JPMorgan’s Blockchain Offshoot Kadena Unveils the First Hybrid Blockchain

Kadena, the blockchain spin-off by banking giant JPMorgan, has now launched its new public blockchain network which it proudly calls the “world’s first hybrid blockchain”.

Launched earlier this week on Wednesday, January 15, Kadena’s blockchain network offers full transactions along with adding interoperable smart contracts support between its private chain counterparts and the public blockchain.

This new hybrid blockchain comes as part of Kadena’s vision to create a fully scalable and secure alternatives for proof-of-work public blockchains. The company further says that the hybrid blockchain is the first sharded Proof-of-Work Layer 1 network available in the market.

Creating a bridge between the public and private blockchain network, Kadena is likely to solve the problems faced by businesses of maintaining the right balance between transparency and security.

Kadena’s co-founder and president Stuart Popejoy said that this is an important milestone for the company and the blockchain industry as the technology has still got one limitations spite its huge potential.

He added: “Despite blockchain having immense potential, our experience building JP Morgan’s first blockchain showed us its limitations. Launching a fully functional hybrid blockchain which seamlessly integrates a public chain with a private network is a significant step forward in reimagining what applications can do on-chain.”

To support its interoperability feature, Kadena’s hybrid blockchain network uses Pact, the company’s own open-source smart contract programming language. Popejoy says that its blockchain is capable of processing 750 transactions per second.

Popejoy added: “Kadena’s whole goal is to solve the scaling problems of bitcoin and the security problems of ethereum. You have a scalable private blockchain, you have a scalable public blockchain and you have Pact, and the application layer that allows you to communicate between all three”.

Kadena is the first offshoot from JPMorgan’s Blockchain Center for Excellence. Kadena CEO and Co-founder Will Martino said that the expansion plans are already on cards. Currently, operating with 10 chains, Kadena is likely to expand its network to 100 chains by Q2 2020.

He said that a small start to this project was to bring to people’s notice the important tasks that Kadena’s hybrid blockchain can perform. “If we had launched with 1000 chains, people wouldn’t be able to visually grasp the magnitude of the innovation that Kadena is bringing to market. We’ll be upgrading to a larger network for more scale in Q2, likely 100 chains, but for now, 10 chains provide and illustrate our unique value,” said Martino.