Blockchain app development startup BlockCypher has expanded its platform to include support for Ethereum, a move the company says will see professional services firm Deloitte among its first users.

BlockCypher CEO and co-founder Catheryne Nicholson says the addition of Ethereum was in response to an increased demand from more than half of the startup’s client base, which also counts remittance app startup Abra among those using the new toolset.

Speaking with CoinDesk at the Exponential Finance Conference in New York, Nicholson estimated that more than half the company’s developers have asked for an Ethereum integration.

Nicholson said in an interview:

“Our bread and butter is developers. What they ask us for is what we implement. The number one ask was Ethereum, so we had to bring to life our APIs on the Ethereum blockchain.”

Launched in 2014 to provide app-building services for blockchain developers, the company last year raised $3m in a seed funding round from Tim Draper and Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang’s AME Cloud Ventures, among others.

Deloitte and Ethereum

The beta release launched today includes APIs for hosting Ethereum accounts, tracking balances and facilitating transactions.

Nicholson says the platform’s Turing-complete programming language has driven interest among the startup’s customer base.

“It’s a much more robust scripting language,” she said. “It’s easier. It’s in standard programming language user interfaces, it’s not a machine language.”

According to Deloitte principal Eric Piscini, his team of 12 US-based blockchain specialists have been working with the startup to develop two prototypes built on the bitcoin blockchain.

What attracted Piscini to the Ethereum integration, he said, is that the blockchain team won’t have to learn any new skills to start building with the new offerings. Deloitte announced that it was first working with BlockCypher earlier this year.

Piscini told CoinDesk:

“If you need smart contracts you will mostly go to Ethereum if you need a basic exchange of value you use the bitcoin blockchain.”

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