IBM

Basics

• Short for International Business Machines, the largest computer company in the world. IBM started in 1911 as a producer of punch card tabulating machines. During WW2 it had many military clients, including Nazi Germany. In 1953, it introduced its first computer, the 701. During the 60's and 70's, IBM came to dominate the new field of mainframe and minicomputers.

IBM manufactures and markets computer hardware, middleware and software, and provides hosting and consulting services in areas ranging from mainframe computers to nanotechnology.

• IBM has been announcing Blockchain products since 2016, but has yet to find a use case. (2018) Update (2-2-2021) has closed down its blockchain department according to various sources:

"IBM has cut its blockchain team down to almost nothing, according to four people familiar with the situation. Job losses at IBM (NYSE: IBM) escalated as the company failed to meet its revenue targets for the once-fêted technology by 90% this year, according to one of the sources. “IBM is doing a major reorganization,” said a source at a startup that has been interviewing former IBM blockchain staffers. “There is not really going to be a blockchain team any longer. Most of the blockchain people at IBM have left.”

A spokesperson for IBM denied the claims. “Our blockchain business is doing well, thank you,” Holli Haswell, a director of public relations at IBM, said via email. “We have realigned some leaders and business units to continue to drive growth – we do that every year.”"

• From Forbes Blockchain 50 (Apr 16, 2019):

"Blockchain’s early advocate is working to commercialize the technology through its enterprise-grade version of Hyperledger Fabric, called IBM Blockchain. Other IBM launches include World Wire, a foreign exchange platform seeking to replace interbank messaging platform Swift, and TradeLens, a shipping supply chain service codeveloped with shipping giant Maersk. IBM has already filed for more than 100 blockchain patents. With its proprietary blockchain connecting companies in at least 85 networks, IBM is a clear enterprise winner. Full profile"

• Builds on IBM Blockchain, Stellar, Hyperledger Burrow, Sovryn
• Update (2-2-2021): IBM Blockchain, Hyperledger Fabric

IBM Blockchain

Basics

• IBM Blockchain:

AT&T has announced a suite of blockchain solutions designed to work with IBM and Microsoft Azure; the announcement said its solutions can record data on the IBM Blockchain Platform and integrate is IOT platforms with Microsoft Azure's blockchain technology.

Upon its expected launch in the first quarter of 2019, Visa will have integrated its core assets (including B2B Connect) with the proprietary IBM Blockchain Platform.

Usage

Companies that will use/build on it

• CVSHealth
• Dole Foods
• Maersk
• Nestle
• IBM (duhuh)
• GSF
• Golden State Foods, will participate in IBM’s Food Trust, a consortium of companies aiming to track food along the entire supply chain.

Projects

• IBM was the leader in creating what will be called the Open Ledger Project, an alternative blockchain system to be overseen by the Linux Foundation
• For IBM Fabric serves as a flagship project for blockchain development. The IT giant uses Fabric for a variety of its own projects and for collaborations with several business partners. Fabric is a plug and plays implementation of blockchain technology designed as a foundation to develop high-scaling blockchain applications with a flexible degree of permissions.
• IBM and shipping giant Maersk have already signed up 94 firms for the platform since it was spun off from Maersk in January, 2018. They have also finally given it a name: TradeLens. "While Maersk and IBM remain the only two shareholders, and both invested in the technology and jointly own the IP, White emphasized it is completely open to ecosystem participants. "It was never about a joint venture," he said. Both IBM and Maersk will sell access to the TradeLens platform. The selling party will contract with the customer and receive all the fees and revenue rather than sharing it with the other partner, the IBM representative added." (is struggling to onboard clients 11-2018)
• Has secured patents for blockchain-based network security (5-10-2018)
• IBM and Smart Dubai partner to launch the first government-endorsed blockchain platform as-a-service in the United Arab Emirates (UAE); the enterprise platform will be a segway for UAE organizations to transition their blockchain testing and development into full production; the company was named government department Smart Dubai’s blockchain partner alongside Consensys in March 2017
• From Forbes: "New CVS subsidiary Aetna is a member of IBM’s Health Utility Network, a group (including Cigna and Anthem) working to create a distributed ledger of information available to patients, providers and insurers. As its first project, the network plans to publish tamperproof, unforgeable medical credentials so patients can check out their doctors. Other projects being considered would combine data from different insurers to make it easier to share information between doctors and insurers and prevent prescriptions that conflict, with the aim of improving care while cutting costs."
• Golden State Foods and Nestle, will participate in IBM and Walmart’s Food Trust, a consortium of companies aiming to track food along the entire supply chain.
• PNC is the only bank involved with IBM’s Health Utility Network, which is attempting to speed insurance company payments to health providers.
• "Data-storage company Seagate Technology is working with IBM on a proof-of-concept blockchain aimed at tracking products through their distribution and life—in large part to ensure that fake hard drives aren’t returned to Seagate’s warehouses, where they could be resold by accident. Counterfeiting of electronics is a $100 billion problem, and Seagate hard drives are a frequent target for fraud."

Partner- and memberships

• Attended the Satoshi Roundtable.
• Has a partnership with Stellar.

IBM and a network of South Pacific and Oceania banks have successfully deployed a cross-border payments platform that uses the Stellar network. This new Stellar-based solution allows the banks to send money in real time whereas the old process typically took days. Although the platform is currently limited to cross-border payments involving British pounds and Fiji dollars, it’s expected to scale up to 60% of all cross-border payments in the region once all seven currencies are added. IBM’s vice president of global blockchain development, Jesse Lund, has cautioned that the use lumens as an exchange bridge between currencies is temporary but this doesn’t mean that the Stellar network will not continue to be used.

Announced that six banks signed letters of intent to produce stablecoins using the IBM protocol called World Wire. This would use Stellar.

• Member of Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)
• Founding member of Interledger Protocol
• Founding member of JS Foundation
• Hyperledger, early member
• One of the sponsors (3-10-2019) of Hyperledger Avalon.
• Initial member of International Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA)
• Visa has just announced it has partnered with IBM ahead of the commercial release of its blockchain-powered global financial payments platform, B2B Connect.
• IBM Joins iExec as Cloud Resource Provider: allowing enterprises to run their most sensitive workloads on shared hardware. An IBM workerpool has been made available for customers to use on iExec’s decentralized cloud Marketplace.
• Is listed as a partner on the website of Cypherium (as of 9-2019)

Money Links

• Invested in Ethereum and its foundation

Former Employees

• Elie Ofek; Former development engineer at IBM Research, now advisor of Cova

Current Employees

• Jerry Cuomo; vice president of blockchain technologies
• Key leader: Bridget van Kralingen, SVP, global industry platforms and blockchain
• Key leader: Alistair Rennie, general manager, IBM Blockchain (2021)

Other links

• Khasanshyn, Renat, co-founder Etherisc, has been selected as finalist for the Emerging Executive of the Year award by the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council and once won an IBM Business Mashup Challenge.
• Is on the Hedera Hashgraph Council (25-5-2021).