Week ending November 4, 2016

Red Chalk Group banking, blockchain, David Uhryniak, distributed ledger, financial services, fintech, insurance, Raymond Zenkich, Red Chalk Group, regtech, technology, Umair Hussein

Three things to know

The development of Blockchain continues to broaden and deepen. In Japan, banks are forming a consortium for cross-border payments. Walmart has had such a good experience applying Blockchain to its global supply chain for pork products that the company is expanding its use to other products. The potential issue everyone may run into is there simply aren’t enough people with Blockchain development skills.

In Japan, 42 regional banks have joined a consortium to develop Blockchain infrastructure for cross-border payments. The infrastructure will be built using the Ripple protocol and a proof of concept is now being developed and is expected to be completed in 2017. While not explicitly stated, among the goals that have often been mentioned by those developing a new cross-border payments infrastructure is to provide lower cost options to the Swift network.

Walmart had first developed a Blockchain to better manage and track the shipment of perishable pork products from China. Based on the success of that initial trial, Walmart is now expanding its use of Blockchain to other areas of its global supply chain. The giant retailer is using Blockchain to improve product safety, freshness, and quality. In doing so, the company expects to increase the trust and confidence consumers have in its food products.

Not so fast my friend. Exactly who is going to do all this development? Per William Mougayar, as of mid-2016 there were only about 5,000 developers in the world that were focused on “writing software for cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, or Blockchain in general”. This is a very small portion of the 9 million Java developers and the total number of software developers which is approximately 18.5 million.

Alright, I must go now. I’m taking my kids to a Blockchain code class.

42 Banks Join Blockchain Consortium in Japan

Walmart Expands Blockchain Further Across Supply Chain

The Blockchain Developer Shortage: Emerging Trends and Perspectives by: Michael Scott

Weekly Blockchain

Financial Services
US Bank Regulator Charts Path for Blockchain Startup Oversight

Standard & Poor’s Gives a Breather to Smaller Institutions on Blockchain Implementation

A Wake-Up Call for Banks: Blockchain Is Here

Nine out of 10 commercial banks exploring blockchain for payments, survey finds
Credit Card Giant MasterCard Releases ‘Experimental’ Blockchain APIs

MasterCard pushes ahead into blockchain tech

How blockchain is transforming trade finance

Blockchain May Solve Capital Markets’ Internal Reconciliation Problems