With Whiteblock as the EEA’s Official TestNet Provider, the EEA Business Community Can Innovate Together within a Controlled Environment, without a Costly Full-Scale Roll-Out

Wakefield, Mass. –  January 15, 2020 – The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) announced today that it has partnered with Whiteblock Inc., one of the world’s first blockchain testing and development companies and an EEA member, to provide a testing environment for the EEA global membership base. Through this partnership, the EEA will leverage the Whiteblock Genesis testing platform to orchestrate, manage, and deploy the official test network of the EEA, the EEA TestNet. Genesis launches today, offering users the ability to test out a number of end-to-end blockchain testing and development scenarios. Leveraging the EEA TestNet, the EEA’s global business community can collaborate around creating and testing the next generation of Ethereum business applications.  To learn more about the EEA TestNet, visit https://entethalliance.org/testnet/.

By creating a testing sandbox, businesses can gain insights and experiment on the best ways to deliver value to customers within the global marketplace, without incurring operational costs of a live environment. In addition, early testing will prepare businesses to take advantage of the EEA’s Certification Program when launched later this year. Designed for collaboration, the EEA TestNet offers a constantly running test network using the Genesis platform, enabling members to define their own scenarios, introduce their own nodes, and deploy Dapps. The EEA TestNet will also provide Metamask support and full data and analytics capabilities.

“The launch of the EEA TestNet is a major milestone on our journey to enable enterprises to deliver a superior customer experience and create new and innovative solutions,” said EEA Executive Director Ron Resnick. “The EEA’s business-focused approach enables the broader Ethereum business community to collaborate, innovate, and contribute to the evolution of world-class Ethereum solutions. The EEA’s TestNet brings us one step closer to creating an ecosystem that offers application availability from multiple vendors of choice.”

Many blockchain companies make claims on scalability and transactions per second without independently verifying these metrics. Whiteblock provides the EEA an independent, objective method of validating performance claims using their Genesis testing and development platform. Adequate pre-deployment testing helps development teams avoid network failures and anticipate performance under suboptimal conditions when failure to deliver could significantly diminish credibility and market confidence.

“The EEA TestNet will enable members to collaborate and understand how Ethereum systems perform at scale in a deterministic and controlled manner,” said Zak Cole, Whiteblock CEO and EEA Testing and Certification Working Group Chair. “Whiteblock’s established testing methodology and tooling has been proven to accurately test complex networks at scale. We are pleased to be working alongside the EEA Testing and Certification Working Group members on this important EEA milestone.”

Leveraging the TestNet, the EEA’s Testing and Certification Working Group will begin to build and launch a world-class EEA Certification Program that ensures solutions conform and interoperate with EEA standards. The EEA Testing and Certification Working Group members currently include Aion Foundation, AZHOS, BlockApps, Chainstack, ConsenSys, Crowdz, Fnality International, Intel, J.P. Morgan’s Quorum, Microsoft, PegaSys, Standard Chartered Bank, Wanchain, Web3 Labs, Wizkey, among other global leaders.

“The EEA TestNet offers a glimpse into the value that a mature and technically advanced blockchain can bring to our business,” said the EEA Community Director Paul DiMarzio. “We’re excited to see the platform evolve as it benefits having larger, more open participation from the EEA community. In the near future, customers will be able to select EEA tested, specification-based solutions over proprietary offerings.”

The EEA plans to launch a Certification Program later this year that will ensure solutions conform and interoperate with EEA standards, thus building customer confidence and trust that customers get the results they expect.

About Whiteblock Genesis

Whiteblock Genesis is the world’s first end-to-end testing and development platform for blockchain and enterprise DLT developers. Genesis SaaS platform provisions virtual networks of nodes that allow users to develop in a controlled environment that replicates their production network or test and experiment under a variety of real-world scenarios. Whiteblock Genesis allows users to quickly develop and test performance and security over a variety of networks. Developers can automate transactions, test fault tolerance, and quickly provision a private TestNet that simulates the real-world conditions of a live and dynamic global blockchain network. Members who desire full discretion over the architecture and compute power of their testing networks can learn more about the features, and start running their own TestNets today in Whiteblock Genesis by visiting whiteblock.io/genesis.

About the EEA

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA) is a member-driven standards organization whose charter is to develop open blockchain specifications that drive harmonization and interoperability for businesses and consumers worldwide. Our global community of members is made up of leaders, adopters, innovators, developers, and businesses who collaborate to create an open, decentralized web for the benefit of everyone. To join the EEA, please reach out to [email protected].

Supporting Member Quotes

ConsenSys

“The EEA TestNet is the next step in creating a thriving ecosystem for Ethereum-centric architectures. These solutions will deliver improved privacy and performance for a wide variety of applications, including digital identities, supply chains, financial industry platforms, consumer financial services and any industry that values some collaboration among competing entities. ConsenSys is proud to support the EEA TestNet with our Enterprise Ethereum technologies, including our contributions to the open-source Hyperledger Besu,” said Dan Heyman, EEA member and head of PegaSys at ConsenSys. 

Microsoft

“Microsoft joins the other members of the EEA in celebrating the launch of the EEA TestNet to accelerate the development and testing of cross-platform enterprise blockchain. With this significant step, the EEA has created the mechanism for the world’s largest companies and the most innovative startups to work together and accelerate blockchain adoption,” said Marley Gray, a founding EEA Board member, chair of the Token Taxonomy Initiative and principal architect at Microsoft.

Hyperledger

“We’re very pleased to see the EEA launch its TestNet,” said Brian Behlendorf, executive director, Hyperledger, an EEA Associate Member. “This will help accelerate the tie-in between EEA technical specifications and Hyperledger projects that were built to adhere to those specifications. For example, Hyperledger Besu, which works with both public and private Ethereum networks, is the first Ethereum client project available through Hyperledger that conforms to the EEA’s Client Specification. Making Besu available on the EEA TestNet provides EEA members the opportunity to test their own applications with what we hope will eventually become EEA-certified, Hyperledger-hardened code.”