SAP launches two new blockchain consortia

Enterprise software firm SAP has launched two new consortia in a bid to accelerate industry-specific blockchain co-innovation with customers and partners.

The consortium groups have been formed within the SAP Blockchain Consortium program. One consortium targets the pharmaceuticals and life sciences industries, while the other is aimed at agribusiness, consumer products and retail.

Earlier in June, SAP started a global blockchain consortium to bring together the industry expertise of customers, partners, and other like-minded industry players. It said that it has over 35 participants in its three industry consortium groups.

"Blockchain presents a powerful way to create greater trust, transparency and simplified collaboration among businesses," said Gil Perez, senior vice president, Products & Innovation, and head of digital customer initiatives at SAP. "SAP empowers customers to harness the value of blockchain by offering easy integration, technological flexibility and industry-specific co-innovation."

The new consortia were announced alongside new services aimed at helping customers integrate blockchain technology. This includes new network extensibility services that will enable customers and partners to seamlessly integrate different blockchain infrastructures.

In addition, SAP announced that it is adding support for Quorum, an enterprise-focused version of Ethereum, to offer maximum flexibility to customers. Quorum support will allow the use of Ethereum-based smart contracts in permissioned blockchain networks.