ItBit, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the market, has officially announced its move towards private blockchain development, by rebranding to “Paxos” and creating two divisions under the parent company.
ItBit will serve as the company’s Bitcoin exchange and over-the-counter trading services, while an entirely new division will be established to devote to the development of private blockchain networks and distributed ledgers to be utilized and implemented by banks and other leading financial institutions.
Over the past two years, banks and financial institutions have allocated millions of dollars and various corporate resources for the establishment of blockchain centers, research teams, and organizations to exploit the blockchain technology’s potential in the realm of finance.
In contempt of the efforts of banks, financial establishments, investors, venture capital firms, and blockchain startups, the financial industry is yet to properly demonstrate a real use case of the blockchain technology and if it can be utilized to improve banking services, products, systems, and security measures.
ItBit will assist banks and other leading organizations in setting up projects and deploying blockchain networks that can be integrated into existing systems as a private network. The implementation of a blockchain network will enable banks to reduce costs and transaction fees involved in the settlement of assets, transactions, and orders.
“Increasingly, the financial services industry is embracing the transformative potential of blockchain technology. Paxos is making that potential a practical reality,” said Paxos CEO Charles Cascarilla. “Our collaboration with Euroclear to create a trusted blockchain settlement infrastructure for gold is just the beginning, and an important first for the industry.”
The team behind Paxos has some of the industry’s most talented and experienced engineers. Its development team will focus on bringing private blockchains efficiently with less friction for banks to adopt and embrace the technology.
Although banks and other establishments are optimistic in regards to the pivoting business model of ItBit, it is still unclear whether the company Paxos will be able to find a solution for successfully implementing private blockchain network into banking systems, despite its lack of security measures and protocols as seen in the Bitcoin network and other legitimate cryptocurrencies.