R3 Corda open source sparks debate, market observers mixed

Earlier this week, R3 officially released the code for its Corda distributed ledger platform, a move that has market observers abuzz.

The Corda codebase, released publicly on Wednesday, is an early-stage distributed ledger platform designed to record and automate legal agreements between various corporate entities, particularly financial institutions.

R3 has used the open-source move as a way to get outside feedback on the Corda code. So far, the feedback is mixed, with some market observers praising R3's move and others criticizing it.

Ajit Tripathi, director of financial technology and digital at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), said his company welcomes the open-sourcing because it will contribute to the education of blockchain developers. He said PwC plans to help clients use the Corda software if they are interested.

Tripathi believes that open-sourcing Corda code is indeed beneficial to promotion. At the same time, he also said that based on the previous companies and startups that have made code open-source, this move can indeed play a publicity role and arouse the interest of potential contributors.

Given the importance of developer adoption, Tripathi said developers have little choice but to open source their platforms. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t protect their ideas as they share them. In August, the Wall Street Journal reported that R3 had applied for a patent for its distributed ledger finance platform Concord.

Tripathi continued:

“This is all about commercializing and protecting your intellectual property through appropriate patents, but R3 needs to be careful not to use any of its patents in a way that would cause concerns among developers or institutions about using Corda.

Corda Critics

As Corda officially went open source, some critics on social media and at industry conferences began to question the value proposition of the distributed ledger.

Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd published a long post on Twitter, arguing that there is confusion about the purpose of Corda’s design. He also believes that if there is no clear explanation of who authorized the changes, there will be a lack of accountability to partners.

Corda talks more than once about who should have access to keys; the heart of cryptography is knowing who did what! - Peter Todd

At a panel held by the Wall Street Blockchain Alliance this week, blockchain researcher and analyst Tone Vays pointed to Corda’s open source in his speech. In a conversation with Coindesk, he believed that R3’s purpose of open source was mainly to sell its own consulting services, and Corda’s open source was almost no different from the existing shared database method.

Vays said:

“But getting all the banks together in a room and talking about a shared database would be pretty impressive, I guess.”

'Absolute positivity'

R3 said Cord’s debut had been a success. Charley Cooper, executive director of R3, said the impact of Corda’s open source was “definitely positive.”

If the startup wants developer engagement, early signs are that it’s paying off: R3CEV received a meaningful contribution just two hours after launching the open-source platform.

Currently, the Corda forum has about 350 members and there are 18 contributors on Github. A total of 17 pull-requests have been made, 9 of which have been merged into the Corda code base.

In addition to some of the codebase changes that have already been implemented, Cooper said the R3 consortium has listened to “senior engagement” from the industry, provided “constructive feedback” and expressed a desire to participate.

In the near future, open source blockchain group Hyperledger is expected to integrate Corda into its growing suite of tools. In yesterday’s conversation, Cooper expressed excitement about the progress made in open source Corda and compared it to the Hyperledger project.

He said:

“Compared to the Hyperledger project, we currently have only a small number of users and active participants, but Hyperledger has been open source for a year, while we have only been open source for 24 hours.”