Barclays demos R3 Corda distributed ledger at London event

Rage Review : Barclays Bank demonstrated the R3 Corda distributed ledger at an event in London. The smart contract platform Corda can simplify the legal document processing process and reuse smart contracts, thereby promoting the adoption of legally binding industry standards. Dr. Lee Braine, Office of the Chief Technology Officer of Barclays Investment Bank, believes that the distributed ledger allows multiple parties to see the same documents in the system while simulating the way nodes exchange information. The most important feature of Corda is that it shows how to prevent all nodes from sharing information on the ledger.

Translation: Nicole

Barclays demos R3 Corda distributed ledger at London event

At an event in London today to celebrate new startups entering the startup phase, Barclays Bank demonstrated its smart contract platform built on Corda, the distributed ledger recently announced by global blockchain consortium R3.

The platform’s demonstration was described as “history-making”, with Dr Lee Braine, head of the CTO office at Barclays Investment Bank, saying distributed ledgers provided an “elegant way” to handle legal contracts in the financial sector, which was the original intention of the creators of the Corda platform.

According to the International Financial Times, Braine demonstrated a model of an investment banking application that reflects the interest rate swap cycle.

Dr Lee Braine

Quoting Braine:

“Legal documentation is a very lengthy and complex process. Smart contract templates can simplify these processes because they can be reused and promote the adoption of legally binding standards across the industry.”

Braine said the current model was made possible by a collaboration between blockchain consortium R3, University College London, standard-setting body ISDA, French banking group Société Générale and TechStars to accelerate fintech.

Braine demonstrated how a distributed ledger could allow multiple parties to see the same files in the system, while simulating how information could be exchanged.

According to the news report, the most important feature of Corda is that it shows how to keep all nodes from sharing information on the ledger. This design mechanism is an effective approach for financial institutions compared to public blockchains such as Ethereum and Bitcoin, which R3 publicly mentioned.