MasterCard, Cisco, a State Government, Join the Ethereum Alliance

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is now the world’s largest blockchain initiative following the addition of 34 new organization, bringing up the total to 150 household brands and even governments.

They include MasterCard and Cisco, which hardly need any introduction, but in a first of its kind, the Government of Andhra Pradesh has also joined EEA.

They’re an Indian state with a population of nearly 50 million individuals and is “emerging in information technology and biotechnology,” according to Wikipedia.

As such, the government likely wants to support the IT sector and joining the Alliance is probably one of the best ways of doing so.

“As Fintech Valley Vizag in Andhra Pradesh aims to become a vital financial technology hub, it is working on adopting more robust systems that are cost-effective,” J A Chowdary, advisor to the Chief Minister at the Government of Andhra Pradesh, stated, before adding:

“There is no doubt that blockchain technology is set to be the biggest disruptor not only in the financial world, but also a number of online and offline sectors. We are keen on integrating blockchain technology into governance and look forward to our collaboration with Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and provide market access to the community.”

Meanwhile, Scotiabank is one of Canada’s biggest bank with some 23 million customers worldwide, handling around $1 trillion in total assets.

Another interesting addition is the Technical University of Munich. Germany has recently entered this space with a fairly big bang starting with an announcement by their largest energy company, now re-named to Innogy, that they have blockchenized hundred of electric vehicle’s charging stations.

The addition of the university might make the country even more of a player, especially in the industrial side and, in particular, regarding the potential blockchenization of self-driving cars.

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance was launched earlier this year and it has already received the biggest backing of any blockchain project so far.

The alliance is working on an enterprise version of ethereum, while also looking for ways to inter-connect the ethereum public blockchain with private versions. They say:

“EEA’s research and development is focused on privacy, confidentiality, scalability, and security. EEA is also investigating hybrid architectures that span both permissioned and public Ethereum networks as well as industry-specific application layer working groups.”

Ethereum, therefore, might be rising as the gold standard in blockchain technology, with many private blockchains revolving around its base protocol. Allowing developers to gain expertise in ethereum blockchain coding, so giving them the freedom to move from public to private, start-up to corporate, government to household brand.