Even though there are a lot of questions associated with the R3 consortium and the future direction they are headed in, a new member has joined the initiative. ATB Financial is looking to become a part of the group that is supposedly focusing on distributed ledgers. Then again, their Corda solution has nothing to do with blockchain, thus it remains unclear what the consortium plans to do next.
What Is Next For The R3 Consortium?
Now that ATB Financial has become an official member of the R3 consortium, the question becomes what the future will hold for this initiative. Given their lack of focus on blockchain for their Corda project, it is a bit unclear what ATB Financial stands to gain from becoming a member. Then again, the Alberta-based financial service provider looks forward to collaborating with several dozen financial institutions to develop new commercial applications. Apparently, these new applications will still leverage blockchain technology in some manner, although no specific details were unveiled at this time.
Researching and experimenting with distributed ledgers is still the top priority for the R3 consortium moving forward. Ensuring distributed ledgers can meet the banking requirements for identity, security, and scalability will be challenging. Moreover, these blockchains need to integrate with existing legacy systems, which is much easier said than done.
Moreover, it appears ATB Financial and the rest of the R3 members will continue the development of Corda. It is important to keep in mind this product has no ties to distributed ledgers whatsoever. For some reason, the group still advertises it is as open source blockchain platform for recording, managing, and synchronizing financial agreements. A few weeks ago, it became clear Corda has no blockchain, although R3 claims they never advertised it as such. It appears their own PR department is not up to speed on what Corda should be labeled as right now.
R3 CEO David Rutter commented on the situation as follows:
“We are delighted to welcome ATB Financial to our ever-growing network of members in Canada. Distributed and shared ledger-inspired technology holds the potential to revolutionise the infrastructure used by participants in all financial markets, and we continue to diversify and grow our member base to reflect the interests of sell- and buy-side firms across the globe.”
It has to be said, collaborating with 75 other financial institutions would be appealing to any player in the financial sector. ATB Financial wants to be at the forefront of future innovation, which is positive news. Getting the most out of the technology available to financial institutions at any given time is the only right course of action. Whether or not hat means choosing R3 was a wise decision, remains to be seen.
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