R3, 8 Member Banks Test Intel Blockchain Prototype
A group of 8 banks from the R3 blockchain consortium have successfully tested a blockchain prototype developed by Intel by simulating bond transactions.
Picking US treasury bonds as the instrument, New York-based private blockchain startup R3 and eight of its member banks from its larger consortium put to test a technology developed by Intel, called ‘Sawtooth Lake.’
The prototype was an implementation of said technology, which is Intel’s proprietary blockchain platform. The simulation took place on a ledger supported by physical nodes that were non-cloud-based, as specified by R3. The nodes were hosted across the globe in Asia, Australia, Europe, Canada and the United States to simulate the successful exchange.
The Intel-developed platform used smart-contract functionality to enable trading, matching and settlement of US treasury bonds on-chain. Furthermore, automated coupon payments and redemption based on parameters including network time and third-party data sources were reportedly achieved.
In a statement, Jerry Bautista, VP of the New Business Group at Intel said:
We believe collaborative exploration of blockchain usages is skey to the development of this emerging technology.
In addition to using Intel’s proprietary distributed ledger platform, the simulation also borrowed the tech giant’s Software Guard Extensions (SGX), an environment that enables developers to secure code and data from tampering.
Furthermore, the simulation also showcased an on-chain identity registry feature that permissioned different organizations as validators and transactors on-chain.
R3 believes that the successful results of the testing prove that blockchain technology is viable for trading in real-world markets, with a throughput of 100,00 transactions per day achievable due to its scaling capabilities.
The participating banks named by R3 in this particular global trial include CIBC, ING Bank, HSBC, Scotiabank, Societe Generale, State Street, UBS and UniCredit.
The platform will be demoed at the annual SWIFT-hosted banking conference Sibos this week. Intel will also be donating the code used for the bond transaction simulation to the Linux Foundation-run Hyperledger Project.
Featured image from iStock/webking.
