IBM Gets Behind Blockchain

While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have struggled to find mainstream appeal, blockchain, the ledger like technology that they run on, has been touted as one of the most important technological advancements of the past decade. The system has the ability to facilitate transactions in a way that many say will transform more than just the financial industry.

That idea is now being put into practice by tech giant International Business Machines Corp. IBM, as the company announced that it is working to use the technology to create a "smart contracts" system.

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Smart Contracts

The Wall Street Journal reported that IBM Research Senior Vice President Arvind Krishna said that the firm is working on a way to develop blockchain technology into a system that can facilitate contracts. The system is expected to eventually be released as open-source software and will likely give other big name companies reason to look into using the technology.

Improving Business Transactions

IBM's smart contracts system won't include the use of cryptocurrencies, but will instead draw on blockchain's ability to track individual transactions but keep the details private. The idea is to allow companies to embed rules into their contracts and allow the blockchain system to enforce them.

One example the company is looking into would be a system that automatically pays for goods once they are delivered, however the possibilities for using the technology could reach into several aspects of business operations.