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Enterprise Ethereum Projects

Project i2i: Blockchain Payments in the Philippines**

Problem Statement

The Philippines is a rapidly emerging economy with a population of over 100 million. However, two-thirds of the population remains unbanked. 70 million Filipinos have severely limited access to both the domestic and global financial ecosystems. This poses a significant problem when up to 10% of the Philippines' GDP is made up of international remittances sent from overseas workers to family members across the country.

Solution

UnionBank of the Philippines, one of the largest banking institutions in the country, sought to tackle this challenge by partnering with ConsenSys Solutions, Kaleido, Amazon AWS, ConsenSys Diligence, Microsoft Azure, and seven rural Philippine banks to create an inter-rural bank payment platform using Enterprise Ethereum.

Project i2i implemented Enterprise Ethereum to create a decentralized, cost-efficient, real-time inter-rural bank payment platform that operates autonomously outside of existing payment infrastructures and intermediaries such as the Philippines' PhilPass and SWIFT. The Project i2i platform works to connect rural banks as well as national commercial banks to the central bank, helping remote banks integrate with the domestic financial system while also improving banking access for local citizens.

The commercial launch of the i2i platform is scheduled for 2019, in partnership with 130 rural banks. Project i2i has received clearance and support from the central bank of the Philippines to operate as the country's first Ethereum-based payment network for domestic funds transfers. UnionBank and ConsenSys Solutions are now working toward expanding the platform to include international funds transfer.

Case study can be downloaded from here

Project Khokha: Blockchain for Central Banking in South Africa

Problem Statement

Central banks need an innovative way to increase the resiliency of interbank payment systems while maintaining or reducing the overall cost of those systems. SARB created a simulation to assess if the performance, scale, and confidentiality of payments were possible utilizing blockchain technology.

Solution

In consortium with seven commercial banks, SARB partnered with ConsenSys Solutions and Adhara, to build a proof-of-concept grounded in real-world performance, confidentiality requirements, and diverse bank hardware on the blockchain—without a single point of failure. By harnessing a permissioned blockchain network, the Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance consensus mechanism, Pedersen commitments, and range proofs, Project Khoka was able to replicate interbank clearing and settlements in less than two hours.

The project achieved the transaction performance target at 70,000 transactions in less than two hours, privacy while meeting required transaction volumes.

Project Khokha was recognized by the Central Bank Publication as the "Best Distributed Ledger Initiative" of 2018.

Case study can be downloaded from here

Project Ubin: Blockchain for Banking in Singapore

Problem Statement

Singaporean financial institutions are recognized for their efficiency. Their public policy is exported as a blueprint for other central systems around the world. Recently, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) began exploring the potentials of distributed ledger technology in regards to finance and banking applications.

Solution

MAS launched a three-phase exercise in partnership with a consortium of international banks, distributed ledger technologies, and blockchain providers.

Phase 1 consisted of a research and feasibility study around the potential applications of blockchain technology.

The study explored:

  • Benefits and pitfalls of tokenizing central bank currency
  • Optimizing payment settlements between participating local banks
  • Steps to enable cross-border transactions
  • Effective methods of digitizing payments

Phase 2 focused on how to use blockchain platforms and tokenization in the daily settlement and clearing process to enable RTGS. During this phase, MAS partnered with ConsenSys Solutions and JP Morgan's Quorum enterprise blockchain platform. Together, they successfully demonstrated how a tokenized Singaporean dollar could function as a means of daily inter-bank settlement.

Phase 3 explored the potentials of a tokenized national currency and realizing cross-border payments through blockchain technology.

Project Ubin's results prove that inter-bank transactions, cross-border remittances, and tokenized securities can be settled with distributed ledger technology with full settlement finality and transaction privacy.

Case study can be downloaded from here