A look inside Bloq, core developer Jeff Garzik bets on Bitcoin blockchain solutions

Jeff杰夫•加兹克, one of the core developers of Bitcoin, has teamed up with industry investor马特•罗斯扎克to launch Bloq, a new startup that the two founders call the "Red Hat of the blockchain industry," referring to Red Hat, the well-known open source software company.

Bloq, which is backed by $250,000 in funding from Roszak’s firm, Tally Capital, aims to provide an access layer for enterprise companies, many of which are unsure about how much resources to invest and what strategy to adopt when it comes to open-source blockchain technology, Garzik and Roszak said.

Bloq made a high-profile appearance on Bloomberg, but the Bloomberg article did not elaborate on how Bloq will achieve its vision, especially what Bloq's views on blockchain are.

In a new interview, Garzik talked about Bloq's vision, saying that Bloq sees the industry moving toward a "multi-chain, multi-token" ecosystem, and that Bitcoin will be the original foundation for many of these Internet-based blockchains. Therefore, Bloq's products take advantage of Bitcoin's features, including its secure blockchain, well-developed codebase, and global community.

As we all know, technology and business applications sometimes conflict, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux products successfully combine the technological innovation brought by open source code with the stability of enterprise-level platforms. Garzik hopes that Bloq will follow the development model of Red Hat, that is, as an intermediary, handle the conflicts between the technical community and enterprises that want to use this open source operating system and provide feasible solutions.

As a veteran of Red Hat, Garzik said:

“As a commercial company, Red Hat listens to the needs of enterprises and develops a long-term development roadmap for them.”

Garzik said the common theme among Bloq’s products is that they will support the kind of support large companies need when they seek to leverage open source technology:

"Corporate clients need more than just a volunteer or a temporary working group. They need a contractual partner with a clear deadline for results."

Bloq has already partnered with industry startups Circle and Noble Markets, and is in talks with PwC, which has said it is considering engaging with startups in a more formal way.

Bloq now has 12 employees and will continue to add to the team as it expands, Roszak said. In addition to Garzik, the team includes Andreas Schildbach, who is running Bitcoinj, a Java-based application development library.

Roszak said:

"Our goal is to develop a more formal sales and marketing plan, which will of course be adjusted at any time depending on the situation. We are building a company for the next 20 years."

Product Line

Bloq positions itself as an “enterprise-grade blockchain” service, with initial products including BloqEnterprise, BloqSuite and BloqThink.

Garzik said BloqEnterprise provides access to the Bitcoin network and is a product designed specifically for Bitcoin.

BloqEnterprise includes: a supported version of the command-line interface bitcoind; libraries such as libsecp256k1, an alternative to OpenSSL for the bitcoin network; and bitcoinJ, a client library written in Java. Garzik said a Python library will be added soon.

BloqSuite provides proof of concepts and BloqThink provides strategic consulting and advisory services. Garzik said that BloqSuite and BloqThink will find a balance between high-level strategy and low-level engineering, and will not be limited to the bitcoin blockchain.

“BloqThink defaults to ‘Bitcoin.’ Although it is Bitcoin-centric, it doesn’t have to be Bitcoin and can also handle Ethereum-related proofs of concept,” Garzik said.

Roszak similarly said Bloq is focused on helping companies build an "Internet stack," similar to how e-commerce platforms did in the 1990s.

“We see that there is no longer just one chain in the world, but many chains, whether it’s Ripple, Ethereum or Bitcoin, the connective tissue is the common software layer, and if we want to expand this ecosystem, we need to provide these standard tools for [enterprises].”

Unparalleled support

Roszak estimates that Bloq has attracted interest from more than a dozen clients so far because it can help companies get exposure to open-source blockchains without having to hire full-time developers to help them adapt to the protocol.

Roszak said:

“Enterprises don’t want to hire core developers because they want to manage their own wallets or build private blockchains, they want to build vertical market applications, whether it’s health records or clearing and settlement.”

To better alleviate concerns about working with open-source technology, Bloq aims to provide 24/7 support to its customers. Bloq engineers will also add customer-requested features to Bitcoin’s code, similar to how Blockstream does.

Garzik described the work as putting in place the “scaffolding” upon which companies can build private blockchain solutions.

Gazick says:

"The quality of open source projects is very uneven. What Red Hat does is to solve this problem. They work with the community to improve the quality of technology and provide enterprise customers with improved and enhanced technical support, rather than the default 'rough prototype'."

Garzik noted that the emergence of private blockchains is “inevitable,” but he believes that using bitcoin’s code to create such projects is the best way to ensure compatibility between all blockchains and distributed ledger systems.

Will it be affected by the controversy over Bitcoin expansion?

Some people may ask, given Red Hat's strength, what will happen if Red Hat enters this market? Garzik and Roszak said that even if Red Hat enters, the market still needs companies like Bloq.

Roszak believes that Bloq now has good development opportunities. First, it has the first-mover advantage. The market is not very interested in this technology yet. Second, this technology has a lot of professionals contributing to it.

Since the technology is still in its early stages, companies like Oracle and Red Hat are unlikely to provide solutions in the short term, but may instead become Bloq customers in order to gather information about blockchain technology.

“Based on our go-to-market strategy and our understanding of the ecosystem, we think Bloq will be a great partner for these companies.”

Given how the block size increase has split the Bitcoin community, isn’t Garzik worried that services built on the Bitcoin blockchain will be affected?

Garzik is one of the developers of Bitcoin Classic, but he noted that Bloq will remain neutral.

“Whether it’s customers who support Bitcoin Core or customers who support Bitcoin Classic, we will serve them all.”

Garzik said he had posted that both versions had dispute management issues, but that Bloq was not providing the issues for technical debate but rather offering options for customers seeking guidance.

“We provide choices and let customers choose. Fortune 100 customers shouldn’t have to worry about all the minute details of a Bitcoin fork. They should have a ‘menu’ of all the options and choose from them.”

Original article: http://www.coindesk.com/inside-bloqs-bid-to-bring-bitcoins-code-to-enterprise-businesses/
By Pete Rizzo
Translator: printemps
Editor: printemps
Source (translation): Babbitt Information (http://www.8btc.com/inside-bloq)