The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is using Blockchain-based Hyperledger for its US - Canada interbank settlements.
In exclusive comments to Reuters Thursday, Executive Vice President for Innovation and Technology Martin Wildberger said the technology had been “shadowing” the bank’s legacy transaction monitoring ledger for “several weeks.”
“Everybody recognizes Blockchain will be transformative and critical,” he told the publication. “At the same point in time, I think everybody recognizes these are early days.”
The move marks the latest entry for Hyperledger into the traditional payments industry, with multiple major organizations worldwide already leveraging Blockchain to save time and money while improving security.
Contrast
RBC, which is now talking up so-called “distributed ledger technology,” contrasts with the Canadian central bank’s decision in May this year not to deploy Blockchain for its domestic payments.
“We wanted to set it up as a shadow ledger so that we can demonstrate our leadership in exploiting that technology, while at the same time recognizing that the technology is still early in its adoption phase,” Wildberger added.
Earlier this month, authorities approved the country’s first registered fund manager for Bitcoin from First Block Capital.
At the same time, the central bank has produced warnings on ICOs, a result of which Canadian messaging platform Kik froze local investors out of its $98 mln token sale.