain in 2017 when JPMorgan joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an association made up of companies interested in promoting the Ethereum blockchain.
In 2018, the banking giant published the “Bitcoin Bible” to explain to investors the positive and negative aspects of investing in crypto. In February 2019, JPMorgan announced its ‘JPM Coin’ to help banks quickly complete transactions, which will be launched later in 2020. JPMorgan also leads the Interbank Information Network, a blockchain consortium of more than 130 banking partners that uses distributed ledger technology to improve compliance and reduce processing delays.
Related: JPM Coin debuts begin blockchain’s value-driven adoption cycle
Although JPMorgan is clearly pro-blockchain, the firm has taken a tough stance towards Bitcoin in recent years, but this outlook seems to be changing as the price of Bitcoin continues to reach new highs.
Baseline protocol
The Baseline Protocol initiative, announced in March this year, was launched as an Oasis open source project to enable advanced interoperability for blockchain applications. Baseline Protocol started with 14 founding businesses and has since grown into a community of more than 700 members, with sponsorship organizations such as Accenture and ConsenSys supporting the project.
The Baseline Protocol seeks to resolve the blockchain interoperability dilemma that will eventually bring more organizations to the Ethereum blockchain. Currently, large companies, such as Coke One North America and SAP, use the Baseline Protocol to synchronize and share business data between multiple participants.
The Baseline Protocol, with the help of the company’s blockchain enterprise providing ‘Baseline-as-a-Service’, will eventually pave the way for enterprise DeFi. This will enable businesses to move valuable items, such as financial data included with invoices, across different networks.
Sales team
Software giant Salesforce launched its first blockchain-based product in May 2019. This is called ‘Salesforce Blockchain’. It is a low-code blockchain platform that expands the power of Salesforce’s customer relationship management (CRM) system, which provides more than 150,000 customers. .
Salesforce previously told Cointelegraph that the blockchain is intended to connect businesses with IT teams to achieve ROI. The product is used by a number of companies, such as an Automobili Lamborghini – the Italian car brand – to verify heritage Lamborghini cars.
In April of this year, Salesforce integrated Lition’s commercial blockchain technology to help the company leverage data decentralization in its CRM. Recently, Salesforce partnered with IBM to bring the blockchain-based Digital Health Pass to the Salesforce platform.
Fujitsu
The Japanese IT company Fujitsu already showed interest in blockchain technology in 2016. In 2017, the IT giant announced that it was developing blockchain software powered by Hyperledger for handling, accessing and distributing data. Shortly thereafter, the company announced plans to commercialize its enterprise blockchain solution, making Fujitsu a direct competitor to IBM’s blockchain solution.
Fujitsu has recently taken an interest in digital identity and is using its blockchain solution to track the user’s identity and credentials for online transactions. It is noteworthy that Japan’s third largest bank, Mizuho Bank, together with local payments giant JCB, plans to launch a digital interoperability system managed by Fujitsu’s blockchain solution.