Hyperledger Project, a collaborative cross-industry effort created to advance blockchain technology, announced American Express has joined the project as a Premier Member. As a Premier member, American Express will contribute to the development of the project’s mission to create an enterprise-grade, open source, distributed ledger technology. Sastry Durvasula, Senior Vice President of Technology, responsible for leading enterprise-wide big data, blockchain, digital payments and partnerships, will represent the company on the Hyperledger Governing Board.

“It’s always encouraging to see large, global organizations like American Express join Hyperledger,” said Brian Behlendorf, Executive Director, Hyperledger. “As the project continues to grow and take shape, I believe support from leading organizations and their expertise will drive successful pilots of Hyperledger blockchain technology into production later this year. The aim is to then begin to repeatedly build new systems for this emerging industry and its various use cases and applications.”

“We’re excited to join Hyperledger, as we’re looking to take full advantage of blockchain to deliver new and innovative products for our customers and partners, while transforming existing business processes and applications,” said Marc Gordon, Executive Vice President & Chief Information Officer, American Express. “As a Premier member of the project, we’re expecting our expertise and global reach to help advance this open source blockchain ecosystem.”

Hyperledger Project has grown to more than 100 members since its inception, which span various industries including finance, healthcare, the Internet of Things, and aeronautics, among several others. The project aims to create common distributed ledger technology that enables organizations to build and run robust, industry-specific applications, platforms and hardware systems to support their individual business transactions.