In 2020, Smart Block Laboratory, a Linux Foundation Silver Member, Hyperledger General Member and business partner of IBM, developed a payment solution based on Hyperledger Fabric that allows banks and users to conduct cross-border transfers in real time with low commissions, use cryptocurrency in settlement operations and instantly exchange Fiat for cryptocurrency. The functionality also includes a social network for investors. The solution is a blockchain infrastructure for digital banking called Cryptoenter.
The challenges to a common digital banking infrastructure
Rapid digitalization of the banking sector and distributed ledger technologies have put forward new requirements for banking services. However, there is still no single digital space between individual banking solutions. There are a number of hurdles:
- Most of the current back office systems are not able to provide complete data describing the client’s activities between digital interactions.
- Most often, banks use digital solutions of third parties, thereby risking losing control over their customers’ data.
- IT infrastructure costs are high.
- Implementing new banking tools and training employees is expensive and difficult for companies.
- There is competition, often encouraged by regulators, between banks and Fintech companies operating in areas such as private equity management and lending.
- Territorial expansion and attracting new users are both complex and costly.
- Likewise, opening and operating branches is expensive, and those in remote and sparsely populated areas don’t deliver much in the way of profits.
Turning to blockchain
We believe that anyone anywhere in the world should have access to quality banking services. Transfers between banks/users should be instant, and the world needs a single payment solution for cryptocurrency and Fiat. To deliver on those ideas, many banks have already started integrating the blockchain and accepting cryptocurrency.
We decided to use Hyperledger Fabric to build a common infrastructure solution. We opted for Fabric for its performance, scalability and trust. The main feature of Hyperledger Fabric is its focus on corporate applications. The platform has been designed to ensure high transaction speed and low cost.
In Cryptoenter, Hyperledger Fabric is used as a distributed database.It processes information quickly regardless of network load. It allows each user to make instant payments for goods and services using cryptocurrency.
Second, Hyperledger Fabric provides a high degree of privacy: due to competition and laws protecting and regulating personal data privacy, organizations dictate the confidentiality of certain data elements, which can be achieved by dividing data into a blockchain. The channels supported in Hyperledger Fabric allow users to transmit data only to the parties that need to use it. In Cryptoenter, Hyperledger Fabric allows users interact with each other both within one bank and within several banks
By using Hyperledger Fabric as the basis of the infrastructure for digital banking, Cryptoenter allows all users of banking services to remain customers of banks, while their data is protected by banking security systems, which increases the level of confidence customers have in our payment service. Therefore banks are validators in the network, acting as guarantors of transactions.
And the use of Hyperledger Fabric made it possible to create a P2P lending mechanism, which allows users to issue loans to each other at favorable interest rates with or without collateral.
Conclusion
Hyperledger Fabric allowed the Smart Block Laboratory team to create a unique infrastructure solution that is relevant for all financial market participants, which will not only bring the level of interaction between participants to a new level, but also create new economic ties.