Ethereum Poised to Be First Public Blockchain in Hyperledger Consortium

Ethereum could become the first public blockchain on Hyperledger – if the open-source consortium’s technical steering committee approves a proposal to adopt the ConsenSys-backed Pantheon project.

Pantheon is a suite of ethereum-based services built by PegaSys, a 50-strong engineering team at ConsenSys. The Pantheon ethereum client, built on Java, is used to develop enterprise applications with features like privacy and permissioning.

The proposal was sent out in a Hyperledger mailing list email on Aug. 8, and if it is accepted, Pantheon will be renamed Hyperledger Besu (a Japanese term for base or foundation).

The approval would bring Pantheon’s protocol under Hyperledger, joining blockchain projects like Hyperledger Fabric backed by IBM and Hyperledger Sawtooth backed by Intel.

Notably, however, Pantheon would become the first public blockchain project added to the Hyperledger umbrella, meaning the Pantheon code would be published on Hyperledger’s proprietary GitHub page and open to contribution from developers already involved in the project.

Pantheon runs on the Ethereum public network, private networks and test networks such as Rinkeby, Ropsten and Görli.

Hyperledger's foray into ethereum began with Burrow, and the consortium has partnered with the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance to collaborate on common standards for the blockchain space.

The new proposal comes as Hyperledger enterprise blockchain competitor R3 announced last month that it was on a hiring spree, expanding its London office and opening a second engineering hub.

ConsenSys founder Joseph Lubin image via CoinDesk archives