Technology giant IBM (NYSE: IBM) has officially declared its love for the blockchain – the technology that supports virtual currencies such as bitcoin. New York-based IBM has officially said that it is committed to making blockchain a business-friendly technology.
In a press release, Arvind Krishna, Senior Vice President, IBM Research said,
“In just a few short months, IBM’s vision for making blockchain a powerful new business solution across multiple industries is becoming a reality as our clients begin piloting innovative new code, services and z Systems optimized for distributed ledgers. These advancements are making it easier for developers to move from understanding the potential of blockchain, to actually using it to change their business processes in powerful new ways.“
After contributing nearly 44,000 lines of codes to the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project, the tech major has identified several uses of the distributed ledger technology in various other industries.
- Blockchain on the IBM Cloud – Using IBM’s Bluemix Garage for blockchain, developers can use DevOps Services to create, deploy, run and monitor blockchain applications on the IBM Cloud. Bluemix is an open-standard, cloud platform for building, running, and managing apps and services.
- Enabling Internet of Things (IoT) Data on Blockchain – IBM’s Watson IoT platform will allow for information from devices such as RFID-based locations, barcode-scan events, or device-reported data to be used with IBM blockchain.
For example, as an IoT-connected package moves along multiple distribution points, package characteristics such as location and temperature information could be updated on the ledger. This allows all parties to share information and status of the package as it moves among multiple parties to ensure the terms of a contract are met. - More IBM Garages Coming Up? – IBM will be opening more garages in London, New York, Singapore, and Tokyo to push for faster development of blockchain applications.
IBM is sure that blockchain is the technology that can bring about a revolutionary change in the way processes are conducted or contracts are fulfilled in various industries. The technology has the ability to substantially bring down costs and that is attracting leading players like IBM to experiment and build applications. The next couple of years could be very interesting for tech enthusiasts as several applications based on blockchain come to the fore.
Image: https://www.ibm.com/blockchain/
