ConsenSys Invests in Blockchain Startup Founded by ‘Rival’ R3’s Former Execs

Ethereum (ETH) co-founder Joe Lubin has made a $6.5 million investment to secure a minority stake in enterprise distributed ledger (DLT) startup DrumG Technologies, Forbes reports October 1.

Lubin’s investment comes via his blockchain startup ConsenSys, and is notable given that DrumG Technologies is headed by senior level executives from the ostensibly rival blockchain consortium R3. Lubin will reportedly join as an outside member on DrumG’s board of directors, and reciprocally, DrumG will have a "significant presence" within the ConsenSys ecosystem.

As Forbes notes, DrumG was founded in response to a potential tension in the nascent blockchain space, as developers of open-source blockchain protocols face the task of convincing firms to adopt a technology that is fundamentally disruptive to existing business models.

DrumG reportedly attempts to address this potential “conflict of interest” and aims to make the adoption of multiple interconnected distributed ledgers a reality in the corporate world. Lubin is quoted by Forbes as saying that:

“The decentralized web future — web 3.0, linking corporations to public blockchains — that’s definitely an interledger future. It’s going to be hundreds of thousands of decentralized protocols for trusted transactions and automated agreements.”

Forbes further reports that Lubin’s connections with DrumG date back to his meeting Tim Grant while the latter was still CEO of R3’s Lab and Research Center. DrumG’s formal incorporation in the blockchain-friendly island of Bermuda in August 2017 then reportedly accelerated discussions of a serious partnership between the two.

Speaking of the partnership with Lubin, Grant told Forbes that the future of blockchain lies in not replacing one centralized, proprietary system with another; he outlined a vision of progressive “convergence” in which “tribalism will dissipate.”

As reported, R3 announced this summer the release of a “version” of its Corda blockchain platform targeted specifically at enterprises, representing a move beyond the banking sector – the main client base for Corda’s original platform.