How Barclays Used R3's Tech to Build a Smart Contracts Prototype
UK banking giant Barclays took another step toward positioning itself at the forefront of innovators in the blockchain sector last week with the news it had become the first to trial Corda, a new distributed ledger platform from partner R3CEV. The prototype, demoed at the Barclays Accelerator in London last week, follows a particularly active period for Barclays, which earlier this month revealed it would provide banking services to blockchain payments startup Circle, and earlier this year, participated in a test of a private version of the Ethereum blockchain with 11 R3 member banks. In....
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At the end of Barclays' 13-week fintech accelerator program, the bank announced that it signed contracts with eight participating companies, two of which are involved in blockchain tech. The Flatiron District in New York has been home to the newly-launched Rise fintech laboratory, following Barclays' initiative in London a few months back. "We've done it in London, invested heavily over the past two years to connect the ecosystem there, and we're doing it now in New York City," said Derek White, Barclays chief design and innovation officer to the New York Business Journal. Rise of....
UK banking giant Barclays and University College London have set forth their initial vision for smart contracts in a new position paper. Released this week, the 15-page research effort explores the definitions of key terms surrounding the emerging blockchain application and its terminology, aiming to cut through the layers of hype that have arguably lead to irrational market expectations for the technology today. Barclays investment bank CTO and report author Lee Braine said the aim was to search for "narrower definitions" of commonly used terms such as "automation" and....
Barclays recently exhibited Corda based smart contract for trading during the Barclays Accelerator demo day held at the O2 Center. Blockchain technology has a lot to offer to the fintech industry. Many fintech companies have been exploring the use of bitcoin’s underlying technology in mainstream banking and financial operations. Some of the leading International banking and financial institutions have already joined the R3 banking consortium to advance their aspirations. As the number of companies in the list grows, some of them are also independently working on finding other fintech....
Nick Szabo, a cryptographer who worked on an early bitcoin prototype, played a key role in developing smart contracts and has been suspected of being Satoshi Nakamoto, is now raising money for a bitcoin/blockchain startup, according to Quartz. Szabo is trying to raise $3 million, according to unnamed sources and a pitch deck that Quartz reviewed. One source said Fenbushi Capital, a China-based venture capital firm that has invested in blockchain ventures, has already committed $1 million in seed capital for the startup. A Crypto Pioneer. Szabo worked on DigiCash, an electronic currency....
Thomson Reuters, a multinational media and information corporation which employs 60,000 worldwide with a yearly revenue of more than $12 billion, is sponsoring a three day HackETHon to be held from the 9th to the 11th of September 2016. The event is focused on Ethereum based smart contracts with challenges and prizes for data-driven smart contracts and for improving Ethereum smart contract security. The impressive list of partners includes Barclays, one of the biggest global banks, Innovate UK, an executive non-departmental public body sponsored by UK’s Department for Business, Innovation....