Blockchain consortia are slowly becoming the new norm in just about any industry. As of late, credit unions are focusing distributed ledger technology to revamp their existing infrastructure. Various US credit unions joined forces to create their blockchain consortium. As a result, new standards will be established, and payments between members should be a lot faster and cheaper.
One could argue there is no direct need for more blockchain consortia, although that would not be entirely true. The technology can be applied to any industry or business type in the world today. However, every sector has their needs and standards to adhere to. This affects the development of blockchain-based solutions for individual companies. Credit unions are a bit of an unusual creature in this regard.
Credit Unions Need Immutable Records
Institutions like these control a lot of money on a yearly basis. Moreover, their account balances continue to increase nearly every year. Managing more than US$1bn of funds is not uncommon among credit unions. Using the blockchain would help them provide more transparency, and ensure their records are immutable.
This new blockchain consortium is a collaboration between Best Innovation Group, PSCU, and other industry players. For now, the objective is to investigate the usability of private and permissioned distributed ledger technology. This initiative will go by the name of CULedger, and a governing body will be established.
PCSU CEO and President Chuck Fagan told the media:
“The collaborative effort of the credit unions, industry advocates and partners involved in the CULedger initiative represents the most appropriate approach to achieving greater efficiencies in areas that are central to credit unions’ core business interests.”
Additionally, the necessary funding still needs to be secure. Research and development of blockchain solutions are not a cheap venture by any means. All of the funding will be used to create a technical pilot using this technology. Various network nodes will be created which act as the backbone for this privately distributed ledger.
No specific timelines were revealed at the time of this announcement. Raising the funding could take anywhere from weeks to months. As research and development still have to begin, CULedger will not be a factor until 2018 at the earliest. It is good to see credit unions pay attention to this technology, as they can benefit a lot from immutable records.
Source: Finextra
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