Postal and telecom services in Switzerland seem determined on developing a ‘national’ blockchain in an attempt to hire locally run businesses to convert to distributed ledger technology (DLT).

For this project, Swiss Post and Swisscom have joined hands to create a completely private Swiss blockchain to launch locally operated ‘decentralised’ applications.

Unlike usual blockchains, it is said that the proposed Swiss blockchain would be more centralised; meaning all the data it manages is said to be kept within the country’s digital boundaries.

Swiss utilities acting as blockchain gatekeepers would play an important role by using less amount of electricity. Moreover, the national blockchain being hosted by some few approved servers with the claim it’s more secure than Bitcoin.

As Swisscom explains, “In contrast to ‘public blockchains’, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, this private blockchain infrastructure requires much less energy, since it can only be used by identified users who have a contractual relationship with the providers of an application. This enables more efficient agreement procedures as well as significantly higher security and performance.”

It is important to note that security of permissioned blockchain systems, like the aforementioned ones, depends greatly on trust – which is maintained by the parties involved on the network and the software in use.

When it comes to Switzerland’s national blockchain, the countries two state-run utilities are liable. That is why, stating that the blockchain is more secure than the Bitcoin network, is a bold claim.

The new infrastructure is being powered by Linux Foundation’s open source project Hyperledger Fabric.

Swisscom has planned the market-launch for the first pilot applications deployed on its new blockchain for mid-2019.

In addition, FINMA – the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority – recently started licencing Swiss cryptocurrency businesses that are committed to handling up to $100 million in customer funds.

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