Setting Its Sights on Blockchain

Following the successful startup and recent payout from blockchain giant Steemit, on Tuesday IBM announced its intentions to get onto the blockchain bandwagon with its so-called “Bluemix Garage”. With the “Blue” part of the moniker referring to IBM's age-old name “Big Blue” and corresponding logo, the “Garage” part of the moniker of course invokes visions of innovative minds creating things from scratch in a garage à la Google or Microsoft.

Not one to take things in small stride, IBM announced plans to develop and market its position as the premier “blockchain-as-a-service” provider in the nascent blockchain market. Pundits in the new crypto currency market have some question as to whether Big Blue will be able to pull it off as a profitable venture. Questions stem from the sheer newness of the blockchain market, coupled with the question of whether such a large multinational player such as IBM will be able to garner up and deliver a versatile, viable, and truly valuable service in an extremely volatile market.

Given the recent trend for entrepreneurship to exploit the ability to deploy quickly, as well as acquire funding through keen investment players and crowd-funding portals such as Indiegogo and Kickstarter, smaller players may indeed provide IBM with a run for their money in smaller niches.

Big Blue Tries to Look Small

The “Garage” part of the moniker of course invokes visions of innovative minds creating things from scratch in a garage *a la” Google or Microsoft. IBM's idea is to allow developers, product managers and designers can come together to build blockchain technologies as a service on Bluemix, IBM’s cloud platform.

While the primary base of operations is set in New York, IBM already operates Bluemix Garages in San Francisco, London, Toronto, Nice, Tokyo, and Singapore -- but more are planned to open in the latter part of 2016.

© 2016 John Melendez