CommBank steps up blockchain interest

Australia's Commonwealth Bank is partnering with think tank Coala to run a two-day blockchain workshop in Sydney.

  7 5 comments

CommBank steps up blockchain interest

Editorial

This content has been selected, created and edited by the Finextra editorial team based upon its relevance and interest to our community.

The bank says the conference will bring together regulators, policy makers, technologists and media "to better understand the upcoming challenges and opportunities of blockchain technologies, and their impact on the current social, economic and political order".

CommBank has already conducted its own experiments with blockchain technology, working with US startup Ripple to transfer funds bank-to-bank across its subsidiaries.

Commonwealth Bank CIO David Whiteing says the Coala event offers an opportunity for Asia-Pacific regulators, government officials, academics and technologists to hear from some of the world’s leading blockchain academics and experts.

“The conference provides both entry-level education and in-depth discussions about the huge potential of distributed ledgers and the resulting economic, commercial, legal and social policy questions,” he says. “Blockchain has the potential to transform banking in the way that the internet transformed how we buy music and watch movies. It’s an exciting time in the development of this technology and our involvement means Commonwealth Bank is set to be at the forefront of this in Australia for the benefit of our customers."

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Comments: (5)

A Finextra member 

Anybody have information or contact details about the Coala Think Tank? They don't seem to have any preseence on the web that a search reveals.

A Finextra member 

Quite likely in-house specialists with a novel project name!

A Finextra member 

Barry here is COALA's web site, just enter the following URL:  coala.global

A Finextra member 

Thanks Paul!

Russell Bell

Russell Bell Director at Fastbase Ltd

Ripple isn't a blockchain technology.  Of course words can mean whatever people think they mean but stretching things too far just destroys meaning.  A blockchain is a chain (a complete history) of transactions.  Ripple doesn't use a chain.  It uses a ledger of current balances.

Blockchain technology makes it possible to do payment transactions without a central trusted authority.  That's what it does, that's it's purpose.  Ripple is not any kind of blockchain.

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