The Blockchain/distributed ledger technology movement has gotten the blessings of IBM, Infosys and Computershare.
The Blockchain/distributed ledger technology (DLT) phenomenon is forging ahead amid mysteries, major projects at financial services firms and new alliances among top industry providers.
As for mysteries solved, major financial services players are delving into the DLT underpinnings, which stem from the Bitcoin cryptocurrency whose inventor has been shrouded in mystery.
That is until Monday, May 2, when Dr. Craig Wright, described as “an Australian computer scientist, inventor and academic” stepped forward as the “man who developed and launched Bitcoin, the pioneering electronic cryptocurrency, and the Blockchain, its revolutionary digital infrastructure.” A press release says that Wright “used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto as a way to protect his own identity and on this historic day, he puts the Nakamoto myth to rest.”
The release and later press conference revealed that Wright went public because of “a series of misleading statements that are circulating and which he seeks to set straight and in doing so will allow him to further develop his society changing work and research.” Wright, according to the release, wants to educate the world about the science and economics behind his inventions and “show the remarkable potential bitcoin and the blockchain have.”
“I firmly believe that Bitcoin and the blockchain can change the world for the better. I didn’t take the decision lightly to make my identity public and I want to be clear that I’m doing this because I care so passionately about my work and also to dispel any negative myths and fears about bitcoin and the Blockchain,” Wright says in a prepared statement. “I cannot allow the misinformation that has been spread to impact the future of Bitcoin and the Blockchain. I’m now able to build on what I have previously completed by releasing my research and academic work and help people understand just how powerful this can really be.”
Oddly enough, this major announcement has not put to rest widespread speculation about the creator of Bitcoin as some in the blogosphere suggest that this latest revelation actually obscures the true inventor.
IBM Gets Onboard
In the meantime, major players are not worrying about inventors of the core technology but are moving ahead to develop DLT applications and systems.
Legendary IT giant IBM announced a security framework for “operating blockchain networks” via the IBM Cloud designed to meet existing regulatory and security requirements.
“Blockchain networks are built on the notion of decentralized control, but some cloud environments leave back doors open to vulnerabilities that allow tampering and unauthorized access,” says IBM. “Working with teams of security experts, cryptographers, hardware experts and researchers, IBM has created essential new cloud services for tamper-resistant, trusted blockchain networks.”
In particular, Big Blue has launched IBM Garage in New York City, and has enlisted client and custodial banking giant BNY Mellon “to accelerate the design and development of a unique application for securities lending, using a blockchain network to trade and transfer assets,” say IBM and BNY officials
“At BNY Mellon, we are actively exploring blockchain’s potential to better serve our clients and our company,” says Suresh Kumar, senior executive vice president and chief information officer for BNY Mellon, in a prepared statement. “With this new initiative, IBM is providing an environment that will allow companies like us to collaborate more easily and more securely and in a more standardized way, which is critical to advancing meaningful use cases for blockchain.”
SETL and Computershare
In another part of the globe, blockchain startup SETL and a vendor of share registrar and receiving agent services, Computershare, demonstrated late last month “Australia’s first working blockchain capital markets solution at Computershare’s annual Investor and Analyst day,” according to both vendors. “The two companies are also pleased to announce a joint initiative to establish securities ownership registers using blockchain technology.”
Computershare officials point out that their business is maintaining accurate and complete records of securities “including both dematerialized and certificated ownership” while SETL is focused on bringing blockchain technology to the post-trade environment. Their joint efforts are will target identity, permissioning, smart-contracts and scalability operations.
“The joint initiative will focus initially on the Australian market and will examine the practicalities of establishing an immutable register of securities ownership using blockchain technology,” say officials at Computershare, which bring together issuers, asset owners, brokers, regulators and market infrastructure providers “to propose an open platform which meets the needs of all industry participants.”
“We are already the keeper of definitive legal ownership — the ‘Golden Record’ — for our issuer clients and their stakeholders,” says Paul Conn, president of global capital markets for Computershare.
The initial phase will “engage a broad group of participants and will be used to build on SETL’s existing working prototype for transferring ownership of securities,” Computershare officials add.
Infosys Debuts a Framework
Looking beyond Australia, EdgeVerve Systems, a product subsidiary of outsourcing giant Infosys, introduced the EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework, intended to help speed up the adoption of blockchain technology by the global financial services sector, say Infosys officials. The framework debuted at the Infosys Confluence global client summit in San Francisco last month; Infosys is based in Bangalore, India.
“The EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework is a permissioned ledger that allows banks to rapidly deploy blockchain-based services for varied business areas,” officials say. “Designed specifically for the banking sector, it can scale to the levels needed to support international, cross-border transactional business. These capabilities make applications built on this framework a viable platform to run payments and other high volume transactional banking services.
Some of the key features of the EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework are:
- A distributed ledger: “The framework uses blockchain in a distributed, permissioned environment. It is best suited for minimizing operating and per-transaction costs for financial services companies, while improving data openness and sharing, without compromising data integrity and security;”
- Support for multiple assets: “Banks can create multiple assets leveraging this framework, thereby enabling them to store and transfer a variety of transaction assets within a single network;”
- And a highly extensible architecture: “It includes an API [application programming interface] layer that supports extensibility and administrative tools. Banks can develop and rapidly deploy their own custom blockchain solutions along with the framework and scale solutions to meet national and international banking demands.”
EdgeVerve is “collaborating with several of the world’s leading financial institutions to build block-chain powered banking networks, products and services levering this framework,” Infosys officials say. “These include areas such as payments, trade finance, invoice processing, smart contracts, digital vaults and syndicated loans, among others.”
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