New Alliance Sets Out to Boost Blockchain Interoperability

The companies behind three blockchain platforms have unveiled a new advocacy group centered around promoting interoperability between the disparate networks.

Dubbed the Blockchain Interoperability Alliance, the effort is being backed by Aion, ICON and Wanchain in a bid to advance standards that would, as envisioned, promote a greater degree of connectivity between different blockchains.

"We believe that collaborating across projects will help set best practices for blockchain interoperability and encourage broader market adoption across enterprises and the public," Matt Spoke, CEO of blockchain startup Nuco and founder of AION, said in a statement.

That question of interoperability – a challenge with decentralized networks governed by their own code and economics – has been cited in other standards pushes, as well as efforts at some of the more enterprise-facing projects, including the Linux Foundation-backed Hyperledger and the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance.

Indeed, the new group will be dedicating time and effort to push forward with research in this area, including work on how to transact and communicate between blockchains.

"The goal of this alliance is to create a globally accepted standard for connecting blockchains, and to bring innovations together," said J. H. Kim, a council member for the ICON Foundation.

Linked chain image via Shutterstock