Hyperledger Adds to Growing Line up of Groups Focused on Cross-Industry Development

In another step towards driving cross-industry cooperation in the development and use of blockchain technologies, Hyperledger has added two new groups to its growing list of Special Interest Groups (SIG). These two new groups, the Hyperledger Social Impact SIG and the Hyperledger Trade Finance SIG, join Healthcare and Public Sector focused SIGs.

SIGs gather community members from an industry segment to work on domain-specific problems and create an environment for open discussion, document co-creation and solution proposals. SIGs help specific vertical markets in their efforts to address problems specific to that particular community.

The Hyperledger Social Impact Special Interest Group

The Hyperledger Social Impact SIG is primarily focused on serving as a platform for exchanging ideas and exploration of ways to use blockchain technology in the context of social good. The Social Impact SIG will work with the other working groups and technical teams, especially in the areas of implementation.

The areas of focus include:

• Identifying related use cases, current pilots and proofs of concept, production case studies, and the opportunity blockchain presents for social impact;
• Sharing stories of successes, failures, lessons learned, opportunities and challenges;
• Exploring cross-cutting concerns like security, privacy, and identity in global South contexts;
• Identifying existing or needed common critical software components that would serve the particular needs of global social impact;
• Working towards proposing solutions to the problems identified;
• Identifying conferences or other opportunities to connect face to face, as well as submit talks or present as a group at an event.
• Identifying the business and NGO community and building an inclusive platform for early adopters to contribute with their experiences.
• Facilitating and raising awareness of the opportunities blockchain can bring to the field.

The group is currently working on developing an opportunity matrix to map out the landscape of activity in philanthropy and remittances, supply chain, governance and democracy, financial empowerment, and identity. We welcome your participating in this effort!

We also want to hear about your use cases in using Hyperledger in a social impact context, please let us know if you’d like to present at our next meeting by sending a message on our mailing list.

The Hyperledger Trade Finance Special Interest Group

The Hyperledger Trade Finance Special Interest Group is primarily focused on serving as a platform for exchanging ideas and exploration of ways to use blockchain technology in the context of trade finance.

Areas of focus for the group include:

• Identifying related reference architectures (for example Trade Finance business and integration architecture, technical and infrastructure architecture), frameworks and models (OSI), use cases, current pilots and proofs of concept, and production case studies;
• Sharing stories of successes, failures, opportunities and challenges;
• Exploring and addressing cross-cutting architectural principles, options and decisions like performance and scalability, security, identity management and privacy, and identity in trade finance contexts;
• Identifying existing or needed common critical software, middleware, and hardware components that would serve the particular needs of trade finance, including data transmission and processing from access point (device), through networks, and cloud computing deployment model options (private, public, hybrid)
• Working towards proposing solutions to the problems identified;

How to get involved in Hyperledger Special Interest Groups

Participation in any SIG is open to everyone in the community. Each group has an open e-mail list, a Chat channel, and a wiki page. Live meetings are also held regularly via web teleconference. When needed, a task force can also be created within the SIG and have working sessions to discuss specific work items.
If you’re interested in joining a SIG, please subscribe to the SIG’s mailing list and start by saying “hi” to the community by sharing what your interests are on the topic. If you are looking for more information on the focus of an active SIG or proposed SIGs please visit wiki.hyperledger.org. We look forward to your participation and contributions!