Deloitte announces 5 blockchain partner companies and 20 technology prototypes

Rage Comment : As one of the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte has established cooperation with five blockchain startups and developed 20 technical prototypes to meet the requirements of various fields. Some prototypes will also be demonstrated at the 2016 Consensus Conference. Deloitte has always been actively involved in the development and application of blockchain technology. Previously, it announced the completion of the first case of integration of blockchain technology and banking system at the Global Blockchain Summit. I believe that in the future, with the cross-field cooperation of countries and companies, the application of blockchain technology will be further improved.

Translation: spring_zqy

Deloitte announces 5 blockchain partner companies and 20 technology prototypes

Deloitte, one of the Big Four accounting firms, said it has established partnerships with five blockchain startups and developed a range of business models, including insurance, employee management and cross-border payments.

Deloitte has built 20 blockchain operating models in partnership with startups including BlockCypher, Bloq, ConsenSys Enterprise, Loyyal and Stellar.

Four of these will be demonstrated live at the 2016 Consensus Conference in New York, USA.

Eric Piscini, a partner at Deloitte, told us that these partners represent a wide variety of business types, and Deloitte is committed to establishing strategic collaborations around the world to advance blockchain technology from theoretical development to real-world applications.

Eric Piscini

He said:

“Now, in addition to the banking industry, other fields are also expanding more and more. There are actually many opportunities in insurance, healthcare, retail, sales or in general, in the business field.”

When it comes to the “implementation” part of the consensus conference, Piscini said all 20 prototypes are fully functional. The exact details of these prototypes are still being worked out, but he divided them into three categories based on the product each prototype produces.

5 partners

In the banking sector, two startups helped Deloitte build a so-called “digital bank” on the blockchain. Although this bank is not built from scratch on the blockchain, different business components of its construction have been sold to banks.

One of Deloitte’s new partners is California-based BlockCypher, which has raised $3.5 million in venture capital and provides Deloitte with its core technology, an application program interface layer to run various digital banking tools on the Ethereum and Bitcoin blockchains. In addition, it also provides various customized private chains.

New York-based ConsenSys Enterprise, an early blockchain partner of Deloitte, is helping to prototype a number of financial products sold to banks. The company, part of the ConsenSys umbrella, is building a variety of public and private products on the ethereum blockchain.

Piscini grouped BlockCypher, ConsenSys and Bloq together, reflecting his high hopes that these three companies will help Deloitte expand the global application of blockchain. However, he also pointed out that Bloq is different from the other two. It is not a banking company. The Chicago company is tasked with developing non-blockchain technology insurance products for Deloitte.

The third category of partner companies is dedicated to developing special use cases. Startup Loyyal, formerly Ribbit.me, specializes in reward mechanisms, while another company, Stellar, focuses on cross-border payments.

Loyyal raised $1.5 million in venture capital when it built its blockchain-powered rewards platform under the name Ribbit.me, a prototype that Piscini believes could change employee behavior in a variety of industries.

He told the newspaper:

“Everything is based on blockchain technology, which enables your employees to use this copy-and-paste platform for everything from travel to credit cards to health insurance.”

Stellar is different from other partners. It is a non-profit foundation whose purpose is to promote the development of cross-border payments. The cooperation project between Stellar and Deloitte is to establish financial services specifically for banks outside North America.

He said:

“Customers will be amazed at how efficient and cost-effective these transactions are.”

Plan Breakthrough Point

Piscini explained that all 20 prototypes were built with the help of the partners, but he added that there had been no exchange of board members in the deal and no financial investment to maintain the companies’ autonomy.

Piscini said:

“You don’t want to be tied to a supplier because you lose autonomy. And you don’t want to be dependent on a supplier for scale, performance, or expertise. You want different suppliers that can deliver what you need.”

Although the service areas of each partner are different, the strategy adopted by Deloitte is the same.

Rather than estimating the potential revenues that each company could generate, Deloitte removed any barriers that prevented blockchain from being used in various fields and sectors, thereby tapping into the potential needs of various industries. In doing so, the company reversed the traditional engineering relationship to focus on meeting these needs.

For example, Deloitte has a "large library of use cases" and believes that cross-border payments represent a $20 billion breakthrough opportunity. Three of the five partners have already delivered revenue, but Deloitte did not disclose which ones.

Piscini, one of the owners of Deloitte, said they are not in a rush to make money. He said:

"If you are one of the partners, you will not report to Wall Street every week or every quarter. Our data is only for our own use."

Business preparation

Deloitte’s revenues reached $35.02 billion last year, up 7.6% in local currency. Earlier this year, Piscini, who also published a report in this newspaper, believes that today will be the year when blockchain “goes into real use”, thanks to joint efforts and “next generation” platforms such as Ethereum.

In a recent interview with my newspaper, he mentioned that Deloitte’s clients have been asking for blockchain products to cover more areas, such as insurance, oil and gas, asset management, etc. Later today, Deloitte’s partners will give demonstrations of four prototypes that are ready for sale - it all depends on what the clients need.

He said:

“Obviously we are ready, but I won’t say that because I don’t know how they are going to do it. But if they say blockchain is going to go to the sky, then just ignore me.”