JPMorgan’s DLT Spin-off Completes Industry’s First Hybrid Blockchain

Published at: Jan. 15, 2020

JPMorgan’s blockchain spin-off Kadena has fully launched its public blockchain, completing what it calls the “industry’s first hybrid blockchain platform.”

Launched on Jan. 15, Kadena’s public blockchain includes full transactions and the ability to write smart contracts, the firm’s CEO co-founder and Will Martino said in a press release shared with Cointelegraph. The company claims the product is the first sharded Proof-of-Work Layer 1 network to make it to market.

Kadena’s hybrid blockchain seamlessly integrates a public chain with a private network

As the launch completes Kadena’s hybrid blockchain platform, the fully functional hybrid blockchain enables the connection of a public chain with a private network, Kadena’s co-founder and president Stuart Popejoy said. He noted that the event is an important milestone in blockchain capabilities as the technology has a lot of limitations despite huge potential.

Popejoy said:

“Despite blockchain having immense potential, our experience building JP Morgan’s first blockchain showed us its limitations. Launching a fully functional hybrid blockchain which seamlessly integrates a public chain with a private network is a significant step forward in reimagining what applications can do on-chain.”

Kadena’s hybrid blockchain supports interoperability using Pact, the firm’s open-source smart contract programing language. Martino noted that while Bitcoin’s (BTC) scalability challenges are being tackled with Proof-of-Work (PoW) chains, the security issues of the Ethereum blockchain are being addressed with Pact.

Kadena Kuro, another component of Kadena’s hybrid blockchain platform that was formerly known as ScalableBFT, is the private blockchain launched on Amazon Web Services in January 2019.

Kadena’s hybrid blockchain can process 750 transactions per second, launches with 10 chains

According to Kadena’s statement to Cointelegraph, Kadena’s hybrid blockchain can process 750 transactions per second, while Bitcoin and Ether are capable of processing just 7 and 15 transactions per second, respectively. Martino explained that Kadena is “intentionally starting small” with 10 chains, arming Kadena mainnet with “10 times the number of chains in a single network than any Layer 1 protocol ever seen before.” The transactions for all 10 chains are available for tracking on Kadena block explorer.

According to the executive, Kadena has managed to address the core scaling issue, while keeping decentralization. Martino added that Kadena is expecting to expand the network to a larger scale in Q2 2020, noting that upgrading to 100 chains is likely. The Kadena co-founder also noted that if the firm would have launched with too many chains, people would not be able to realize the importance of Kadena’s innovation. He said:

“If we had launched with 1000 chains, people wouldn’t be able to visually grasp the magnitude of the innovation that Kadena is bringing to market. We’ll be upgrading to a larger network for more scale in Q2, likely 100 chains, but for now, 10 chains provide and illustrate our unique value.”

Kadena network launched Chainweb mainnet in November 2019

Led by JPMorgan blockchain veterans Stuart Popejoy and Will Martino, the Kadena network went live in early November 2019 as the firm announced a new $20 million token sale. At the time, Kadena launched its Chainweb mainnet alongside the Kadena token wallet Chainweaver.

In an email to Cointelegraph, Kadena spokesperson clarified that the firm does not refer to its public chain as Chainweb anymore, simply calling it “Kadena public blockchain.” That is because the firm changed the product name to eventually refer to Chainweb as the underlying technology protocol of Kadena’s public blockchain, but not not the public blockchain product name.

Launched in 2016, Kadena raised $15 million as of August 2019 in order to build a hybrid blockchain platform that outstrips smart contract blockchain solutions like the Ethereum blockchain and solves the PoW scalability issues of Bitcoin.

Tags
Adoption
Blockchain
Scalability
Smart Contracts
Jpmorgan Chase
Pow
Banks
Startups
Related Posts
JPMorgan Will Pilot ‘JPM Coin’ Stablecoin by End of 2019: Report
The United States' largest bank, JPMorgan Chase (JPM), is expecting to pilot its own cryptocurrency JPM Coin by the end of 2019, according to a Bloomberg report on June 25. Umar Farooq, head of digital treasury services and blockchain at JPMorgan, has revealed the company’s intention to launch pilot testing of JPM Coin with selected clients “around the end of the year” in case if relevant regulators approve the bank to do so. According to Farooq, JPMorgan has seen an increased interest from global customers in the potential benefits of the bank’s stablecoin project JPM Coin revealed in mid-February 2019. …
Adoption / June 25, 2019
JPMorgan Chase Exec: Crypto Innovators Will 'Ultimately Have to Use a Bank to Move Funds’
Ron Karpovich, Global Head of eCommerce Solutions at JPMorgan Chase, stated that there is “more partnership instead of competition” between the financial establishment and crypto disruptors when it comes to the payments space. Karpovich made his remarks during an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box today, March 20. In response to a question from CNBC’s host as to how the banking giant is poised to compete with new and disruptive actors than can leverage blockchain and cryptocurrencies to offer the same services as the old guard, but with lower fees, Karpovich said: “Ultimately behind the scenes, they [crypto innovators] are going …
Adoption / March 20, 2019
JPMorgan Securities Exec: 'Blockchain Is Still Far From Institutionalization’
Joyce Chang, global research chair at JPMorgan Securities, has said that blockchain technology is still far from institutionalization and must still overcome key hurdles before it can break through to cross-industry adoption at scale. Chang made her comments during an interview on the “Bloomberg Daybreak: Americas” television show on Feb. 7. Chang noted that blockchain adoption — if not yet institutionalized — is being spearheaded by industries with particular characteristics where the technology can bring real and immediate backend efficiency gains. She highlighted those sectors that rely upon cumbersome legacy paperwork systems, giving the example of trade finance, where she …
Adoption / Feb. 8, 2019
JP Morgan CIO: Blockchain Will Replace Existing Technology
JP Morgan CIO Lori Beer said at a press conference in Buenos Aires that blockchain will “replace existing technology” in a few years, according to Argentinian website Cripto247 August 23. “We will see a greater and wider use of blockchain [...] In a few years blockchain will replace the existing technology, today it only coexists with the current one,” Beer said. Beer explained to Cripto247 that JP Morgan uses blockchain technology to “simplify the payment process and to store customers’ information related to KYC (Know Your Customer) policy.” She added that blockchain technology helps to prevent money laundering. Beer further …
Adoption / Aug. 28, 2018
US banking giant BNY Mellon says digital assets are 'here to stay'
Michael Demissie, the head of digital assets at Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) is adamant that the cryptocurrency market fall in 2022 won’t waver institutional interest in digital assets. At a conference run by Afore Consulting on Feb. 8, Demissie said the digital asset industry is “here to stay” as institutional investors have held a strong interest in crypto. "What we see is clients are absolutely interested in digital assets, broadly,” he said, according to a Feb. 8 report from Reuters. Demissie backed up his thoughts by referencing a survey conducted by BNY Mellon in October, 2022, which …
Adoption / Feb. 9, 2023