Bank of England releases a Blockchain Proof-of-Concept to handle Data
The Bank of England (BoE), UK’s Central Bank, has released a blockchain Proof-of-Concept (PoC) for a system to allow users to share data over a distributed ledger network (DLT) whilst maintaining privacy.
The BoE have partnered with Chain, a blockchain infrastructure developer for financial services.
So far, the exercise has been academic, with no testable blockchain technology developed. However, the paper describes the ideal scenario for the central bank as being to design:
“a distributed ledger system in such a way that transactions remain private whilst keeping all data shared across the network, and at the same time maintaining a regulatory view of all transactions.”
BoE launched ‘Fintech Accelerator’ in 2016, a program to find solutions to cyber security and new payment systems by partnering with specialist FinTech companies.
They have produced 12 other papers to date and previously partnered with Ripple, Enforcd, MindBridge Analytics Inc, PwC and BitSight.
It has been just over a year since the Bank of England sighted that the institution wanted to explore “maintaining privacy in a distributed ledger.”
Mark Carney, the governor of BoE said that financial technology promises nothing short of revolution, he stated:
“It will change the nature of money, shake the foundations of central banking and deliver nothing less than a democratic revolution for all who use financial services.”
However, unlike blockchain initiatives, cryptocurrencies are not welcomed by the bank. At a recent Scottish Economics conference, Carney said that cryptocurrencies “are failing” as money.
