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Oct 13, 2021,12:00pm Hyperledger’s Executive Director ‘Passes The Baton’ To Dow Jones Veteran
Nina BambyshevaSenior Contributor
I cover cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain
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Hyperledger’s first executive director, Brian[+]
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In December 2015, when the non-profit Linux Foundation launched a consortium-style working group dedicated to developing blockchain tools for enterprises, called Hyperledger, many were outright “scared away” by the very term ‘blockchain’, recalls Brian Behlendorf, Hyperledger’s first executive director, who has led the project from its early days and is stepping down today. He is moving on to lead a new project that will focus on the security of open source software, also hosted by the Linux Foundation.
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Much changed during Behlendorf’s tenure. More than half of the members on this year’s Forbes Blockchain 50 list, highlighting the world’s largest companies using technology popularized by Bitcoin,—from securities settlement behemoth DTCC to industrial conglomerate Honeywell—are members of Hyperledger using its code bases to move millions of documents and assets worth trillions of dollars. So are sovereign governments, take Cambodia or Nigeria, that are developing digital versions of their fiat currencies, CBDCs, on Hyperledger platforms to catch on to the global transformation of finance.
But something else, perhaps even more notable, changed too. In 2015, companies were largely cautious of blockchain because of its association with Bitcoin, then often associated with criminals. Today, some of the largest banks in the world offer Bitcoin services and increasingly embrace other cryptocurrencies. That and an increased willingness of companies to use public blockchains means the very nature of Hyperledger has had to evolve.