Switzerlands nation postal service, Swiss Post and the state-owned telecoms provider Swisscom have announced that they are developing new blockchain platform together. The companies are using Hyperledger Fabric construct the private blockchain. The distributed ledger technology (DLT) is meant to be a plug-and-play solution for other companies to use and build applications on.
The platform is designed to facilitate transactions across time zones between parties without the need for outsourced verification or intermediary personnel. The ledger records all transaction histories and the template can be adjusted and customized for different users and use cases. The high-security infrastructure meets the privacy needs of institutions such as banks as all data hosted will remain within the country’s designated boundaries.
According to the announcement, Swiss Post and Swisscom,
“will use the common infrastructure, which is based on the “Hyperledger Fabric2 software, for their own applications and will also make it available to other companies for their applications. The market launch for the first pilot applications is planned for the second quarter of 2019. The offer is geared towards companies and public authorities, which want to handle sensitive digital business processes securely and verifiably. “
The open source project has been openly supported by Airbus, IBM, JP Morgan, SAP, and Intel. The two originating companies state that they welcome partners to join them on this blockchain endeavor. Their overarching goal is to help bring the Swiss economy into the future following in the footsteps of countries like China and the U.S. who have long been in a blockchain innovation frenzy.
The initial pilot project in May demonstrated a strong use case for smart energy billing via blockchain technology. Swisscom is now working with Daura AG (its subsidiary) on a system that functions as a financial service. The platform will help with the issuance, purchase and sale of shares. Daura has also introduced a way to allow small-medium sized companies to create digital versions of their shares known as “crypto shares.”
These various use cases and state-based interest in new technology shows that we are no longer thinking in terms of bitcoin alone. There is mainstream interest in blockchain with bigger corporate players backing the movement.
