Ex-Google Engineer Launches Blockchain-Based System For Banks (reuters.com)

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: A former Google engineer, whose speech recognition software is used in more than a billion Android smartphones, has launched a company that uses blockchain technology to build a new operating system for banks. Paul Taylor, a Cambridge University academic with an expertise in artificial intelligence, speech synthesis and machine learning, started working on the system, called Vault OS, two years ago in a basement in London's Shoreditch district, known for being a tech start-up hub. The technology, which underpins the digital currency bitcoin, creates a shared database in which participants can trace every transaction ever made. The ledger is tamper-proof and transparent, meaning that transactions can be processed without the need for third-party verification. The system also negates the need for costly in-house data centers, as it uses cloud-based systems, which banks can use on a "pay-as-you-go" basis, which means that there is no single point of failure. Taylor said major high-street banks were spending around a billion pounds ($1.3 billion) a year on computer technology, much of which he said was being used for propping up the current "legacy" systems rather than on any innovative technology. The start-up has been working with about ten banks, Taylor said, at least one of which would be starting a trial using the new system in August. He expects the system to be up-and-running within about a year. In banking-related news, a Congressional report shows that China's spies hacked into computers at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) from 2010 until 2013 and American government officials tried to cover it up.

Comments

Re:Yet another fintech ledger startup

[guruevi]

The blockchain itself is only as safe as it's users. Bitcoin has struggled with it as large BC miner consortiums are almost large enough to be able to control the blockchain. If these 'custom' blockchains are not public but only between banks, then it becomes very possible that 'a consortium of criminals' at one of the banks or in one of the many government oversight committees (FTC, SEC, FDIC) would be able to manipulate the entire chain - it's not like the Chinese and Russians haven't been able to monitor their systems unnoticed for the better half of the last decade.

All the more reason for cash.

[Anonymous Coward]

> participants can trace every transaction ever made

All the more reason to keep using Cash ! I don't want my wife knowing that I finish work early and go to the pub for an hour every evening.