Distributed ledger technology company Hedera Hashgraph LLC announced today that tech giant Dell Technologies Inc. will join the company’s governing council, enabling the company to explore distributed ledger and Web3 technologies by running its own Hedera node and developing its own distributed applications.

The Hedera Governing Council consists of up to 39 organizations that govern the Hedera distributed network. Dell will be joining other technology companies such as IBM Corp., Google LLC, LG Electronics Inc., Ubisoft Inc. and Boeing Co., among others. Currently, Hedera’s council has 28 members, according to the company.

By joining Hedera, Dell will gain an opportunity to explore its own forays into DLT and Web3 technologies and distributed applications, as part of a large group of other companies working towards the same ends.

Web3 is the name given to what is called the “decentralized web” and applications built using smart contracts that allow the exchange of data using distributed ledger technology, of which the most common type is blockchain technology. However, Hedera lays claim to a different type of DLT known as hashgraphs, which differ from blockchains in that they use multiple channels instead of a single chain to obtain “distributed agreement” to achieve greater speeds than traditional blockchains.

“Our customers rely on us to both maintain and help secure their existing infrastructure as well as advise them on technologies they are considering to assist them in achieving their goals, whether it is in process optimization, new business models or meeting their [environmental impact] standards,” said John Roese, global chief technology officer at Dell.

Hedera and Dell both believe that using distributed ledger technologies can provide customers a path to build cost-effective and efficient applications that run peer-to-peer across information technology environments to solve important use cases. For example, DLT has been used in business applications in order to improve efficiency and reduce errors in supply chains by automating tracking and tracing.

“Like Hedera, Dell has innovation and scale at its core,” Bill Miller, co-chair of the membership committee for the Hedera Governing Council, said. “Dell’s insight and decades of computing experience will bring even more expertise and innovative thinking to the Hedera Governing Council.”

Dell itself has explored DLT and Web3 technologies with code developed for Project Alvarium, a distributed framework that provides a layer of trust for data between devices and applications known as a “trust fabric.” The project uses DLT as a core function to track and verify confidence across edge computing ecosystems and cloud networks.

Joining the Hedera Governing Council, Dell will run a Hedera node, giving it the opportunity to get direct experience with DLT and test its own code in real-world situations. This experience will allow it to provide for greater data research into the utility of DLT for customers and give it direct access to other partners in the industry.

“By gaining hands-on experience with distributed ledger technology, we’re able to serve as a rational, holistic voice for customers considering incorporating DLT into their digital transformation,” said Roese.

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