ING joins blockchain technology partnership

The initiative on research into blockchain technology and banks, led by technology firm R3, also welcomed ING as a member on Thursday. This means that there are thirty banks in the collective.

That writes Reuters news agency. With four other newcomers, most of the largest banks in the world are now part of the consortium. BNP Paribas, Wells Fargo, MacQuarie and the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, together with ING, were the five new entrants. There are no Chinese banks in the group yet.

With the R3 consortium, the banks want to prepare blockchain technology for the existing financial markets as quickly as possible. The R3 project is led by Richard Gendal Brown, a former executive architect for banking innovation at IBM. Bitcoin core developer Mike Hearn was also recently added to the team, along with cryptographers Ian Grigg and Tim Swanson.

The FD writes that the head of payment and transaction services at ING Mark Buitenhek has said that the bank has been trying to develop blockchain initiatives itself for a year, but to avoid “technical fragmentation, it is better to put things together.” to do’.

Banks and other financial institutions have been investigating the blockchain for some time because it can speed up the processes to settle transactions. Banks want to jointly maintain a blockchain in order to become less dependent on paper administration. It is expected that the first proposals can be presented by R3 in mid-2016. It is not yet clear whether it concerns a public or private blockchain.