The Vancouver-based BTL Group and Visa Europe Collab, the innovation hub of the global payments company Visa, have announced a partnership to develop potential applications for blockchain technology.
Blockchain technology refers to a decentralized record of bank transactions that keeps track of transactions, agreements, contracts, and sales. Blockchain is most well-known as a technological byproduct of Bitcoin.
Blockchain Technology or BTL Group, has entered into a project with the Visa-owned innovation hub Visa Europe Collab to explore the potential of blockchain technology to impact the financial services ecosystem. A small group of European banks will be invited to participate and recently put out a call for interested potential partners on their website.
“We’re now inviting a small number of European banks to participate in the project alongside us and BTL. Participating banks will be able to connect to the network and send funds to other banks in the network across multiple currencies,” said Hendrik Kleinsmiede, Visa Europe Collab co-founder and Innovation Partner said in a statement.
“We’ll work closely together on the development and implementation of the PoC, ensuring that all participants come away with new knowledge and insight into the role that the blockchain could play in interbank settlements in the future.”
This collaboration will rely on BTL Group’s cross-border settlement platform Interbit t0 reduce the difficulty of domestic and cross-border transactions between banks. He went on to say that this partnership presents a unique opportunity to create an efficient, low-cost internal banking system.
For me, the opportunity is a fascinating and potentially very beneficial one. Through the use of smart contracts and blockchains I believe we can create a fast, compliant and low-cost interbank payment and settlement service, with embedded regional compliance.
Image credit: Flickr — Day Donaldson