Italy's SIA is to set up a 600 node network for bank clients, government agencies and corporates to connect to blockchain apps developed by the R3 consortium.
SIA says it will build a secure and protected network called SIAchain, which will be integrated with R3’s Corda platform to enable SIA customers to run CordDapps - applications designed specifically for institutions across the banking and finance sector. The first CorDapps on SIAchain will be available from the first quarter of 2018.
R3 is betting that by providing connectivity to existing networks it will speed up the adoption of its open source applications and encourage banks to form coalitions with other network members to try out the technology.
“The collaboration with the R3 consortium is a milestone in our blockchain strategy," says Massimo Arrighetti, CEO of SIA. "We will integrate on SIAchain, which rests on roughly 600 nodes of the SIAnet network throughout Europe, the most advanced technologies available and we will develop innovative applications for financial institutions, corporate s and public sector.”
In 2016, SIA managed 12.2 billion clearing transactions, 4.3 billion card transactions, 2.8 billion payments, 47.4 billion financial transactions and carried 654.3 terabytes of data on the network.