Blockchain development consortium and software provider R3CEV LLC Tuesday announced the launch of the commercial version of its open-source distributed ledger platform Corda for enterprise customers.

Corda Enterprise builds on R3’s existing blockchain platform, based on the same technology that underlies global digital currencies such as bitcoin. It can act as a tamperproof, privacy-focused distributed database for large-scale operations to track transactions, create and exchange digital assets without the need for an intermediary.

As part of its platform, Corda Enterprise also includes the world’s only Blockchain Application Firewall, a feature that allows the platform to be deployed inside of secure corporate networks while maintaining the ability to communicate securely with outside nodes.

Richard Gendal Brown, chief technology officer at R3, said he believes that the launch of Corda Enterprise represents “a watershed moment for business blockchain technology” because the platform is designed to provide a way for enterprise business to “adopt blockchain technology in a way that is straightforward and natural.”

The problem with enterprises adopting blockchain technology currently, Brown said, is that each organization faces its own specific and unique technical constraints.

“Traditional permissionless blockchain platforms, in which all data is shared with all parties, have issues around privacy, scalability and interoperability that render them largely unsuited for global business,” Brown said. “This is the problem Corda was designed to solve.”

To fit the industries using blockchains, R3 partnered with a large number of different enterprise firms across the globe from numerous markets, including those that serve finance, trade, insurance and healthcare, among many others.

Distributed applications developed by partners including financial technology company Finastra Group Holdings Ltd., digital security firm Gemalto NV, blockchain startup Guardtime AS, GuildOne Inc., TradeIX Ltd. and Tradewind Markets Inc. have already launched on Corda Enterprise and Corda and act as an operational proof-of-concept for the system.

A key aspect of Corda Enterprise is interoperability. Corda and Corda Enterprise are fully compatible and companies can transact across different versions of the platform.

The Blockchain Application Firewall would make this distribution safer and more secure by providing an encrypted layer of communication between data centers and outside nodes. Because a blockchain is shared among multiple parties, it must interconnect outside of corporate networks, and that could leave communications vulnerable.

The firewall within Corda Enterprise is intended to ensure application access would be secure, remain within the blockchain system, reject unauthorized outside connections and provide access management for users and applications functioning on the blockchain.

Additionally, Corda Enterprise has been optimized for real-world corporate environments, including day and night, year-round customer support, predictable release schedules, availability monitoring and disaster recovery. The platform also includes support for Oracle and Sequential Query Language server databases. A feature designed to ease the integration of Corda with traditional and legacy systems that are already common across the industry.

“Corda Enterprise marks the beginning of a new phase for the blockchain industry that will allow businesses to build enterprise-grade applications securely using cutting-edge technology,” said John Velissarios, managing director and global blockchain technology lead at Accenture.

According to a recent report from Grand View Research Inc., the blockchain technology market size is expected to reach $7.6 billion by 2024, up from about $604.5 million in 2016. Much of that growth is thanks to blockchain’s ability to speed up reconciliation, reduce errors in transactions and facilitate faster settlements.

Many industries have begun to tap into blockchain technology for those benefits. For example, R3 partner Guardtime partnered with the government of Estonia in 2016 to secure a million healthcare records and with Ernst & Young Global Ltd. last year to launch a marine shipping insurance blockchain solution.

Blockchain technology has also been tapped to combine the efforts of a global consortium of large retailers across entire supply chains to enhance food safety with an effort led by IBM Corp. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Other industries include numerous examples of finance such as Mastercard Inc.‘s merchant blockchain, Credit Suisse Group AG and ING Groep NV‘s securities transactions, the London Stock Exchange Group plc and Australia’s primary stock exchange, the Australian Securities Exchange Ltd.

“As blockchain becomes increasingly mainstream,” Velissarios added, “we believe Corda will emerge as a true market leader across the financial industry and beyond.”

Image: R3