Author
Tatsiana Yablonskaya
Taking strong interest in blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and IoT, Tatsiana Yablonskaya got deep understanding of the emerging techs believing in their potential to drive the future.
Banks start seriously consider integrating blockchain technology into their systems.
It is hard to say what attracts more attention now – bitcoin or the technology underpinning the cryptocurrency. Many financial institutions turn to blockchain in order to reconsider their infrastructure.
The research company TABB Group has recently published a report called “Blockchain Technology: Pushing the Envelope in FinTech”. It describes the advantages of the blockchain technology. The report predicts the first use cases of the blockchain technology across capital markets to be expected in Q2 of 2016.
Shagun Bali, TABB’s research analyst, insists that blockchain has the potential to improve electronic transactions on capital markets by using cryptographically secured networks. It will eliminate the need for third party intermediaries. Blockchain can offer a range of benefits including higher speed, increased liquidity and lower cost of transactions as well as complete automation of the process.
Now Peter Smith, CEO at blockchain.info, admits to have information about at least 100 banks that want to use blockchain in their systems. According to Smith the process of integration can take up to three years. “We are doing some proof of concept with a few banks but I think it’s going to be a really long road. I think the road to transformation for these big institutions is really political and I also think that (the banks) technology itself has some growth to do”, he said.
Smith doesn’t argue that historically banks have been a closed platform. Thus integration of blockchain can become “a radical departure from bank strategy”. Nevertheless blockchain can fulfill everything that banks do but in a more sufficient and cost effective way.
Speaking honestly it was the beginning of 2014 when banks started seriously considering blockchain. Standard Bank, the largest African bank, was among the first ones to appreciate the potential of bitcoin’s technology. Last year it teamed up with Switchless, a Swiss software company. Together they are developing a trading platform using blockchain technology.
Indeed blockchain can easily be called a multifunctional technology. Blockchain Technologies Corp. has recently presented the first blockchain-based voting machine. Candidates have unique addresses, also called wallets.
A tool called a blockchain explorer pulls up the information about each section of the ledger – each candidate. Focusing on transparency developers enabled anyone in the world to look up candidates’ vote numbers in real-time while voter’s personal information is not displayed in the process.
Blockchain Technologies Corp. can guarantee that blockchain-based elections are transparent and secure. The system has already been tested by the Liberal Alliance in Denmark and the European Pirate Party.
