State Bank of India has announced that it will start integrating blockchain technology in products starting next month as part of a beta test. According to the announcement, the company will roll out blockchain-enabled ‘smart agreements’ from the following month as an open public beta.
Representational image. Representational image.
‘Smart contracts’ are just normal contracts which use a decentralised and distributed ledger. The agreements and code are public, hence, traceable and irreversible. Regarding to a report by The Economic Situations, the business will rollout blockchain-enabled KYC, Know Your Customer.
The report pointed out that both these features are a part of ‘BankChain’, a community of 27 banks who have joined hands to explore blockchain technology and build banking solutions based on it. Based on the report, the community of Banks was formed back in February and SBI was the initial member to join it. It provides teamed with ‘Primechain Technology’, a Pune-structured startup specialising in blockchain.
While speaking to The Economic Times, Sudin Baraokar, head of innovation at SBI added, “By next month, we have to have two beta production solutions ready for use by the 27 banks. We will also invite further participation. The beta creation which will be ready are smart contracts and second is definitely KYC.”
He went on to add, “BankChain is a huge move. It is getting all banks together and collaborating. It is also de-risking our purchase in emerging tech so that all banks can come and invest at once... we can also share knowledge and reduce the cost."