In a rather surprising turn of events – yet somewhat expected – the Bank of Ireland has announced they are taking a keen interest in blockchain technology. Thanks to a collaborative effort with Deloitte, the plan is to deploy blockchain technology as a tool to trace transactions on top of traditional legacy systems.
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Bank of Ireland And The Blockchain
Innovation is an integral part of the financial ecosystem for banks and other players, although they have been slow to embrace newer forms of technology. Bank of Ireland Head of Innovation David Tighe wants to change that, as the bank recently conducted a blockchain technology trial in collaboration with Deloitte.
There are many benefits to embracing this form of technology, as it would make it impossible to alter transactions once they are sent to the distributed ledger network. However, what Bank of Ireland is trying to achieve is a synergy with the existing legacy system, rather than replace it in its entirety with blockchain technology.
David Tighe told the media that:
“We see this as the start of a new concept, just like experimenting with TCP/IP in the early days of the internet. It may not end up like this but we see a strong technology that can help with transparency in transactions. Crucially, it has to meet regulatory requirements. It is the underlying technology that fascinates us and it could one day be an efficient way of transacting value between people and at the same time leave a transparent trail of information.”
Although this collaboration with Deloitte was just a mere test of what might be possible in the long run, there is no reason to think no further trials will be taking place. Keeping in mind how this trial leads to the creation of informative browser-based views, the ability of near real-time auditing and enhanced views of trade positions, the technology is quite valuable to established financial players.
The blockchain can and will disrupt the financial ecosystem and infrastructure; that much is certain. A hybrid combination of legacy systems with distributed ledgers could create an interesting concept for the Bank of Ireland at some time, and it opens up a lot of opportunities for the development of new applications and services.
Source: Silicon Republic
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