Banking tech institute proposes blueprint for blockchain platform in India

The Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology (IDRBT) of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with a blueprint of Blockchain Platform for the banking sector. 

The blueprint has suggested broad roadmap on adoption of the new technology in various business and organisational functions along with common protocols to ensure interoperability among different entities as there were no regulatory guidelines in place for adoption of Blockchain technology by banks and financial institutions in India as yet.

The institute has proposed a collaborative approach among all the stakeholders in a network while stressing on the need to evolve a codified set of rules for smooth operations and collaboration. The institute suggested a governance structure besides the layers of applications and services, headed by a steering committee to oversee the implementation of a platform based on Blockchain technology.

"Regulatory supervision can also be built in within the governance structure. These steps are expected to help drive increased adoption of new technology among industry participants and continuous valuation and change management will help in bringing in required stability and sustainability of the new framework," the IDRBT document said.

Currently, interoperability between different blockchain platforms is not well established. Common infrastructure and technology is a far superior approach to build a true ecosystem around blockchain technology, in the absence of which the stakeholders like corporates have to hook to different blockchain networks depending on which party they are transacting with. However smaller players may not be able to invest in multiple platforms, according to the authors of the blueprint.

The document also sought to create an industry-specific business value framework for analysing the suitability of business applications to migrate to the blockchain based business network. Such a framework helps in prioritising projects with high business value and also filter out the less impactful ones, it said.