R3 Unveil Interoperable Corda Blockchain
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: June 15, 2023
R3 has announced the next generation of its Corda platform, which is designed, the firm says, for global financial market infrastructure providers and central banks, and to enable applications to interoperate seamlessly and securely across other open enterprise DLT networks.
R3, in partnership with Adhara, has also launched a Hyperledger Foundation Lab – Harmonia – to accelerate the development of interoperability protocols for regulated financial institutions. The firm says Harmonia will address the constraints and requirements of regulated financial networks to achieve true atomic settlement across blockchain networks. It was informed by HQLAX and Fnality, which demonstrated the world’s first proof of concept trustless atomic DvP (delivery versus payment) repo settlement between Corda and Hyperledger Besu. This will bring regulated markets one step closer to safe and secure enterprise DLT interoperability, R3 adds.
“As a trusted partner to global financial market participants, we are committed to enabling an open, trusted and enduring digital economy – and the next generation of Corda is the next step in delivering on this mission,” says R3 co-founder and chief strategy officer, Todd McDonald. “We believe this economy will be built upon an interconnected ecosystem of multiple DLT platforms, where apps will transact seamlessly and securely across networks – not isolated or walled gardens of ‘public’ or ‘private’ networks. We are already seeing demand for Corda’s enhanced capabilities from central banks exploring CBDCs for cross-border payments and wholesale settlement.”
Richard Gendal Brown, chief technology officer at R3, adds, “The need for interoperability between DLT networks is well known throughout the industry. Enabling diverse ecosystems to connect and innovate avoids vendor lock-in and helps overcome the siloed infrastructures that regulated markets are forced to rely on today. Our collaboration with Hyperledger Foundation is testament to the belief that open industry collaboration across the distributed ecosystem is critical to reimagine the current standards surrounding the movement of digital assets and currencies across chains.”
R3 says the development of the next generation of Corda includes features informed by R3’s in-production customers, including scalability, high availability, enhanced privacy and security, and developer-friendly tools. It’s also distributed as a single open-source codebase to foster developer contributions and reduce total cost of ownership.
Interoperability and interface standards are fundamental to the future digital capital markets ecosystem, enabling each platform to focus on its strengths while interoperating seamlessly.
“SDX strongly advocates for interoperability within the enterprise DLT space, this capability is crucial in supporting our vision of providing institutional clients with innovative, trusted, and efficient FMI and services for digital assets,” observes David Newns, head of Six Digital Exchange, which has deployed Corda. “Since 2021, Corda has facilitated our end-to-end infrastructure for digital securities. We welcome the launch of the Hyperledger Lab, Harmonia, and the interoperability between Corda and Ethereum, as it will enable us to securely expand SDX’s reach to both other regulated networks and public blockchains: a key step in building the future of financial markets infrastructure.”
The move was also, predictably, welcomed by fintechs in the DLT space. “Having helped lead the build out and deployment of transformative global financial markets DLT networks, HQLAX recognizes the importance of those networks being able to communicate with each other,” says Guido Stroemer, CEO at HQLAX. “We have been working closely with R3, Adhara, and Fnality to forge a path towards seamless cross-chain interoperability. We built HQLAX on Corda from the outset – and the new version of the platform will enable us to further future-proof our offering and provide the flexibility our customers need.”
Julio Faura, CEO at Adhara, adds, “Adhara’s intraday liquidity and payments solutions are built on the belief that the new wholesale digital ecosystem will comprise a set of complementary connected business platforms operating on different technologies. Following our role in last year’s cross-chain repo swap pilot across Corda and Enterprise Ethereum alongside Fnality and HQLAX, we believe the Harmonia Lab is a natural step forward. It will provide an important building block to accelerate the industry’s development of wholesale interoperability protocols.”
Finally, Rhomaios Ram, CEO, Fnality International, says, “Fnality and its participants have been at the forefront of interoperability innovation, testing end-to-end DvP and PvP across Enterprise Ethereum and Corda platforms in partnership with Adhara. Interoperability and interface standards are fundamental to the future digital capital markets ecosystem, enabling each platform to focus on its strengths while interoperating seamlessly. This is a very important initiative to drive adoption of DLT across financial markets.”