Ethereum Launches “Baseline” Protocol, Backed by EY and Microsoft

ConsenSys, EY, and Microsoft have now officially launched the Baseline protocol. This protocol is designed for businesses and enterprises that plan to leverage Ethereum’s public blockchain but in a secure, private way.

Creating Private Networks In Public Chains

The Baseline project itself was announced on the 4th of March, 2020. However, the source code for the project was only published on GitHub within this week, which has made it available to both developers and businesses for the first time.

Baseline was developed with the purpose of allowing enterprises and businesses to build private networks on top of the existing Ethereum blockchain. In typical network conditions, all transactions on Ethereum (find out more about how to buy Ethereum) are open for public scrutiny. In order to avoid this, businesses typically employ their own private blockchains or otherwise leverage an enterprise version of Ethereum.

Leveraging Technology For Data Security

Baseline, however, allows businesses to leverage the public chain of Ethereum without subsequently compromising the privacy of their network through doing so. Baseline leverages zero-knowledge proofs, distributed identity systems, as well as off-chain data storage to ensure that sensitive data stays private within the public blockchain.

ConsenSys gave a public statement about the matter. It explained that the protocol would allow for tokenization and decentralized financial services support within the Mainnet. This will be done in such a way that neither corporate assets nor activities would be revealed to various unauthorized parties in the process. This allows for enterprise data to safely stay within traditional systems without the worry of being uncovered.

Higher Integration With Ethereum’s DeFi

Through using this protocol, businesses will be capable of handling the large amount of transaction processing power that Ethereum holds. This, in turn, makes it easier for various companies to connect their respective activities to the DeFi ecosystem that Ethereum is so well known for.

The announcement itself implies that Baseline was developed primarily for product procurement. An example would be the fact that Baseline is capable of tokenizing information, such as purchase orders and receivables. This information can then be, in turn, handled through a smart contract on the Ethereum network.

The protocol includes a demo as well, called Radish34. This stands as a collaboration between EY and Microsoft that occurred during 2019. This demo demonstrated the potential use for the platform through the management of relationships between buyers and sellers, as well as facilitating real-time calculations when it comes to volume discounts.