Hyperledger, the collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced today that NEC Corporation (NEC) has joined as a Premier Member of the project. As a Premier member, Daichi Iwata, Head of NEC’s FinTech Business Development Office, will join the Hyperledger Governing Board. NEC is a global integrator of IT and network technologies.

Hyperledger Executive Director, Brian Behlendorf commented:

“NEC joining as a Premier member further broadens Hyperledger’s global footprint and is great to see. As an innovative leader in efficient social and technical solutions, we’re excited for the value and expertise they can bring to Hyperledger to advance open blockchain services for many industries.”

Hyperledger aims to create common distributed ledger technology that enables organizations to build and run robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions. Since the beginning of 2016, Hyperledger has grown to more than 140 members that span various industries, including finance, healthcare, the Internet of Things and Aeronautics, among several others.

Osamu Fujikawa, Senior Vice President, Head of the Business Innovation Unit, NEC said:

“NEC globally provides safe, secure and efficient social solutions for governments, governmental agencies, financial institutions and other organizations by combining its technology assets with broad systems integration expertise and customer assets. Regarding blockchain, NEC has been leading academic research on blockchain security since the beginning of Bitcoin. We believe blockchain is a transformative technology and are committed to advancing its adoption by contributing our expertise and knowledge to the Hyperledger community.”

The full list of member companies.