Goldman Sachs Drops Out of R3 Blockchain Group
I can&#x27;t say I&#x27;m all that surprised. R3 serves as both an R&amp;D lab and a place to connect vendors and potential clients. Moreover, the focus is on private&#x2F;permissioned blockchain tech. The tech in this space is still quite immature overall and pretty much everyone has had a hard time building <i>actual</i> blockchain infrastructure vs things that are sorta like a blockchain. If you can&#x27;t show clients value for their membership in R3 (because the tech&#x27;s not there) then what&#x27;s the value of staying a member (especially if you&#x27;ve seen all the vendors in their portfolio already) vs rejoining when things change? This isn&#x27;t R3&#x27;s fault of course, as I think the tech in this space is just getting started and they&#x27;re in a great place to help it along; members will come and go.<p>I spent a year investigating blockchain applications for JPM so I&#x27;ve seen most of the permissioned blockchain solutions that are out there. Unfortunately, none of the solutions I saw were <i>real</i> blockchains. The more technical groups in banks (which GS has) surely realize this as well. The solutions I&#x27;ve seen consistently lack at least one of the following necessary features:<p>- Fast, Deterministic BFT Consensus (mining doesn&#x27;t work as intended in private contexts[1])<p>- Smart Contracts (you need a deterministic language)<p>- Signed Transactions (TLS based authentication trades security &amp; audibility for speed)<p>- Cryptographic data structure for transaction storage<p>There are other features you need, but these are the big distinguishers I noticed. While technically you don&#x27;t even need smart contracts or fast BFT consensus, I believe the tech isn&#x27;t useful enough to justify the migration costs without them.<p>Disclaimer: I&#x27;m a founder in the private blockchain space[2] and founded specifically to make an infrastructure that addresses these issues.<p>[1]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kadena.io&#x2F;blog&#x2F;MiningInPrivate.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kadena.io&#x2F;blog&#x2F;MiningInPrivate.html</a>
[2]: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kadena.io" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;kadena.io</a>