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An alliance of Europe's top banks has quietly based its blockchain ambitions in Dublin

HSBC, Santander and Deutsche Bank are all part of the We.trade consortium.

A CONSORTIUM OF nine major European banks have chosen Dublin for the base of their blockchain initiative – the latest group to develop the emerging technology in the Irish capital.

The We.trade group, formerly known as Digital Trade Chain, includes financial heavy-hitters like Deutsche Bank, HSBC and Santander.

It was originally formed in 2017 to explore and develop blockchain technologies for carrying out transactions between banks and clients.

The consortium recently completed a number of cross-border financial trades using its blockchain platform.

It was developed using technology from IBM and Hyperledger Fabric, which was built by the open-source-focused Linux Foundation.

Blockchain refers to technology that uses a network of computers to maintain a decentralised ledger that records and verifies all transactions.

The consortium’s main aim is to make cross-border transactions more efficient. Its platform is currently used for trades among 11 European countries, although these do not include Ireland.

According to the consortium, through which the banks share resources to develop the platform, these trades were the first “commercially viable open account trades” using blockchain technology.

The We.trade platform uses smart contracts to launch and administer agreements between banks and clients. These allow two parties to come to terms on an agreement that is written in code logged on the blockchain.

This digital ledger lets both sides verify a transaction and ensure that terms of the contract have been adhered to.

On the We.trade platform, the smart contracts allow for each party to receive instant triggers that track how one side is following the agreement and when it is time for the other side to follow up, such as by sending payment.

‘No longer an experiment’

After much development and testing, banks are now starting to bring more clients on board, according to We.trade chief operating officer Roberto Mancone, who formerly headed up the disruptive technologies division at Deutsche Bank.

RETHINK TRUST AMSTERDAM 2018_WEB READY_293 (1) Roberto Mancone Benjamin Arthur Benjamin Arthur

“It’s no longer a proof of concept, it’s no longer an experiment, the platform is now made available to the clients,” he told Fora.

“They can find counterparts in other countries and start trading using the platform, creating a smart contract and then asking for any financial services that the platform foresees, which can be financing an invoice or it could be a simple payment.”

The consortium is exercising some caution with the platform by slowly rolling it out to more banks.

“We want to monitor the platform, we are making this available to selected clients, helping them to understand how the platform works,” Mancone said.

We.trade licenses its platform to the banks, which in turn can use it across sectors from logistics to food and manufacturing. But this still requires some instruction.

“It’s not just an app you download and switch on. It’s user-friendly, but it requires some sort of understanding from the clients on how it can be valuable to them.”

Dublin base

The firm behind We.trade was incorporated in Ireland in February, a decision Mancone said came because its backers were “looking for a location that was kind of neutral”.

For now, the consortium is hiring for a small number of roles. Developers are scattered around several countries, but the project management team and the architectural lead are in Dublin.

“We wanted access to a pool of resources with certain capabilities in terms of technology,” Mancone said.

“We thought that Dublin was a good pool because there’s a good concentration of capabilities and quality of people who can help us in the development of this activity.”

While the blockchain development ecosystem in Ireland is small, a number of operations have begun to cluster in the capital.

Bank of Ireland has worked with Deloitte on proofs-of-concept around how the technology can be integrated into its systems. The latter has established its EMEA blockchain development lab in Dublin.

ConsenSys, a major US blockchain development firm, launched a Dublin office earlier this year with plans to hire up to 60 people.

Irish banks

Mancone describes We.trade as having a “small body with a big head”. It’s made up of nine major banks, but in many ways it needs to act like a startup.

“It’s a big head and shoulders, but at the same time we try to maintain the agility,” he said.

Even though We.trade has established an entity in Dublin, it’s not yet working with any Irish banks – although Mancone said he was “more than happy” to work with financial institutions here.

“We are waiting and hoping of course that they show interest like the other countries have shown so far,” he said.

shutterstock_1056380363 Shutterstock / Alexandros Michailidis Shutterstock / Alexandros Michailidis / Alexandros Michailidis

During the consortium’s initial development, a decision was made to halt its membership at nine banks – although that number may increase soon.

“It would have been more complicated to have a higher number of banks doing development for the platform,” Mancone explained.

“Now that the platform is developed of course we are opening to many more banks. We realise it’s not enough to have nine banks in the world. We are in contact with many banks in other countries.”

An earlier version of this article said Roberto Mancone was the head of Deutsche Bank’s disruptive technologies division. He no longer holds that position.

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Written by Jonathan Keane and posted on Fora.ie

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    Mute high ho silver
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:14 AM

    There only here because they pay feck all tax that’s what it’s all about

    173
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    Mute Paddy
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:03 AM

    @high ho silver: and if it wasn’t here it would be somewhere else with a low corporate tax rate, don’t you think it’s good business sense to go somewhere that you can maximize your profits.

    84
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:40 AM

    @Paddy: ‘good business sense’… uh oh.

    17
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    Mute Willy Malone
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:02 AM

    The place to be. Irish people made Bail you out if things go south..

    108
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    Mute Billy the great
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:15 AM

    Fantastic news, well done to the government for making this happen :)

    55
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    Mute Lambo Moonski
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:50 AM

    When Moon?

    36
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    Mute Grumpeee Oldman
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:54 AM

    @Lambo Moonski: when lambo?

    24
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    Mute CryptoSteve
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:44 PM

    @Grumpeee Oldman: HODL!!!

