Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) in Blockchain

The Ethereum Enterprise Alliance (EEA) was launched in February 2017. It is a member-led industry organization whose objective is to drive the use of Ethereum blockchain technology as an open standard. The article focuses on discussing Ethereum Enterprise Alliance in the blockchain.

The following topics will be discussed here:

1. What is EEA?
2. Who is in EEA?
3. Features of EEA
4. How does EEA works?
5. Benefits of EEA
6. Limitations of EEA

Let’s start discussing each of these topics in detail.

What is EEA?

A group named the EEA was established by businesses including JPMorgan, Microsoft, and Accenture in the wake of the recent DAO attack to create an enterprise-class Ethereum blockchain that can handle high-volume transactions and business applications. Quorum, an enterprise-grade permissioned version of Ethereum provided to the EEA by JPMorgan, has received significant development resources.

• The EEA was launched on February 2017, with 30 members.
• The main objective of EEA is to turn Ethereum into an enterprise-grade technology that its members and companies can use.
• The member-driven Enterprise Ethereum Alliance provides open-source Enterprise Ethereum development tailored to the needs of enterprises. 
• It is a community of organizations collaborating to adopt and use Ethereum.
• It includes Fortune 500 companies, start-ups, academics, and technology vendors.
• In EEA, members can connect with each other, and find investors.

Who is in EEA?

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance links Ethereum subject matter experts with Fortune 500 companies, startups, universities, and technology vendors. There are currently more than 100 members in the EEA. Representatives from the following member companies serve on the EEA board of directors:

• BlockApps.
• Accenture.
• Consensys.
• Palm NFT Studio.
• SIX Digital Exchange.
• Open Foundation.
• Microsoft.
• JPMorgan Chase.
• Ethereum Foundation.
• Banco Santander, S.A.

Features of EEA

Below are some of the features of EEA:

1. Privacy: The addition of privacy through private transactions and private contracts is a crucial breakthrough to make Quorum appropriate for enterprise operations. Constellation, a peer-to-peer messaging daemon that may route the flow of confidential information to suitable network users, is used to do this.
2. Alternative consensus: Quorum uses two consensus mechanisms that are more appropriate for enterprise-grade blockchains rather than PoW/PoS for the permissioned ledger.
3. QuorumChain: A new smart-contract-based paradigm that achieves consensus through node voting.
4. Raft-based Consensus: A extremely quick block generation time consensus model ideal for closed-membership consortium scenarios.
5. Node permissioning: A Quorum feature that restricts connections to and from nodes to those that have registered to take part in the permissioned network and possess the necessary identifying keys.
6. High Performance: Quorum needs to be much faster than Ethereum to be deployed in a high-volume environment like the one needed to support bank-level transaction volume.

How does EEA Works?

Below are the four tasks that guide EEA operations:

• Understanding enterprise requirements.
• Build standard specifications that address these requirements.
• Evolve alongside and include all the public Ethereum blockchains.
• Achieve global interoperability through certification programs.

EEA regularly holds events and conducts research to highlight developments in the enterprise blockchain space and it has also established EEA specifications which are open standards for developing enterprise-ready blockchain implementations.

Benefits of EEA

• Open source: The Enterprise Ethereum deployments are all entirely open-source. As a result, any business or enterprise can freely use the enterprise Ethereum blockchain. Developers can add features or modify the code because it is open-source.
• Rapid Deployment: Enterprise Ethereum offers a quick and simple way to install blockchain technology and is supported by blockchain as a service provider. Furthermore, it is simpler to create enterprise Ethereum blockchain networks with blockchain as service providers like Kaleido or Azure.
• Data Coordination: The design of Enterprise Ethereum maintains data coordination between all users of the network. Enterprise Ethereum members would also benefit from improved data distribution and interactivity.
• Decentralization: EEA will make it possible for the members of the enterprise Ethereum to operate the system suitably without intervention. Another advantage of blockchain technology is this.
• Permissioned Networks: Members can get unique permissioned networks and even consortium setups with public Ethereum capabilities using the Enterprise Ethereum blockchain. This is actually one of the biggest distinctions between the private and public versions of Ethereum.
• Individuals have decision power: Privileged enterprise Ethereum members are able to act as a gatekeeper in EEA. It implies that the individual has the power to halt executions and even decide who has access to the network environment.
• Network Size: Although most enterprise deployments don’t need many nodes to run the system, the Mainnet is capable of supporting huge network sizes. However, it can manage several hundreds of nodes simultaneously without experiencing any lag. Additionally, millions of users can be accommodated in a single network environment. 
• Private Transactions: With the use of private consortia and the private transaction stacking protocol, enterprise Ethereum blockchain can achieve various levels of privacy. This feature will make sure that every enterprise Ethereum member can function in complete secrecy without revealing any transactional data. 
• Scalability and Performance: Enterprise Ethereum blockchain can perform better than public Ethereum if it has tailored consensus, block time, and gas limit. Not to mention, it has a second scaling capacity for hundreds of transactions. It introduces a few new consensus techniques, like authority proof, time proof, etc.
• Low Cost: All businesses will be able to deploy blockchain technology for less money. No company will feel overburdened by pointless costs in this way. It’s an important factor to take into account. Even if businesses are able to invest large sums of money, over time, this could also become a burden.

Limitations of EEA

• Only focus on enterprise applications: EEA is only focussed on enterprise applications for Ethereum. There are plenty of other blockchains like Solana, Cardano, and Avalanche.
• Difficult for EEA during the bear market: It could be difficult for EEA to grow during the bear market.
• Criticism for not thoroughly vetting members: EEA has received criticism for not thoroughly vetting members.