Blockchain and Bitcoin round-up: 31 March 2017
Boiled down and brief. The best bits of blockchain and Bitcoin in one round-up. Features Waves Platform, Ripple and Synaps Loans.
Fresh from its ZrCoin commodities deal success, the blockchain Waves Platform is launching its decentralised exchange (DEX) and leased proof-of-stake on the Bitcoin network mainnet. DEX can be accessed via a full node or the API at start, but will be available in the “lite client for all users in due course”. The leased proof-of-stake allows anyone to lease their mining power to a full node and “receive rewards while increasing network security”.
Waves Platform allows any user to issue, transfer, swap and trade custom blockchain tokens on an integrated peer-to-peer exchange. Last year, it crowdfunded 30,000 Bitcoins at a market value of $16 million.
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group’s (MUFG) banking arm, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (BTMU), is joining Ripple’s Global Payments Steering Group (GPSG). The latter is the “first” interbank group for global payments based on distributed financial technology – aka blockchain.
As the first Japanese bank joining GPSG, MUFG will join Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Santander, Standard Chartered, Westpac, Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and CIBC. Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, says “while many others continue to play in the sandbox – MUFG has joined us in our mission to revolutionise payments globally”.
Synaps Loans has demonstrated the “first working blockchain solution for syndicated loan servicing”. R3’s Lab and Research Centre managed the proof-of-concept testing of the system, which was “exclusively developed” by Synaps, a joint venture of Ipreo and Symbiont. Credit Suisse helped arrange the project.
Synaps combines Symbiont’s smart contract tech and Ipreo’s new business process solution to help speed loan trade settlement. Nineteen firms participated in the demonstration, including Barclays, BBVA, Danske Bank, LSTA, Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), Scotiabank, Société Générale, State Street Corporation, TenDelta, US Bank, and Wells Fargo.
