ConsenSys Enterprise and BlockApps have announced a working relationship with John Hancock’s Lab of Forward Thinking (LOFT). They have collaborated on LOFT’s first Ethereum blockchain proof of concept (PoC).

John Hancock launched the LOFT last year. It is a 6,500 square foot space located at its Seaport area headquarters in Boston’s “Innovation District,” devoted to a culture of innovation and creativity within all facets of the organization. It aims to promote a high impact environment and provide a centralized resource for employees across John Hancock and parent company Manulife to collaborate and devise new forward-thinking technology solutions for the companies’ various wealth and asset management and insurance business lines.

LOFT focuses on blockchain technologies in order to drive internal operational efficiencies and develop new capabilities driven by smart contracts. The purpose of the LOFT PoC is to better track operational procedures associated with a client.

“We could not have found a better partner than ConsenSys in accelerating our understanding and our ability to build out applications leveraging this technology. The team is very excited about standing up the infrastructure internally and exploring the possibilities through our business use cases”, said Ace Moghimi, AVP and Head of Innovation, John Hancock.

ConsenSys is a blockchain venture production studio building decentralized applications (DApps) and foundational tools based on Ethereum. Powered by smart contracts, and secured through encryption, its applications provide the benefits of transparency, auditability, and immutability that are unique to blockchain-based solutions.

“The LOFT group is a model example of innovation within the enterprise:  bright, enthusiastic teams tasked with understanding new technologies and who aren’t afraid of getting their hands dirty by building prototypes”, said Igor Lilic, Principal Technical Lead of ConsenSys Enterprise. “We are incredibly enthusiastic about John Hancock’s commitment to the blockchain ecosystem and we look forward to continued collaboration as LOFT builds smart contract based platforms.”

BlockApps STRATO is the full-stack Ethereum blockchain infrastructure solution that allows developers to build highly scalable industry-specific blockchain applications. It enables high transaction throughput, faster transaction settlement times, and turing-complete blockchain ledgers. The BlockApps team is also responsible for EthereumH, the Ethereum compliant Haskell protocol.

Kieren James-Lubin, Chief Product Officer of BlockApps, said, “LOFT is just that - an organization focused around forward thinking. They are building the technical knowhow and internal stakeholder support that will allow John Hancock to be a disruptor rather than a disruptee as the blockchain revolution materializes. We are extremely enthusiastic about our partnership with LOFT.”

ConsenSys and BlockApps will help John Hancock to work on multiple blockchain proofs of concept including client onboarding, AML/KYC protocols, and employee loyalty programs.