IBM is developing its own blockchain tech, plans to open source it in the next few months
IBM Adapts Bitcoin Technology for Smart Contracts — Tech giant developing its own version of blockchain technology, plans to release open source software within next few months
Context & Ripple Effects
In September 2015, IBM signaled that its interest in Bitcoin-inspired distributed ledgers would run through open source: it was developing its own blockchain implementation and planned to release it within months, aimed at smart contracts between businesses rather than cryptocurrency. That commitment set up what followed — three months later IBM joined JP Morgan and others under the Linux Foundation to build the Open Ledger Project, turning a single vendor's code plan into an industry-governed effort.
From there the corpus shows IBM converting the open-source bet into commercial products: a supply-chain record-keeping test platform (July 2016), a clearinghouse deployment with DTCC (January 2017), and finally the IBM Blockchain service built on Hyperledger Fabric. The 2015 decision matters because it chose the route — open code under neutral governance — that every later product inherited.
First-order effects
- Enterprises evaluating smart contracts get inspectable, modifiable code instead of waiting for a closed IBM stack — lowering the adoption barrier for banks and supply-chain operators weighing pilots.
- IBM repositions itself from a hardware-and-services seller into the convener of a shared standard, competing for mindshare with other large vendors courting the same financial clients.
Second-order effects
- Competitors face a fork: join the Linux Foundation-governed project, as JP Morgan does by December, or build incompatible private chains — and the DTCC's decision to run transactions on IBM-led distributed ledger tech shows which option major infrastructure players took.
- The open approach pulls adjacent industries in: supply-chain firms get a low-risk testing ground via IBM's record-keeping platform, extending the market beyond finance.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, enterprise blockchain consolidates around foundation-governed codebases like Hyperledger rather than proprietary stacks, with vendors such as IBM monetizing hosting, integration, and services on top — and hedging later through alternatives like its backing of Hedera Hashgraph.
- Financial-market plumbing begins migrating toward distributed settlement rails, as DTCC's early-adopting move suggests, forcing regulators and counterparties to treat open-source ledger code as critical infrastructure.
The trend: Enterprise software is shifting from closed proprietary systems to open-source, foundation-governed platforms where big vendors compete on services layered over shared code.