In September Bitcoin Magazine reported that nine global banks were pooling resources to fund R3, a next-generation global financial services company focused on applications of cryptographic technology and distributed ledger-based protocols within global financial markets. Several other top banks joined R3 soon thereafter, and five more banks – ING, BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, MacQuarie and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce – joined in November .
R3 is a next-generation global financial services company focused on applications of cryptographic technology and distributed ledger-based protocols within global financial markets. Supported by most of the world’s major banks (with notable exceptions in China) and powered by a team of high-profile experts , R3 is well-positioned to find and deploy ways for blockchain technology to be used in the mainstream banking and financial world.
Now, R3 Head of Research Tim Swanson says that the company’s software team in London is developing an open-sourced, generic blockchain for banks, The Sidney Morning Herald reports . "Many banks feel they can reduce, or eliminate altogether, various costs, by adopting some sort of common shared ledger and let that proliferate through the industry," said Swanson, who is in Sydney this week to address the Sydney Blockchain Workshops supported by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
At the same time, Swanson is persuaded that banks and financial operators need to see solid results before committing to a relatively new and unproven technology.
“It is important not to overhype things, although it is too late on that,” Swanson told The Herald . “At Sibos [the global payments conference held in Singapore last month], everyone was talking about blockchain. Now, deliveries have to be shown to the world in the next 12 months, or people will walk away thinking this is a load of bumf."
Designing the R3 blockchain as open source is a firm […]
