8 R3 Banks Test Intel Blockchain Platform

   A group of eight R3 member-banks have successfully tested a  blockchain prototype that simulated the exchange of US Treasury bonds. Though a familiar use case for the tech, the test is notable given that it used technology developed by Intel and unveiled  earlier this year. Called 'Sawtooth Lake', the platform offers a  compelling take on how secure hardware could play a role in distributed  ledger architecture. Intel vice president Jerry Bautista said in a statement: 

"We believe collaborative exploration of blockchain usages is key to the development of this emerging technology."

According to R3, the test involved the use of "non-cloud-based nodes"  based in Asia, Australia, Europe and North America that were run by the  banks as well as R3 and Intel. CIBC, ING Bank, HSBC, Scotiabank,  Societe Generale, State Street, UBS and UniCredit took part in the test. ADVERTISEMENTWhile  a seemingly small detail, the statement hints at R3's thinking on its  project architecture and the issues it believes may be inherent should  financial institutions seek to host blockchain networks in the cloud. Statements given by R3 head of research Tim Swanson at the Global  Blockchain Summit in Shanghai last week build on this idea further as he  cautioned that "the cloud" is perhaps best conceived as a fancy word  for "other people's computers". "Magic internet chains, magic  internet coins, whatever the buzzword du jour is, no matter how you cut  these systems, they are cryptographic data stored on a cloud," he told  the audience. "If you have to  rely on an outside party, you still have to depend on these  organizations to handle uptime and maintenance. There's no blueprint for  that." The comments come at a time when cloud providers including IBM and  Microsoft are demonstrating an increasing interest in blockchain  technology.