Bank Consortium Develops Open Source Blockchain Platform

Blockchain is being used by developers to create an open source platform for the use of the technology that powers cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin in the banking sector.

Dubbed the Corda platform, Reuters reported that it is being developed by a consortium of financial institutions brought together by New York-based financial technology company R3.

The aim of Corda is to become an open source platform that can be used to establish the industry standard for the use of blockchain in the financial sector.

Banks and blockchain

Given blockchain powers a distributed ledger system, which maintains a robust and continuous record of all the transactions made upon it and replicated those records to all user supporting it, the technology is seen as a way to make secure transaction without the need for third-party verification.

For the banking world this means seedier transactions without compromising security.

The use of the blockchain also has the potential to make financial activity more transparent and efficient. As such, it is currently garnering a lot of attention in the banking sector, but R3 wants its Corda platform to be the one financial institution use.

“We want other banks and other parties to innovate with products that sit on top of the platform, but we don’t want everyone to create their own platform … because we’ll end up with lots of islands that can’t talk to each other,” James Carlyle, R3’s chief engineer, told Reuters.

“If we have one platform with lots of products on top, then we get something that’s more like the Internet, where we still get innovation but we can still communicate with each other.”

While this may be an ambitious goal, Corda has been specifically designed to only handle transaction data and can handle more complex transactions found in the financial world, which could help it stale the lead on other platforms being developed.

Furthermore, R3 believes the consortia model will build upon the inherent networking effect found in blockchain technology and should make it easier to get Corda off the ground and into the wholesale market.

While the likes of blockchain may have been touted as the future of money, the technology is also finding its way into other areas, and for businesses presents an opportunity not to be missed.

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