Yesterday Hyperledger announced eight new full members of the enterprise blockchain collaborative, half from Asia. Perhaps the biggest names are French energy firm EDF and JD Digits, the fintech and digital arm of JD.com, China’s version of Amazon. Another is Red Date Technology, one of the firms behind China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN), which is backed by the State Information Center of China (SIC) and has significant international ambitions.
This year Hyperledger has made an even stronger community push in Asia, holding some of its regular online group meetings at Asian friendly times. An example is the trade finance working group where there’s significant activity in Asia and Europe.
The organization is currently celebrating Five Years of Hyperledger with a series of online panels and a community-wide networking session.
The other new members include Taiwan’s BSOS, Octo Technology, Shanghai Tianji Network, Troon Technologies and WISeKey.
Notably, JD Digits is a participant in China’s digital yuan central bank digital currency trials. Next week 100,000 citizens who won a lottery give-away in Suzhou City will be able to spend the money at JD.com and other stores.
While JD has its own open-source blockchain JD Chain, VP Cao Peng noted that “JD Digits Blockchain as a Service Platform, is still compatible with the Hyperledger Fabric, which has a large user base.” He continued, “Together with Hyperledger, we look forward to promoting the safe, rapid and equitable flow of global data and values to build a credible ecosystem of co-construction, co-governance and sharing.”
