Most people know the R3 Consortium for their blockchain efforts. A project called Corda was announced not too long ago, which acts as a permissioned distributed ledger. Ever since, the team has been working filing a patent for this software. 

The Corda Patent Filing

There is an argument to be made as to how blockchain-based solutions should not have patents attached to the, After all, that could hinder innovation in the field of distributed ledgers over the coming years. But that is not preventing the R3 consortium

from giving it a try anyway, as they have done so not too long ago.

Corda is a platform that has been in development for over a year now. The primary objective of this platform is to digitise things including reconciliation, asset registry, and clearing and settlement. A similar project is being developed by other financial institutions who did not join the consortium yet.

As one would come to expect from any blockchain

solution, the objective is to save on costs associated with all these activities. If things go according to plan, the cost savings should add up to several billions of US Dollars. Testing of this platform will commence in 2017, and only a few select consortium members will partake in this trial.

An alpha version is expected to be released in the Summer of 2017, although that timetable is subject to change. Once the alpha testing goes live for all consortium members, they will all get to vote whether or not this concept will be used moving forward.

While it is good to see the R3 consortium come up with new platforms, these locked-down solutions are not the best way to promote blockchain technology. Bitcoin is a prime example of how this technology works, by offering an open standard anyone in the world can contribute to.

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