R3 CEV: 40 Major Banks Just Tested the Blockchain

R3 CEV has announced that over 40 of the world’s biggest banks have recently experimented with five blockchain pilots that tested smart contracts and arbitrary business commands. Technology groups from these legacy banks considered these various distributed ledgers after viewing a previous test with the Ethereum blockchain connecting 11 lenders on the Microsoft Azure platform.

Also read: Increasing Bitcoin Block Size vs. Higher Transaction Fees

R3 Reports That Major Global Banks Race to the Blockchain

The competing blockchain technologies in the trials consisted of Chain, Ethereum, Intel, Eris Industries Ltd., and IBM. The explored research conducted looked into trading securities and executions without the need for a third party. The testing took place over the course of two weeks, and Chief Information Officers got insight into how this technology could work for them.

Head of R3’s Collaborative Lab, Tim Grant, stated:  

We have raised the bar significantly with the sheer number of global financial institutions, distributed ledger technologies and cloud providers working together to demonstrate how this nascent technology can be applied to an actively traded asset class.

The R3 CEV organization believes distributed ledgers can reshape the landscape in the financial world and beyond. For the two week period, they researched and tested many types of settlement practices involving commercial paper trading. This includes issuing, trading and redeeming exchanges propagated on a blockchain network. The purpose of these trials is to perfect a technology without the need for human execution, which in turn will cut costs drastically in the future. The company Chain is a firm that wants to build a network of blockchains that can communicate. Chain CEO Adam Ludwin said the R3 testing is bolstering distributed ledger technology in a positive direction, stating:

R3 is further accelerating the adoption of blockchain technology by demonstrating, instead of simply asserting, the commercial advantages of this emerging approach to financial services. 

R3s global head and managing director Tim Grant said that each platform was tested in their own unique ways. The trials included basic digital ledger executions and projects like IBM based in a cloud service. “This is the first time many ledgers have been run in parallel by many institutions in a rigorous, scientific way,” said Grant.

R3 declined to comment on the performance of each project but said some ledgers managed to execute more complex transactions. Findings are being shared between financial institution members of R3 CEV’s program to evaluate the testing procedure and blockchain vendors.

Blockchain Tech Is Also Creating Jobs

Banks everywhere are moving extremely fast to proclaim a space in these emerging markets. In result, job openings are appearing more often on the web searching for blockchain specialists from entities such as Thomson Reuters, Visa, and BNY Mellon.

Visa is also working with the blockchain connector Chain and is hiring a senior software engineer who can test proof-of-concepts. Reuters is looking for someone who understands Ethereum and other distributed technologies. Executives from the digital currency industry are also looking for developers who understand the technology.

Blockchain technology is continuing its upward trend in interest, research and development. R3 CEV and the many other banks trialing this technology are focusing in on many aspects of today’s financial infrastructure. R3 says the next set of testing and research will work with government officials and regulators.

Grant adds that the organization will also experiment and see how distributed ledgers cooperate vis-a-vis legacy transaction systems. Ultimately, these traditional businesses hope to get a better understanding of this emerging technology to cut operational costs and run more efficiently.

What do you think about these all of these financial institutions testing blockchain technology? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, R3 CEVs website, and Pixbay

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