Popular security expert Frank Abagnale recently claimed that blockchain is humanity’s only hope for securing data and setting information. He was once portrayed as a trickster by Leonardo DiCaprio in the film Catch Me If You Can. A video went viral in which he was discussing his thoughts on the blockchain technology at a conference in April. He said, “I think you have to be pretty ignorant not to realize that blockchain is the way of the future. It is the best way to secure information, to secure it 100%.”
Abagnale holds more than 40 years of experience in advising corporations, financial institution, and government agencies and he believes that his clients would eventually accept the breakthrough technology. In simple terms, blockchain involves the maintenance of an openly distributed ledger between the parties involved in the smart contracts for transparent record of information. There is no central authority, and everyone sees the transactions, but nobody has the power to make altercations in the information saved by the technology.
He added, “I think you’ll see banks—especially accounting practices and accounting firms—all move to the blockchain. You cannot break the blockchain. You cannot hack into the blockchain. You can’t change anything on the blockchain.” According to Abagnale, few privacy issues will have to be handled before pushing the throttle on the technology. He believes that blockchain will make into every public and private sector really soon.
HSBC, one of the largest financial service providers in the world, recently informed that it was successful in conducting the first-ever trade finance transaction through blockchain technology. HSBC issued a letter of credit in the name of Cargill, an agriculture firm to Dutch lender ING. The trade finance was undertaken for shipment of soybeans from Argentina to Malaysia.
According to HSBC and ING, the trade became successful within 24 hours which is astonishing as traditional trading took 5 to 10 days for the shipment. The operation was successful due to Corda platform designed by blockchain based company R3.
Last month Santander launched a blockchain bed foreign exchange service to ease international transfers on the same day. The service is known as Santander One Pay FX that uses technology developed by popular blockchain firm ripple. It is claimed to be the first time a bank is using a cross-border payment system using blockchain technology.
The service, called Santander One Pay FX, uses tech developed by blockchain firm Ripple. Santander said it is the first cross-border payments service using blockchain to be made by a bank. Meanwhile, JP Morgan also filed a patent application for initiating interbank payments using blockchain technology.
Blockchain has enjoyed continued support from governments and financial institutions even after the skepticism faced by digital currencies. However, blockchain will have to go through numerous fixes to work in various sections of the economy. As of now, it is the most favored technology with enormous potential and even bigger promises. It is hoped that it does not crumble down like many advanced technologies in the past.
