What Is the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)?
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA),launched in February 2017, brings together various start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, technology vendors, academics, and Ethereum subject matter experts to work on Ethereum as an enterprise-grade technology.
Key Takeaways
- The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) "...is a member-led industry organization whose objective is to drive the use of Ethereum blockchain technology as an open standard to empower enterprises."
- The EEA's mission is to deliver an open, standards-based architecture and specification to accelerate the adoption of Enterprise Ethereum.
- The EEA provides its members a community and access to educational material and various technical and media resources.
How the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA)Works
Although many technology giants and businesses had been supporting Ethereum via Cloud services and working towards its adoption, most efforts towards its scalability, privacy, and interoperability remained scattered until theEnterprise Ethereum Alliance came into being.
The alliance aims to build, promote, and support Ethereum blockchain technology best practices, standards, and a reference architecture capable of handling real-world applications and usage.
Launched in 2015, Ethereum is a blockchain-based, decentralized software platform that enables smart contracts and Distributed Applications (dApps) to be built and run without downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party.
Ethereum is not just a platform but also a Turing complete programming language running on a blockchain that helps developers build and publish distributed applications.
The potential applications of Ethereum are wide-ranging, and this has attracted several enterprises to explore the technology. Ether, the cryptographic token used on the Ethereum platform, is the second most popular cryptocurrencyin terms of market capitalization, with an aggregate market cap of around $456 billion as of May 2024.
EEA Efforts
Recently, member companies (and others) have initiated and worked on multiple pilot projects covering areas such as supply chain provenance tracking, inter-bank payments, reference data, securities settlement, and many others.
However, real-world enterprise use calls for collaborative efforts to build architectures allowing permissioned and public Ethereumnetworks. The formation of EEA is an important step in this direction.
The EAA also provides education and training for members. The organization publishes newsletters, videos, and webinars as part of its public service mission.
EEA Membership
The board members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance included Accenture, BlockApps, ConsenSys, Ethereum Foundation, EY, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, and Santander.
According to the EEA website, there are over 100 associate and organizational members of EEA. Associate members are represented by the Blockchain Research Institute, Hyperledger, and SAE ITC. Social impact partners include the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition and the Decentralized Identity Foundation.
The members of EEA represent varied businesses from every region of the world, including technology, banking, government, healthcare, energy, pharmaceuticals, marketing, and insurance.
With a focus on solving the real-world challenges of deploying Ethereum at an enterprise scale, the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance is an important initiative in the adoption of blockchain and decentralization.
EEA Benefits
Organizations that join the EEA get to leverage Ethereum technology in their business operations. It also exposes them to over 20,000 Ethereum community members. Members can network, establish partnerships, and showcase technology within the largest Ethereum ecosystem.
EEA membership provides market opportunities through branding, speaking, and advertising, and facilitates building solutions on globally trusted EEA standards. The EEA also offers speaking and advertising opportunities at events, RFP inclusion, and prominent placement in the Ethereum Ecosystem stack.
EEA membership also drives industry adoption by contributing to best practices and utilizing EEA resources to design enterprise-level solutions. Members participate in working groups to address Ethereum challenges, vote on technical developments, and access the EEA Testnet for testing. EEA even offers certification to ensure solutions meet industry standards and interoperability requirements.
Finally, EEA members can join interest groups, access member service discounts, and use EEA branding. Members can access the global developer community of 3,000+ contributors and 15+ user groups across 25 industries and six continents to enhance collaboration. To gain access, EEA provides a password-protected member collaboration site.
What Is the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance?
The EEA is an organization that collaborates to promote the Ethereum ecosystem for business uses.
Who Are the Partners of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance?
There are over 100 member organizations partnered with the EEA. Notable members you may recognize are Ernst & Young, FedEx, Microsoft, and VMWare.
What Are the Main Objectives of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance?
The alliance is a group of organizations interested in using the Ethereum blockchain and ecosystem to deliver business solutions.
The Bottom Line
The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is an industry-led organization. Its objective is to promote using the Ethereum blockchain to empower enterprises. The EEA works to deliver an open, standards-based architecture created to accelerate the adoption of Enterprise Ethereum in the business world.
