Major global aerospace manufacturer Boeing has reportedly joined the governing council of enterprise-focused decentralized network Hedera Hashgraph.

Ten members so far

The American aircraft giant is the 10th firm in the list of Hedera’s governing council members, including tech giant IBM, Japanese financial holding company Nomura Holdings, Indian telecom Tata Communications and financial services firm FIS Global, Coindesk reported on Aug. 29. 

According to the report, Boeing has not officially confirmed the news.

On Hedera’s council, each member runs its own node via hashgraph — a patented algorithm claiming to provide basic benefits of blockchain such as decentralization and security, without major blockchain-associated drawbacks such as low scalability.

Hedera launches in September

As soon as Hedera network’s open access launches in September, the council members will also be able to use the Hedera Consensus Service, which allows them to plug private networks into the public network in order to benefit from its transaction ordering system, the report notes. Hedera plans to include up to 39 members on its governing council.

The news comes amid Hedera’s announcement of plans to launch open access to its mainnet beta on Sept. 16, which will include testing of three services, including cryptocurrency, smart contracts and file services. As claimed by Hedera, crypto transactions on the network will be limited at 10,000 per second while file services will be capped at 10 operations per second.

Meanwhile, Boeing, one of the largest global aerospace manufacturers and the fifth largest defense contractor in the world, is not new to blockchain technology. In July 2018, Boeing partnered with artificial intelligence firm SparkCognition to develop pilotless vehicles and other products using blockchain. In 2016, Boeing applied for a patent for on-board backup and anti-spoofing GPS, using blockchain.