In the blockchain movement’s ideology, the 2008 financial crisis holds a special spot. A critical juncture in the history of global capitalism, it readily provides a bedrock narrative that justifies the very purpose of a decentralized digital currency. This is what happens when we put too much trust in centralized custodians of wealth; this is what the breakdown of centralized trust — taken to the extreme — looks like. The year of 2008 is thus the legendary beginning of cryptocurrency — both the moment of the incumbent institutions’ great meltdown that paved the way for digital money’s being, and also …

The Large Credit Union Coalition (LCUC), a group comprising of the chief information officers (CIOs) of the 16 largest credit unions in Canada, has joined New York-based blockchain consortium R3, according to an announcement published July 17. The LCUC, whose corporate members include more than 3 million entities and represent over $125 billion in assets, has become a part of R3’s network of over 200 financial institutions, trade associations, and fintech companies in order to explore and integrate Corda. Corda is an open-source distributed ledger platform, designed to work within finance to operate complex transactions and restrict access to transaction …

R3, a blockchain software enterprise that leads a consortium of more than 200 members, is considering launching an initial public offering (IPO), Bloomberg reported July 13. A source familiar with the issue told Bloomberg that the firm is negotiating an IPO with advisers, while potential buyers have already expressed interest in the sale. The final decision as well as the plan, which is up to R3’s founder and CEO David Rutter and investors, reportedly have not yet been made. The company said in a statement: “We’re not surprised about the speculation given the success of Corda, but an IPO is …

Spain-based Banco Santander has announced the creation of a blockchain research team to look into the technology’s potential to change securities trading, according to a July 11 press release. The “Digital Investment Banking” team, headed by current leader of Santander’s blockchain lab John Whelan, will “explor[e] the use of tokenized securities in debt capital markets, derivatives and other products.” The global bank has followed its own route to blockchain integration since dropping out of distributed ledger tech (DLT) consortiums R3’s beleaguered DLT project in 2016. José M. Linares, Santander’s senior executive vice-president and global head of Santander Corporate & Investment …

Blockchain technology company R3 announced July 10 that it had released a “version” of its Corda blockchain platform aimed specifically at businesses. R3 is a consortium of over 200 companies that research and develop blockchain applications for the industries of finance and commerce. Corda Enterprise, ostensibly “optimised to meet the demands of modern day businesses,” includes a “Blockchain Application Firewall” to allow the platform to run within corporate data centers and still communicate with Corda’s nodes. Applications available on the regular Corda are now also functional on Corda Enterprise, R3 confirmed. The new Corda unveiling comes amid an atmosphere of …

39 financial firms partnered with blockchain consortium R3 completed more than 300 transactions via R3’s know your customer (KYC) application, according to a post on R3’s blog June 28. R3’s KYC project involved major financial and banking institutions worldwide such as Deutsche Bank, ING, the National Bank of Egypt, Raiffeisen Bank International, and others. It also involved regulators and central banks such as the Central Bank of Colombia, the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, and the Financial Superintendence of Colombia. The transactions were conducted across eight timezones in 19 countries, wherein banks could request access to customer KYC data, and …

Update: this article has been updated to include statements made by Charley Cooper, managing director at R3. While last year R3 had implied that the company had a larger goal of raising $200 mln in funding, R3 told Fortune that the figure came from a now-cancelled plan to sell a stake in a research subsidiary. The unnamed former R3 employees told Fortune that the consortium’s internal financial targets are “10X short” of their revenue, with the figure described as “laughably off.” Charley Cooper, an R3 managing director, told Fortune that the company is not in danger of running out of …

German securities marketplace and stock exchange Deutsche Börse will be spending 270 mln euro (around $315 mln) on new tech investments including blockchain, Finextra reported yesterday, May 30. The spending plan, part of the company’s 2020 roadmap which will involve 350 job cuts, will also include big data analytics, cloud, computing, robotics, and artificial intelligence. Deutsche Börse, the ninth largest exchange in the world, notes that the plan also includes the creation of several hundred new jobs in these sectors in the future. In regards to blockchain development, Deutsche Börse is looking into how the technology can “create new lines …

CLS, a provider of foreign exchange settlement and processing, has invested $5 mln in R3, a New-York-based blockchain consortium, Reuters reported May 30. Under the deal, CLS will have a seat on R3’s Board of Directors. The deal reportedly comes as a part of the third tranche of R3’s fundraiser, which also included financing from Singapore real estate firm OUE and Japanese IT services provider TIS. David Rutter, R3’s chief executive officer, shared his enthusiasm about major infrastructure players’ involvement in using blockchain technology to improve their products: “It is absolutely right that major infrastructure players like this look to …

Thailand’s largest bank has joined a trade finance program utilizing R3’s Corda distributed ledger technology (DLT), sources reported May 24. R3, a New York-based consortium of over 200 companies, uses technology based on blockchain to allow businesses to develop applications on top of its Corda platform. Bangkok Bank, which joined the R3 Consortium in August 2016, is now on board to test trade finance improvements via Marco Polo, R3’s joint initiative with TradeIX’s TIX platform. First launching in 2017, Marco Polo focuses on removing middleman structures from various aspects of trade finance including risk mitigation. “We are delighted to be …

Anthony Lewis, research director at global banking consortium and enterprise software firm R3, predicted that a central bank issued digital currency (CBDC) will be implemented in 2018 in a panel discussion at Deconomy in South Korea April 4. “For wholesale use (of CBDC), I think we are looking at this year. We have had conversations with central banks who have mandates to fix certain payment problems, and one solution they look to is a Blockchain type of platform,” he said. CBDC is a digital currency issued by a central bank whose legal tender status depends on government regulation or law. …