Taiwan AMIS releases Istanbul BFT

Istanbul BFT on JP Morgan' Quorum platform expands the options for Consensus Algorithm

TAIPEI, Taiwan, July 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- AMIS announced today a major breakthrough in the consensus algorithms for Ethereum. The Istanbul BFT applications are best suited for financial transactions and will be included on JP Morgan' Quorum platform initially. Taiwan-based AMIS, a founding member of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, is committed to making the Ethereum blockchain structure more flexible in meeting the practical needs of various applications and exploring various possibilities of blockchain applications.

AMIS R&D team develops Istanbul BFT for financial transactions in six months

In recent years, the development of blockchain and its relevant applications have caught the worlds' attention as R&D professionals in various countries seek breakthroughs in this technology. The AMIS team was very active in Silicon Valley for several years and played leading roles in Oracle, Qualcomm and other companies. Combining R&D talents from Silicon Valley and Taiwan, AMIS today announced a major progress in Consensus Algorithm. The Istanbul BFT applications greatly enhance the efficiency of exchanging messages on the existing Ethereum structure and thus make the blockchain system an infrastructure for the worldwide financial web. Vitalik Buterin, inventor of Ethereum, congratulated the team, saying, "Great work on the Istanbul BFT."

Alex Liu, CEO of AMIS said, "Compared to Proof-of-Work ("mining") that is currently in use in many blockchains worldwide, PBFT represents an important step forward in many ways. It ensures settlement finality, speeds up settlement time to under 1 second from the current tens of seconds to tens of minutes, and reduces energy consumption dramatically. For the consortium blockchains that most financial institutions are looking to deploy, PBFT represents the only way forward in consensus algorithms. "

"This is significant advancement in providing enterprises a range of 'pluggable' consensus algorithms, which is a core objective of the EEA," said Julio Faura, chairman of the board, Enterprise Ethereum Alliance and the head of R&D (blockchain) at Banco Santander.  "We are proud to see EEA members such as AMIS not only contributing in such a meaningful way, but also in collaboration with other members such as J.P. Morgan.  Enterprise adoption of Ethereum has never been stronger, and is getting stronger everyday through efforts like these." 

AMIS strategic collaboration with the world-class financial institution JP Morgan demonstrates its strong capabilities in innovation

This partnership will enlarge the number of consensus options available to institutional users of Quorum, ranging from the existing QuorumChain and Raft, to now include PBFT. This integration was made possible by the new Pluggable Consensus interface of the go-ethereum (geth) client, which also adds a Proof-of-Authority (PoA) or "Clique" mode of consensus. This brand new practice makes the Ethereum structure more flexible in meeting the practical needs of various application scenarios.

Alex Liu, CEO of AMIS said, "We're honored to be able to contribute our PBFT implementation to J.P. Morgan's industry-leading Quorum platform. Having financial institutions as our primary customers meant we had to design from day one with their requirements in mind. J.P. Morgan shares many of these requirements and recognized the value of adding an enterprise-grade PBFT implementation to their Ethereum-based platform."

AMIS is seeking technological breakthroughs and continues to work with the financial institutions in Taiwan to develop more blockchain applications

In addition to seeking breakthroughs in technology, AMIS is working in tandem with EEA members such as JP Morgan, Fubon FHC and Taishin FHC to develop blockchain applications. It aims to make the most of the Ethereum blockchain structure with its internally developed PBFT source code. AMIS will launch more innovative blockchain applications globally and upgrade the FinTech industry in Taiwan.

"This collaboration is a great testament of the capability of AMIS and the Ethereum community to meet the mission-critical demands of global financial institutions. It also establishes a new benchmark for strategic collaboration and co-creation between financial institutions and FinTech startups in global  blockchain innovation," said Thomas Hu, CEO of Kyber Capital, an early investor in AMIS.

【About AMIS】

A joint venture of financial institutions in Taiwan, AMIS contributes fundamental technology to the blockchain infrastructure it is building for banks, securities, and insurance companies based on Ethereum technology. It is extending its foundational technology to the telecom and Internet-of-Things sectors, forming cross-cutting relationships with the financial sector. It has a technology licensing arrangement with ITRI, the leading government industrial research organization in Taiwan. https://am.is/.

SOURCE AMIS