“The future growth and adoption of blockchain is reliant upon building a strong ecosystem,” says Bridget Van Kralingen, senior vice president, IBM Industry Platforms.

The blockchain is here. From its underground start as the base technology behind popular crypto-currencies like Bitcoin, to its enormous potential as a secure, distributed transaction layer for business, blockchain is slowly coming of age.

Like so many promising technologies, blockchain is going to need adoption at scale by entire industries in order to hit maturity.

IBM’s recently launched Blockchain Ecosystem is intended to be just that: An open source, openly governed, cross-industry effort to advance the Linux Foundation blockchain technology known as The Hyperledger Project.

“The growing maturity of the Hyperledger Project code is a major milestone,” says Van Kralingen, “that’s why IBM is investing to help developers accelerate the creation of blockchain networks by providing an environment where these players can work together.”

IBM’s Blockchain Ecosystem already includes dozens of players including Cloudsoft, EY, Everledger, Gliding Eagle, HACERA, The Hive, and Mooti Blockchain Digital Identity.

For more details, visit the IBM Blockchain Ecosystem page.