Today we’re proud to announce that we are working with ETC Labs to provide blockchain infrastructure services to the Ethereum Classic and Ethereum communities via BloqCloud. I’m equally proud to say that this comes just a month-and-a-half after we launched the BloqCloud platform.

There are two themes that come to mind as I think of this announcement.

The New Enterprise Customer

For a company like Bloq, ETC Labs is an example of what we sometimes refer to as “the new enterprise customer.” The conventional enterprise customer is characterized by a commonly understood set of leadership structures, a relatively strict vendor/customer relationship, and typically a certain number of years in business. Very often, their size requires complex processes and procedures, particularly in the area of technology selection. (This was the customer we were used to servicing during my days at Red Hat.) It’s the kind of business that powers the vast majority of commerce today and will continue to be a very important segment for Bloq’s enterprise work, in general, and BloqCloud specifically. 

This segment is running parallel to the new enterprise customer, characterized by emerging blockchain-native organizations like ETC Labs and the communities they serve. Such organizations tend to be relatively small, eager to change the world, and committed to a growth strategy based around community engagement — simply getting more users on their protocol. Having started during (and because of) the advent of blockchain technology, this new enterprise customer also knows what it wants to buy and how to ask for it, since the “shorthand” between buyer and seller is already well-understood.

But both the new and conventional enterprise customer have at least one thing in common: They want the most flexible and future-proof way to explore, develop, and scale new technologies. As an emblematic example of the scaling challenge, consider the data storage demands of blockchain technology in general and, more specifically, Ethereum and Ethereum Classic. The nature of a blockchain means days-long sync times and the absolute requirement for very-low-latency storage, such as SSDs. (As to spinning hard drives? Our DevOps lead says “just don’t.”) Given the choice between managing this and taking the cloud-based approach, we think people would choose the solution that gets them ready-to-go quickly. 

This theme of future-proofing, though, brings me to my second point. 

Further to the Multi-{chain,network,token} Vision

Arguably, someone who follows one discipline closely and exclusively can never be an expert even in that one discipline. Expertise comes from the ability to expose oneself to (and take advantage of) multiple disciplines and approaches, achieving a synthesis that drives that particular field forward. By working with ETC Labs to extend the capabilities of the BloqCloud Connect service to include Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, we are opening up a very passionate and driven community to the possibility of multi-chain development — one API, multiple chains. Many projects will start on Ethereum Classic and stay there. Others will start there and spread to take advantage of multiple chains and the features that they provide.

Through this work with ETC Labs, we edge closer to fulfilling what we sometimes alliteratively refer to as our “Mission, Mantra, and Measuring Stick” —  delivering on a vision of a multi-chain world. We look forward to seeing what the ETC community will build and are excited to support their vision and mission.  

Jeff Garzik is the co-founder and CEO of Bloq.