R3's distributed ledger platform Corda officially open-sourced

R3CEV, the startup behind the world’s largest private blockchain consortium focused on distributed ledger applications, has open-sourced the code for its Corda platform for free use.

The code R3 is open-sourcing this time is consistent with its contributions to the Hyperledger project, a blockchain project led by the Linux Foundation. From now on, the code contributed to the Hyperledger organization will enter the formal acceptance stage.

Corda is envisioned as a permissioned distributed ledger that would be able to manage legal agreements between financial institutions, limiting what type of information each party can see.

R3 has published the Corda code and other resources here.

Since January last year, the R3 banking consortium has been exploring applications in trade finance, digital identity and asset exchange, while the startup has been raising funds from its member banks, some of which have already participated in the round.

Prior to open-sourcing the Corda platform code, R3 CTO Richard Gendal Brown explained in a blog post:

“We really chose to go the open source route early and work in an open way.”

Brown went on to say that he hopes the open source release will encourage outside observers to access Corda’s code and uncover vulnerabilities, saying:

"You will find problems, but that's great, please share what you find and submit a fix if possible...!"

R3 also released a draft document of the Corda technical paper and plans to have developer Mike Hearn release an updated version. The company also said it plans to develop a commercial version of the Corda platform and continue to develop other products based on the open source platform.

According to Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger, the code release is just part of the acceptance process, which he said “doesn’t take that long.”

Behlendorf described Corda’s contribution as just a first step, and said the concepts behind Corda could influence further research on other Hyperledger projects.

Behlendorf concluded:

"This type of DNA sharing, we think, is a good idea and it's something we look forward to."