Enterprise Ethereum Alliance Unveils Common Blockchain Standards

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance announced the release of a common technical specification on Wednesday, fulfilling a pledge the group made less than a month ago at an event in London.

Enterprise Ethereum Client Specification 1.0, unveiled during CoinDesk's Consensus 2018 conference in New York, comes weeks after Jeremy Millar, a founding board member of the 500-plus-member group, spoke about the importance of common standards as a way to connect development efforts across the enterprise-focused, ethereum-based initiative.

It's a significant moment for the group, which launched at the start of last year with backing from major corporates like British oil giant BP, Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase and Microsoft, as well as stakeholders in the blockchain work such as ethereum startup studio ConsenSys, Nuco and BlockApps, among others. CoinDesk first reported on the group's work in January 2017.

In statements, representatives from the initiative framed it as the result of a months-long collaborative effort between different stakeholders and one that widens access to the software.

Ron Resnick, executive director for the EEA, said of the release:

“The EEA’s Enterprise Ethereum Specification is the result of 18 months of intense collaboration between leading enterprise, technology and platform members within our technical committee. This EEA open-source, cross-platform framework will enable the mass adoption at a depth and breadth otherwise unachievable in individual corporate silos."

Indeed, Resnick spoke about the work during a recent interview with CoinDesk, pointing to the process as one aimed at connecting the different software clients developed by group members.

"All the ethereum client companies see the need to agree on these building blocks and components and how they talk to each other, because if we don't, then we don't have a way to compete against the proprietary solutions," he said at the time.

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