    6
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    Mute Declan Grace
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:14 AM

    I don’t know what a tokenized security is

    32
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:20 AM

    @Declan Grace: Fancy encryption.

    11
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    Mute Declan Grace
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:56 AM

    @Declan Grace: I was referring to the old tracker mortgage ad

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    Mute Sean
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:57 AM

    @Declan Grace: yeah I got it!

    6
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:24 PM

    @Declan Grace: Yeah. Gave you a like:0)

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    Mute windbag
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:57 AM

    Netflix.. HSBC… Dirty money… check it out…

    63
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    Mute Dave O Keeffe
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:13 AM

    @windbag: that was a great documentary series

    16
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    Mute Philip Morgan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:35 AM

    Fantastic another couple of thousand jobs for SF/PBP supporters to avoid.

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    Mute Shane Corry
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:19 AM

    @Philip Morgan: Considering they’ve 10 employees now. I doubt they’re suddenly going to hire 2000 people.

    26
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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:26 PM

    @Philip Morgan: LOL

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    Mute Geoff Bateman
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    Jul 28th 2018, 3:13 PM

    @Philip Morgan: and where they gonna live??

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 5:57 PM

    @Geoff Bateman:
    In a house.

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    Mute @mdmak33
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:35 AM

    Such a load of BS,welcome to the most corrupt country in the world where you wont have to pay taxes.

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    Mute George Hogan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:16 AM

    @@mdmak33: You need to read more!

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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 11:42 AM

    @@mdmak33: and no real journalism to investigate your activities, so zero accountability.

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    Mute Noel Larkin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:47 PM

    @@mdmak33: … for the record Ireland is placed at position 19 in terms of least corrupt country – for the record Denmark and New Zealand are the lead countries with Somalia and North Korea taking up the bottom spots. You’re welcome!

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 6:00 PM

    @Noel Larkin:
    Hush!!!! That doesn’t suit the agenda!

    1
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    Mute thesaltyurchin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 7:35 PM

    @Noel Larkin: Its actually joint 18 with japan, just behind Hong Kong and the United States. After us it starts to get quite ‘typical’ apart from a few other European countries. Love to know how they come to these conclusions… Corruption no doubt… ba boom, tsssh

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:01 AM

    I wonder why they didn’t base themselves in London, the financial capital of Europe.

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    Mute Stephen Devlin
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:06 AM

    @Danny Rafferty: Brexit means brexit

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:22 AM

    @Stephen Devlin: I don’t know what a Red-White-and-Blue Brexit is.

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    Mute wattsed
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:35 PM

    @Danny Rafferty: If you read the article it may enlighten you what the attraction of Ireland is over any EU country.

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    Mute Danny Rafferty
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    Jul 28th 2018, 2:25 PM

    @wattsed: I was being a bit sarcky.
    Someone really should invent a font or something.
    What if they let us post in purple?

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    Mute Coin Pumper
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:01 AM

    True if Big!

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:02 PM

    Bitcoin your only man

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    Mute P.J. Nolan
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    Jul 28th 2018, 6:06 PM

    @FlopFlipU:
    I would imagine the people who bought it at over €17,000 might not agree (it’s now about €7,000)

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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:41 PM

    @P.J. Nolan: How about those who bought it for 60?

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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:34 AM

    @P.J. Nolan: Not many did if you look at the volume then. People need to do a bit of their own research before investing & avoid the mainstream media at all costs. The new book The Bitcoin Standard is a must read for anyone interested in entering the space.
    World crypto network, jimmy song, tone vays, adam meister on youtube have tonnes of shows & guests with all the information you need also. Bitcoin morning brief by Tone Vays is a gr8 daily show

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Jul 28th 2018, 12:21 PM

    Hodlgang Hodlgang Hodlgang

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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 28th 2018, 9:43 PM

    Oh so bitcoin is evil but bank created crypto is fantastic news, brilliant technology, and our bright future…
    LMAO

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    Mute Ixtrix Net
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    Jul 28th 2018, 10:02 PM

    @Pat Patovic:
    the We thing is not crypto currency , it’s using blockchain tech , which just happens to also be what bitcoin uses.

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    Mute Pat Patovic
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    Jul 29th 2018, 1:16 AM

    @Ixtrix Net: On the contrary. Blockchain technology is a ledger. Since this is international consortium then unit in which they will be operating this “ledger” will indeed be another cryptocurrency no matter how they will call it.
    No difference with bitcoin other than it will be fully controlled by banks and not mineable like most of the cryptos are…

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    Mute Credalytics
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    Jul 29th 2018, 9:29 AM

    @Pat Patovic: exatly, it’s okay for the banks to create money out of thin air but not joe public

    1
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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:38 AM

    @Ixtrix Net: Blockchain is just a word Satoshi used in the Bitcoin whitepaper to explain how blocks are created & verified. Companies & banks just using the word to look like they have created something amazing while in reality its just a database & they will never use as its to expensive for them.

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    Mute BitDub1878
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    Jul 29th 2018, 10:28 AM

    Dont mind banks, buy & hold Bitcoin. Its the only use case for Blockchain. All these compaines just using it to sound more advanced. It’s just a database. Read the Bitcoin standard ;)

    1
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    Mute mark
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    Jul 29th 2018, 4:56 PM

    of course they would come here…we would be made bail them out in another recession.ireland is like a bookies where you simply don’t lose

    1
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