Technology giant IBM has announced that it is building a “blockchain ecosystem” to boost the growth of networks on the Hyperledger Fabric and IBM Blockchain, CIO reported.

According to the website, IBM Blockchain Ecosystem will enable companies to participate in an open source, openly governed, cross-industry effort to advance blockchain technology, the Hyperledger Project. It will bring together a range of people and companies interested in building and leveraging blockchain solutions and provide them with special benefits and resources to tap into this emerging technology.

"The future growth and adoption of blockchain is reliant upon building a strong ecosystem. Business networks will only reach critical mass when innovators, industry experts and infrastructure providers come together in new ways to reinvent how business transactions happen”, Bridget Van Kralingen, senior vice-president, IBM Industry Platforms, said. "The growing maturity of the Hyperledger Project code is a major milestone. That's why IBM is investing to help developers accelerate the creation of blockchain networks by providing an environment where these players can work together."

IBTimes UK reported that the programme is designed for innovators interested in building real networks, which includes venture capitalists, start-ups, systems integrators, independent software vendors and enterprise developers. The website says that companies will receive “three tiers” of benefits based on their engagement in the IBM Blockchain Ecosystem:

Tier 1: IBM Designated Strategic contributor to IBM Blockchain

Tier 2: Selling with IBM Blockchain solutions

Tier 3: Building on Hyperledger Fabric and IBM Blockchain

IBM aims to reduce the time required to go from idea to execution and will provide education and tools to achieve this goal. Besides the courses and learning modules available on developerWorks, IBM blockchain experts will hold "office hours" via the Hyperledger Fabric Slack channel offering support to developers and help with troubleshooting.

IBM also revealed the names of organizations already participating in its blockchain ecosystem, which includes Cloudsoft, EY, Everledger, Gliding Eagle, The Hive, IntellectEU, Loyyal, Mooti Blockchain Digital Identity, NetKi, Sensify Security, and Skuchain.

In addition, IBM announced it will be hosting the first Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 Connect-a-Thon on 17 December 2016, using the Hyperledger Fabric v1.0 to set up peers that will operate in a network of networks mode, providing security-rich, confidential transactions among known parties.