Blockchain developer AMIS (帳聯網路科技) yesterday announced that its new consensus algorithm has been adopted by JPMorgan Chase & Co’s Ethereum-based blockchain to help meet the US giant’s need for high throughput processing using the distributed ledger technology.
AMIS and JPMorgan are founding members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, which develops the Ethereum blockchain.
Unlike public blockchains — such as the one that underpins bitcoin — Ethereum can produce both public and private blockchains, which is more suitable for enterprises such as JPMorgan as it develops Quorum, a private blockchain to process interbank and cross-border transactions.
Dubbed the Istanbul Byzantine fault tolerant consensus protocol (Istanbul BFT), the new tool markedly reduces the complexity and energy consumption of verifying transactions made on the blockchain, compared with conventional blockchains that use “proof of work” methods.
In public blockchains, the proof of work is often competitive and driven by financial gains for the participants in the form of “blockchain mining,” which requires heavy computation work.
Under the new protocol, verification is conducted by a clique of pre-approved nodes with “proof of authority,” AMIS chief executive officer Alex Liu (劉世偉) said.
Although the new protocol does not bring immediate financial gains for AMIS, it is an important open-source contribution to the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, the most active community of blockchain technology developers, Liu said.
“The protocol is a vital part of efforts aimed at building the next evolution of the Internet of Value, similar to the creation of the TCP/IP protocol earlier in the history of computer networks,” Liu said.
It is hoped that blockchain will replace the infrastructure for financial transactions, which is strewn with redundant agencies across disparate incompatible systems, resulting in slower processing speeds and higher fees, Liu said.
JPMorgan is also considering the benefits of adding automated regulatory filings to yield compliance cost savings, company developers said via a Web stream at a news conference in Taipei.
STEADY: Prices are to rebound following inventory rebuilding demand, TrendForce said, with Samsung Electronics Co further trimming capacity as it slashes DDR4 lines The contract prices of DRAM chips are to rise by as much as 18 percent sequentially this quarter — the first price upticks in about eight quarters — driven mainly by inventory rebuilding demand for DRAM chips used in mobile devices and PCs, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) projected yesterday. The price rebound is led by a quarterly increase of mobile DRAM chips, which are to climb between 13 percent and 18 percent quarter-on-quarter this quarter, which has not been seen since the fourth quarter of 2021, the Taipei-based market researcher predicted. Likewise, the price of mainstream PC DDR4 DRAM is expected to bounce
CHINA NOT A FRIEND: ‘Newsflash: Democracy is good for your businesses,’ US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said as she gave a speech at a national defense forum US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo on Saturday urged lawmakers, Silicon Valley and US allies to stop China from getting semiconductors and cutting-edge technologies key to national security. Speaking at an annual national defense forum in Simi Valley, California, Raimondo called Beijing “the biggest threat we’ve ever had” and stressed that “China is not our friend.” The world’s top two economies are locked in a fierce commercial and geopolitical rivalry, in which her department plays a leading role. In October, Raimondo unveiled a series of restrictions on the export of advanced chips to China, including those used in the development of artificial intelligence
A Hong Kong court postponed a court hearing on troubled Chinese property developer Evergrande Group’s (恆大集團) winding-up petition scheduled for yesterday until Jan. 29. Evergrande is trying to win support from its creditors for a plan to restructure more than US$300 billion in debt to stave off liquidation. The company’s lawyer told the court it was requesting an adjournment to “refine” its new debt restructuring plan. The Hong Kong High Court has postponed the hearing over Evergrande’s potential liquidation several times. Judge Linda Chan (陳靜芬) had said in October that yesterday’s hearing would be the last before a decision is handed down. Chan
SOLID FOUNDATION: Given its decades of expertise in megatronics, manufacturing and robotics, Japan has the wherewithal to create its own AI, Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp plans to help build an artificial intelligence (AI) tech-related ecosystem in Japan to meet demand in a country eager to gain an edge in this emerging technology. The US company will seek to partner with Japanese research organizations, companies and start-ups to build factories for AI, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday during opening remarks in a meeting with Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Yasutoshi Nishimura. The company is to set up an AI research laboratory, and invest in local start-ups and educate the public on using AI, Huang said. Huang earlier this week met with Japanese Prime
RSS