The Linux Foundation, the nonprofit organization enabling mass innovation through open source, has announced the new members of the Hyperledger Project – a collaborative effort to establish, build and sustain an open, distributed ledger platform that will satisfy a variety of use cases across multiple industries.

Ten new companies are joining the effort and investing in the future of an open blockchain ledger: blockchain-based startup company Blockstream; blockchain technology provider Bloq; eVue Digital Labs; blockchain platform provider Gem; financial services company itBit; consultancy firm Milligan Partners; payment system and CSD solution provider Montran Labs; blockchain-based loyalty solutions startup Ribbit.me; intellectual property holdings company Tequa Creek Holdings and global news service Thomson Reuters.

Last month, the Linux Foundation announced open governance structure and technical updates to the new Hyperledger Project, along with 30 members who joined the initiative. With the latest addition of the 10 companies, the Hyperledger project has now grown to 40 members.

In addition, the Linux Foundation also announced that the Hyperledger project has filled key leadership positions. The appointments have been made by member vote.

The Technical Steering Committee is chaired by Chris Ferris, CTO of open technology at IBM, and members include Tamás Blummer, Digital Asset Holdings; Mic Bowman, Intel; Richard Brown, R3; Stanislav Liberman, CME Group; Hart Montgomery, Fujitsu; Satoshi Oshima, Hitachi; Stefan Teis, Deutsche Börse; Emmanuel Viale, Accenture; Pardha Vishnumolakala, DTCC; and David Voell, J.P. Morgan.

The governing board is chaired by Blythe Masters, CEO of Digital Asset Holdings, and members include Charles Cascarilla, CEO, itBit; Toshiya Cho, Hitachi; Jerry Cuomo, IBM; Chris Ferris, IBM; Dirk Hohndel, Intel; Todd McDonald, cofounder and COO, R3; Robert Palatnick, DTCC; Kireeti Reddy, CME Group; Stefan Teis, Deutsche Börse; Dave Treat, Accenture; Yoshinobu Sawano, Fujitsu; Santiago Suarez, J.P. Morgan; and Craig Young, CTO, SWIFT. 

"There is no other effort advancing an open blockchain with this level of broad industry representation and level of leadership," said Jim Zemlin, executive director at The Linux Foundation. "The Hyperledger Project is among our fastest growing projects at The Linux Foundation. The opportunity is great. This leadership team and the community investments among members across industries put the project in the best position possible to accomplish its mission."