From telecom to smart contracts to 5G, growing blockchain use cases are proliferating across tech industries. One key initiative on the move – VMware Blockchain for Ethereum, the software giant’s blockchain group – has gathered 100 customers to participate in the beta since it launched this summer.

Two of the technology’s early adopters were Bank of Israel and Infosys. Global systems integrator Infosys was an early adopter of the system for Digital Asset Modeling Language (DAML) and was the vendor's first partner to develop a solution on VMware Blockchain for Ethereum.

VMware CTO Kit Colbert stated at VMware Explore 2022 that the group’s efforts in blockchain look to take the “ingenious solutions that were focused on the cryptocurrency world and actually general[ize] them for the enterprise.”

VMware linked in the Ethereum technology stack to address “several critical gaps Ethereum platforms have that make them difficult to use for enterprise use cases." Notable gaps included lack of privacy and scalability for complex workloads, governance mechanisms, and operational support characteristics.

The vendor more recently announced new enterprise features addressing some of these “critical gaps,” along with integrations with Fireblocks and Web3 Labs, and a new strategic partnership with Tel Aviv Stock Exchange aiming to issue government bonds on a blockchain platform.

“We are on the cusp of an evolution in application architecture: decentralized, multi-party applications running on enterprise-grade blockchains networks that power new digital asset experiences,” Josh Lory, VMware senior director, Blockchain Go to Market, told SDxCentral.

Already, blockchain use in Web3 initiatives is making its way into the telecom sector.

Deutsche Telekom and its U.S. subsidiary mobile telecom operator T-Mobile launched their third T Challenge inviting developers and startups to compete for the best public blockchain protocol on solutions for Web3 using 5G networks.

According to Lory, for blockchain to peak over this evolutionary "cusp," it’s going to take anodyne use cases being validated within the ecosystem to then “horizontally scale” into wider adoption.

“Rethinking how ecosystem structures, business models and transactions operate on the blockchain is difficult when multiple parties and interests are involved. Think about the intermediaries involved to conduct a cross-border payment today. We know there is massive value in removing them, but who is going to be the first one to disrupt themselves?” Lory explained.

“To get momentum going, we see institutions focusing on smaller, less controversial use cases with an existing ecosystem. See Broadridge DLR which focuses on repurchase agreements and Tel Aviv Stock Exchange starting with bond issuance and custody. Once success is achieved, the ecosystem can horizontally scale the technology to other use cases and asset classes as needed," he said.

Currently, Lory says the beta is seeing demand across a vast set of industries and company sizes, with standouts being in “institutional-grade digital asset exchanges, CBDC [central bank digital currency]/ stablecoins, record and identity management solutions, gaming, NFT loyalty programs, and provenance tracking.”

VMware’s recent integration with Web3 Labs – a Web3 and blockchain company strategizing enterprise solutions – will look to build Ethereum applications on its Java-based Web3j library.

“Since its inception in 2016, it has been downloaded over two million times and is widely used across a number of enterprise blockchain initiatives from building next-generation financial markets infrastructure to identity platforms,” VMware stated, referring to its Web3j library.

Lory explained that one of the biggest changes that will come with Web3 will be having digital asset ownership rights, the ability to hold custody over those assets, and the access to peer-to-peer trading – all of which will be shaped by blockchain's decentralized infrastructure.

“The best industry to see this taking form is in gaming. The entire value chain of gaming is transitioning to the user who can now take custody of in-game assets and trade them across secondary marketplaces. This evolution in gaming is being powered by interconnected blockchain platforms. If you extrapolate this to other industries, there is a lot of value creation to be realized,” he said.