Bloq Launches Blockchain Lab, Joins Enterprise Ethereum

Blockchain startup Bloq has moved to back a pair of new initiatives centered on open-source development.

The firm said today that it has launched a new lab geared toward supporting open-source projects, while also revealing that it has joined the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

The dual announcements are part of a larger push by the company, founded by bitcoin developer Jeff Garzik and investor Matthew Roszak in 2016, to advance adoption of blockchain applications.

In conversation with CoinDesk, Garzik said he hopes to leverage his team’s history working with Red Hat and the Linux Foundation to bring some clarity to enterprises looking to work with open-source developers – and vice versa.

Speaking with CoinDesk, Garzik said:

"Whether it’s bitcoin, ethereum, Enterprise Ethereum, to me it’s all the same pattern. We’ve got to get off this amateur hour in terms of standards making."

The open-source laboratory announced today is called BloqLabs, described by Garzik as akin to Bell Labs in the 1900s. BloqLabs will promote open-source initiatives similar to the way AT&T helped promote telecommunications at the turn of the century.

Among the projects included thus far: Drivechains, Qtum, Veriblock, bitcoinj and the Android Bitcoin Wallet. The lab will pair these open-source projects with other industry members in the blockchain space, according to Garzik.

As part of the push, Bloq has become the first new member to join the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance since it was launched last month.

According to Garzik, his goal in joining the group is to help bridge the gap between the open-source community who helped build the foundation which enterprises are now exploring, and those larger companies themselves.

He told CoinDesk:

"You meet in the middle, a sort of Switzerland between the crazy enterprise guys and the crazy open-source guys...let's meet in the middle and make a compromise to create something workable."

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