The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), which consists of over 180 companies and 1,400 individual members, has announced the launch of a new testnet for business building on Ethereum.

The EEA is a standards organisation for Ethereum which works to provide interoperability for business users of the blockchain network.

The testnet, which will allow users to build decentralised applications (dApps) in a sandbox environment, is designed to operate the same as building in a live environment just without the costs.

MetaMask will be supported out of the box, which will allow users to deploy and use their own dApps.

EEA executive director Ron Resnick shared:

“The EEA’s business-focused approach enables the broader Ethereum business community to collaborate, innovate, and contribute to the evolution of world-class Ethereum solutions.”

Interoperability and scalability

The testnet will work on interoperability improvements, which is the ability of Ethereum-based clients and applications to communicate with one another.

At the moment, interoperability constraints are a significant limiting factor for blockchain adoption and proliferation, with many experts predicting that interoperability and scalability will be major focus areas for 2020.

The testnet has been developed alongside Whiteblock, a blockchain testing and development company which lets business development teams quickly deploy blockchain and distributed systems for in-house testing ahead of a live launch.

Whiteblock CEO Zak Cole explained:

“The EEA testnet will enable members to collaborate and understand how Ethereum systems perform at scale in a deterministic and controlled manner.”

ConsenSys, an incubator for Ethereum-based enterprise solutions, has welcomed the testnet, stating:

“These solutions will deliver improved privacy and performance for a wide variety of applications, including digital identities, supply chains, financial industry platforms, consumer financial services, and any industry that values some collaboration among competing entities.”

Also offering its support for the EEA’s new testnet was Microsoft’s Token Taxonomy Initiative, which is also a working member of the alliance.

Competition for enterprise users

Despite its lengthy head start, Ethereum has faced fierce competition from other blockchains in the race for dApp adoption, including Tron and EOS, who have grown the number of users on their respective networks significantly in the past year.

Tron has attracted some 663 dApps to its blockchain with almost 1 million active users, while EOS has 668 dApps with some 720,000 regular users.

It is hoped that by increased interoperability between enterprise users on the Ethereum network, the blockchain can retain and attract new business users throughout 2020.

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