The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), an organization focused on creating “open, blockchain specifications,” has released a new set of standards for blockchain interoperability.

As noted in a blog post published on May 13th, 2019 from ConsenSys’ Medium account, the EEA has introduced version three of its Client Specification. The latest specification includes a “set of extensions to Ethereum” which will allow developers to build “interoperable Enterprise Ethereum clients.”

“Ethereum Is The Only Blockchain Based On Set Of Standards”

The Ethereum extensions have also been developed to enable private transactions on permissioned blockchains.

According to ConsenSys’ development team, Ethereum is “one of the only blockchains [that is] based on a set of standards, not just a single software project.” This means developers have the option to choose a different Ethereum client which may be more appropriate for their particular requirements.

Platforms that are based on standards, like Ethereum, “make it possible to build an ecosystem of interoperable tools” which may be integrated into a blockchain’s infrastructure, ConsenSys’ blog explained.

“Improving Blockchain’s Path To Global Interoperability”

During the past year, Ethereum’s developers released version 1 of the Client specification and the EEA community had been “working to continuously improve the specification [while also introducing] a new release about every six months,” ConsenSys’ blog noted.

As explained by ConsenSys’ development team, specification version three has been designed to “improve blockchain’s path to global interoperability” across Enterprise Ethereum blockchain clients – which are built to “support all industries.”

The latest specification features “significant improvements in the permissioning mechanism” which allows users to more effectively manage permission and privileges settings via “contracts on the blockchain itself,” ConsenSys’ blog stated.

New Specs Allow Developers To Build Simple And Complex Systems

The new specification tools also make it “simpler to implement clients” and “there is less chance of something going wrong” when deploying applications based on the updated set of Ethereum development standards.

Moreover, the latest specifications allow for greater flexibility to develop an Ethereum blockchain-based platform. This includes building decentralized applications (dApp) “with permission managed in the way that suits what it is being used for, whether that is a globally distributed system for supply-chain verification across many large corporate participants or a small public library system.”

Notably, the EEA has adopted a “baseline” consensus protocol, called the “Clique Proof of Authority algorithm,” in order to set up blockchain networks in a manner that allows them to communicate with each other (blockchain interoperability).

The EEA is also working on an “interoperability testing program” which will help in “improving interoperability between the tools that run Enterprise Ethereum blockchains,” ConsenSys blog stated.

Testing Various Other Consensus Protocols

Although Clique may be applied to many different blockchain-based solutions, EEA’s development team is also working on various implementations of Byzantine Fault Tolerant algorithms.

The EEA is planning to test different types of consensus mechanisms in order to develop one “primarily based on IBFT (EIP-650).” Additionally, the Alliance intends to “enhance the safety and performance for networks where BFT is a better choice.”

As noted by ConsenSys’ development team, the results obtained will be used to develop and adopt at least on more consensus algorithm. These updates will be included in version 4 of the specifications which will be introduced in October 2019.