Barclays, a leading financial institution in the United Kingdom, is not comfortable seeing that blockchains, especially those seeking to provide services to companies, cannot ‘see’ each other. The bank is, therefore, seeking to make Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric good neighbors.

To make it happen, Barclays has partnered with Clearmatics, a blockchain startup based in the UK, and are preparing to hold a hackathon which will see individuals specializing in enterprise blockchain coding come together and find how data from Ethereum can be accessed inside Hyperledger Fabric among other enterprise based blockchains and vise versa.

The hackathon which is expected to be held on early Feb 5 will see top minds in the blockchain and traditional finance sit on the bench. Among the banks who will be represented on the bench include Santander, HSBC, UBS and, of course, Barclays bank. The overall observer of the event will be Ernst & Young (EY) a leading consulting firm with a strong presence all over the globe.

As noted by Coindesk:

Unless they [Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric and other enterprise-based blockchains] can be made to talk to each other, these new systems risk creating the insular silos they were supposed to replace, undermining the business case for blockchain as an efficiency booster and lubricator of trade

Among the top blockchain platforms targeting enterprises include Ethereum, Hyperledger Fabric, and the R3’s Corda.

According to the chief technology officer at Barclays bank, Lee Braine, the hackathon is meant to bring to light what can possibly hinder interfacing of the likes of Hyperledger Fabric with Ethereum, and how to overcome the hindrances.

The coders will utilize Clearmatics’s interoperability protocol which is open source. While Clearmatics will be the host, Barclays will provide the venue. How much the firms will spend as rewards to the coders had not been disclosed at the time of writing.

What advantages do you think the interfacing of Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric will bring?

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