Jane Wild, Martin Arnold and Philip Stafford wrote in the Financial Times about the efforts being made by banks and others, including almost two dozen of the world's largest banks that are behind R3 CEV, to "harness the power of the blockchain". This is something that is being reported almost daily by bitcoin publishers such as Coin Stories (@coinstories) and CoinDesk.
"[UBS] is part of a huge experiment taking place across several industries that is most pronounced in the finance world. Banks, insurers and companies ranging from IBM to PwC are trying to work out how they can adapt the technology that, in its simplest form, allows consumers and suppliers to connect directly and form online networks, removing the need for middlemen."
After describing the basics of how the blockchain works, they wrote:
"The lack of a central authority is the very feature of bitcoin that provoked consternation among traditional financial institutions, most of whom gave it a wide berth. The wisdom of that seemed to be borne out when the crypto currency became bogged down in scandals ranging from its links to drugs money in the now-defunct black market website Silk Road to the disappearance of client assets at the collapsed bitcoin exchange Mt Gox.
"Yet almost every big financial services institution has now overcome that initial suspicion. And the technology has swung from being a weapon wielded against the banks to being heralded as their ultimate back-office makeover, a bitter blow to the libertarians who conceived the idea of the blockchain to circumvent the global banking system.
“ 'Suits are replacing hoodies and ripped jeans at blockchain conferences,' says Mark Buitenhek, head of transaction services at Dutch bank ING, which has hired a team of specialists to examine ways of using the technology to increase speed and cut costs in payments and trade finance."
The article has an excellent description of the operation of the blockchain and the different efforts being made but they end on a cautious note, echoing the current view of the bitcoin and blockchain technologies as being experimental and exploratory:
"But it still has a long way to go before it can prove itself in the world of finance. For instance, it is not yet clear that the technology can be scaled up in an efficient enough way to meet the challenge.
" 'There was some hype six to nine months ago when you had to be talking about the blockchain,” says Didier Valet, head of corporate and investment banking at France’s Société Générale, which recently signed up to the R3 CEV venture. “[But] the jury is still out as to whether it will be revolutionary or not.' ”
But the article does catch the general mood of confidence and optimism of those at the heart of the experiment.