Tensions Emerge Between Hyperledger Blockchain Group's Biggest Supporters

When the governing board of Hyperledger approved a new supply chain project earlier this month, it marked a significant departure for the open-source blockchain consortium.

Prior to this, Hyperledger confined its work to the lower layers and eschewed the custom-design of blockchain application code with industry players in mind.

From the sidelines of the enterprise blockchain world, it looks like a tug-of-war has broken out, with IBM and its favored Hyperledger implementation, known as Fabric, on the one side, and the Intel-backed Sawtooth on the other.

The supply chain project, which has yet to be given a permanent name, will likely speed toward faster deployment than its Hyperledger peers.

The stakes are higher than a potential competition between supply chain-focused platforms coming out of Hyperledger, as the tensions point to bigger questions around governance.

One way to look at the tensions over the supply chain project is as a sign of Hyperledger growing past its origins as an IBM-dominated organization.

Choosing his words carefully, TSC chair Middleton told CoinDesk that part of his job is to ensure diversity within Hyperledger and to retain those strengths from which blockchain gains its preeminence.

Rather than be elevated to a top-level project, Sawtooth Supply Chain, in his opinion, should have been placed in Hyperledger Labs.

Elsewhere at last week's Hyperledger Forum in Basel, Switzerland, some important members of the community took the opportunity to show their respect to IBM. Casey Kuhlman, CEO of Monax, said the fact that the Sawtooth Supply Chain project has been brought under the auspices of Hyperledger speaks for itself; despite misgivings, IBM ultimately did not stand in the project's way, he said, adding that in his opinion Big Blue has behaved like a "Very reasonable member of the community."

Speaking to the success of the first Hyperledger Global Forum, which saw hundreds of firms from across a wide range of industries descend on Basel for four days of talks and workshops, Behlendorf also wanted to pay due respect to IBM, concluding,.