Dive Brief:

• IBM announced it's building a blockchain ecosystem to help expedite development of blockchain-based business applications, according to CIO and VentureBeat reports.

• Big Blue says the ecosystem will offer tools, guidance, advice and mentorship for startups as well as enterprise developers and systems integrators to "reduce the time required to go from idea to execution." 

• "The future growth and adoption of blockchain is reliant upon building a strong ecosystem," Bridget Van Kralingen, senior vice president of IBM Industry Platforms, said in a statement. "Business networks will only reach critical mass when innovators, industry experts and infrastructure providers come together in new ways to reinvent how business transactions happen.”

Dive Insight:

Blockchain technology has gained enterprise interest over the past few years for the variety of important applications it could support. One of the key appeals of the technology is that transmissions and movements can be audited through log data. It has potential for a wide range of uses in areas such as education, banking and logistics.

Blockchain is growing in acceptance and many companies, like IBM, are working to get in on the ground floor. In April, IBM said it would invest in startups building blockchain-based services. Not long after, the company announced plans to launch Blockchain as a Service.

Several startups have reportedly already joined the new IBM blockchain ecosystem.