Enterprise blockchain bytes: R3 and IBM collaboration and Calastone acquisition

Blockchain technologies for the enterprise continue to see various updates. IBM and R3 have announced a collaboration to bring the latter's enterprise blockchain platform to IBM, while the acquisition by The Carlyle Group of a majority stake in Calastone has put a focus on its distributed market infrastructure (DMI).

R3 has announced a new open beta program to bring Corda Enterprise to IBM LinuxONE, delivered via IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Services, with general availability expected...

30 October 2020 | Banking

JP Morgan rebrands blockchain payment network and adds new features

JP Morgan has announced the launch of Liink, a rebadging of its blockchain-based Interbank Information Network (IIN), alongside new applications around payment information validation.

Liink, originally launched in 2017, is aimed at utilising blockchain technology to alleviate delays in cross-border payments. The company says more than 400 financial institutions have signed up to participate, as well as more than half of the world's top 50 banks across 78 countries.

The...

28 October 2020 | Banking

PwC: Blockchain technologies could boost global economy to tune of $1.7 trillion by 2030

A new analysis from PwC estimates blockchain technologies could spark a $1.7 trillion boost in the global economy by 2030 - with the UK set to benefit to the tune of £57 billion ($72bn).

The findings come from a report which is part of a series exploring the economic impact and use cases for emerging technologies. PwC said its analysis 'showed the potential for blockchain to support organisations in how they rebuild and reconfigure their operations', particularly in the...

13 October 2020 | Banking

Estonia’s central bank launches research project to assess digital currency

The Bank of Estonia (Eesti Pank) is launching a multi-year research project to assess the suitability of its e-Government technology in operating a central bank digital currency.

The initiative, in collaboration with the technology companies Guardtime, the long-term blockchain partner of the Estonian government, and The SW7 Group, will focus on a solution based on the KSI Blockchain, a core technology of e-government in Estonia.

The project will also examine new payment...

6 October 2020 | Banking

Bitpanda secures $52 million series A funding for further European expansion

Bitpanda, a financial marketplace for digital and blockchain-based assets, has secured $52 million (£40.1m) in series A funding to help scale and build its presence in new European markets.

The Austria-based platform provider, which offers brokerage for Bitcoin, Ethereum and Litecoin among others, has expanded to France, Spain and Turkey in 2020, looking further afield for this year and next. The company claims to be doubling revenue annually, with more than 1.3 million...

5 October 2020 | Banking

Ripple: How cryptocurrency can be a viable route to sustainability for financial technology

Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, countries under full lockdown have experienced an average 25% decline in energy demand per week. Encouragingly, non-renewable sources of energy like oil and coal declined in usage nearly 20% as curtailment in commercial operations took hold.

However, projections from McKinsey suggest these positive developments could be dismantled by an increase in demand for digital technology - especially digital payments, which are expected to grow by...

1 October 2020 | Banking

EY ramps up blockchain offering with procurement and visualisation tools

EY (Ernst & Young) has continued its blockchain momentum with two new releases of an enterprise network procurement offering and visualisation tool.

The EY OpsChain Network Procurement tool, built on the EY OpsChain platform, will aim to allow companies to run private, secure, end-to-end procurement activities on Ethereum.

"As more and more companies work as part of global business networks, it has become difficult to manage network-level agreements from inside a...

28 September 2020 | Banking

Blockchain patents ‘skyrocketing’ in 2020 with Alibaba leading the way, says study

Blockchain patents are 'skyrocketing' in 2020 with Alibaba by far the leading publisher, according to a new study.

The research, from IP consulting provider KISSPatent, found Alibaba had published 10 times more blockchain-related patents than IBM, in second place, in 2020.

The study came about to better assess the number of blockchain innovations and patents across the spectrum. KISSPatent used multiple methods to identify them, primarily based around a mixture of...

21 September 2020 | Banking

Blockchain spend to hit $4.1bn in 2020 as banking and manufacturing lead ‘robust’ investments

Global spending on blockchain solutions will reach $4.1 billion (£3.18bn) this year at an increase of more than 50% compared to 2019, according to IDC.

The analyst firm's latest Worldwide Blockchain Spending Guide forecast a five year CAGR of 46.9%, reaching a total of almost $17.9bn by 2024.

In total, banking and manufacturing - both process and discrete - will account for approximately half of total blockchain investment this year (below). Finance will be by far the...

14 September 2020 | Banking

ConsenSys to acquire Quorum from JP Morgan in big enterprise blockchain move

ConsenSys is to acquire Quorum, the JP Morgan-developed Ethereum variant, in what promises to be a major development in the enterprise blockchain space.

The deal will see ConsenSys merge its existing engineering roadmap with Quorum, with the latter remaining open source and becoming interoperable with other ConsenSys products, such as Codefi's finance and commerce application suite.

The two companies have been long-standing members of the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance...

25 August 2020 | Banking