Open-source project Hyperledger is democratizing blockchain for developers and businesses. The initiative is a collaborative effort created to advance cross-industry blockchain technologies.

“It’s been the fastest-growing open-source project since the Linux Foundation started,” said Marie Wieck (pictured, left), general manager of IBM blockchain at IBM Corp. (a contributor). Are the use cases living up to the hype?

So far, yes, according to Greg Wolfond (pictured, right), chairman and chief executive officer of SecureKey Technologies Inc. SecureKey started essentially as a login service.

“We wanted to move to the next step, which is sharing identity,” he said. This required that they control what data is shared as much as what not is not shared, and the company couldn’t do that without Hyperledger, Wolfond explained.

Wieck and Wolfond spoke to John Furrier (@furrier) and Dave Vellante (@dvellante), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile live streaming studio, during IBM InterConnect 2017 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (*Disclosure below.)

On the customer-facing side, Hyperledger helps SecureKey by totally taking the friction out of sharing, Wolfond said. On the other side, it helps make sure the user is not suddenly an open book to organizations, whether they be banks or a certain pervasive social app.

“Would you trust Facebook to see your medical records? Would you unlock your title using Facebook?” he asked.

Protecting all fronts in data privacy

Retaking lost ground in data privacy is proving to be useful in other industries as well, said Wieck. IBM signed with the Food and Drug Administration to use the blockchain to protect patients privacy in clinical drug trials.

“It’s not the panacea for every business problem; we want to make sure people are using it in the right way,” she said.

Hyperledger Fabric v 1.0 on IBM Cloud is the most secure and enterprise-ready iteration available, she stated.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of IBM InterConnect 2017. (*Disclosure: SiliconANGLE Media’s theCUBE is a media partner at InterConnect. Neither IBM nor other conference sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE