Central banks in France and Nigeria join blockchain-oriented Hyperledger Foundation
Blockchain association Hyperledger has recently announced that it is bringing eight new members under its wing, two of which are central banks – la Banque de France (BDF) and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
In fact, the Hyperledger Foundation informed the public about the latest additions, also including Realto Group, CasperLabs, Digital Identity Laboratory of Canada, International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA), BCW Group and DSR Corporation, in a press release on September 12.
Meanwhile, September 12 also marks the beginning of the Hyperledger Global Forum, the largest annual gathering of the international Hyperledger community, where members, service providers, and end users meet to exchange ideas, share experiences, and form partnerships.
Role in creating and transforming markets
Commenting on the development, Daniela Barbosa, CEO of the HyperLedger Foundation, and General Manager of Blockchain, Healthcare and Identity at the Linux Foundation, highlighted Hyperledger’s importance in transforming markets:
“As we will see on stage here at the Hyperledger Global Forum, the technology and market landscape for open source enterprise blockchain only continues to become more robust. (…) Hyperledger technologies play a paramount role in reshaping existing markets and creating new ones.”
According to Barbosa, bringing new members into the group has several benefits for everyone involved and beyond:
“Our newest members bring a wealth of innovation to the Hyperledger community, accelerating the development of open, decentralized technologies that will be the infrastructure for many generations of new services and applications.”
Central banks that use Hyperledger’s resources
Meanwhile, several central banks have adopted the platform’s open source technologies as part of their research programs and production solutions.
For example, the Central Bank of Nigeria uses Hyperledger Fabric. Furthermore, Cambodia’s central bank payment system Project Bakong relies on the Hyperledger Iroha blockchain, as do several solutions in Asia.
Interestingly, the Nigerian central bank two months ago recognized the benefits of cryptocurrencies and fintech, one year after it unveiled its own digital central bank currency (CBDC), as reported by Finbold.
At the same time, the French central bank has been a bit more cautious about crypto, with its governor François Villeroy de Galhau opining that cryptos are unreliable and that these trust issues are likely to accelerate the development of CBDCs.
