IBM and Tata Communications have joined the board that manages the governance of Hedera Hashgraph, a public blockchain for businesses.
IBM is one of the largest technology companies, while Tata is the first Indian telecommunications company to join the network.
Other members of the network include the Japanese financial holding company Nomura, Deutsche Telekom and the law firm DLA Piper. Currently, only eight of the 39 seats available for board members have been assigned.
Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera, explained:
“Our goal is to create the most decentralized governing body of any of the major public platforms. We’re covering multiple industries … and we’re wanting global coverage”.
Hedera claims that its Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) – which operates differently from other blockchains – can facilitate micropayments and distributed file storage, as well as support smart contracts and allow private networks to connect with the public network, so as to take advantage of the transaction sorting mechanism.
Hedera raised $124 million after three rounds of funding for its future tokens (SAFT).
IBM and Tata join the Hedera Hashgraph blockchain
IBM has revealed its interest in Hedera, particularly in the mechanism of interaction between public and private networks.
Bryan Gross, manager of the IBM Blockchain Platform, said:
“The most exciting part is the proposed Hedera Consensus Service. It has the potential to provide the core innovation of proof-of-work blockchains, like bitcoin and ethereum, without the performance and privacy trade-offs that are typically associated with these networks”.
Since Hedera Hashgraph is designed to unify public and private networks, IBM will use it to build a robust trust mechanism across networks based on Hyperledger Fabric.
“Hedera Consensus Service makes it possible for Hyperledger projects out there to use the service to put transactions in order and eliminate the need for them to stand up nodes for transaction ordering, and they get the trust model of a public network”.
Tata Communications, on the other hand, plans to use the distributed ledger technology to improve the company’s operational efficiency. According to Harmon, the inclusion of the two large companies on the board will further decentralise Hedera’s governance.
