
IBM unveils Blockchain as a Service - dsr12
https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/19/ibm-unveils-blockchain-as-a-service-based-on-open-source-hyperledger-fabric-technology/
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davidgerard
Almost every “is” statement on the “IBM Blockchain – What is Blockchain?” page
is a “might” or “could” – no blockchain does all the things it describes in
present-day terms, and certainly not Hyperledger, the basis of IBM Blockchain.

Hyperledger.org is a corporate open source Potemkin village of the sort IBM
has long favoured: the illusion of an open project, with no “there” there. I
spent half an hour dredging the site and could not find one clear statement of
what this software is actually intended to do, let alone differences from and
similarities to existing blockchains. Even Bitcoin blog CoinDesk notes: “Among
the doubts facing Hyperledger is a perceived lack of clarity on what might be
ultimately produced by the initiative.”

If you click long enough, you'll find a page where the participating companies
have dumped their unfinished blockchain experiments. The main code contributor
is Digital Asset Holdings; their joining announcement (on their own site, not
hyperledger.org) gives as technical details only that Hyperledger is an
append-only ledger and has an actual Bitcoin-style blockchain in it. (Digital
Asset Holdings was founded by Blythe Masters, pioneer of the credit default
swap, the financial instrument behind the credit crunch of 2008 that may have
provoked Nakamoto to finally release Bitcoin.)

As IBM were actually surprised to find out, all manner of businesses –
financial institutions, beef industry, shoe brands, confectioners – don’t want
to share data even with all participants in their blockchain, but only with
the people the specific deal is actually with. Funnily enough. This was
apparently news to them. It turns out that IBM set up an elaborate hammer
design consortium without first finding out if there are nails.

