Since then, R3 said it has attracted more than 600 users to its slack channel, and more than 19,000 visitors to its website, Corda.net, as it seeks to reach its next milestone, the release of a test version of its DLT system in the first or second quarter.

In this light, Wan framed R3’s technology as one that requires broader buy-in from enterprises and corporates to achieve a strong network effect and top-level applications. Wan said: “Corda is the Xbox Live, it’s the ecosystem, it’s the connectivity. We want to focus on the platform and services.”

As Clemens points out, R3 will be very focused on building an ecosystem of partners in 2017 and beyond, which follows on from a few of our 2016 announcements of partnerships with the likes of Microsoft and Calypso Technologies. Our goal is to bring both the value of our network and our foundational technology to that partner application ecosystem, so that all participants benefit. If anyone has interest to learn more about our partnership approach, please contact partner@r3.com

We are very pleased to announce the addition of Africa’s largest bank to the R3 family: welcome aboard Standard Bank!

“Collaboration will be critical to unlocking value and we want to be actively involved in exploring and testing how technology like blockchain can be adopted by financial institutions. Being a partner member of the R3 network will provide us with an excellent opportunity to accelerate and enhance our adoption of this new technology,” says Peter Schlebusch, Standard Bank’s Chief Executive for Personal & Business Banking.

And if anyone happens to be attending the FIA-SIFMA Asset Management Derivatives Forum this week, please feel free to stop by and say hello.

Member Spotlight: ING

We are very fortunate to have the chance to work closely with ING across many of our DLT efforts. This articleis a very nice overview of not only the hard work being done, but it also gives some well deserved attention to Mariana Gomes de la Villa and the Blockchain Innovation team:

“For us, 2016 was about experimentation and getting to know the technology: how it works, how we can use it and what the pitfalls and limitations are. This technology wasn’t built for the financial industry so there are constraints and it doesn’t always cover our requirements,” Gomes de la Villa explained.

In trade finance, too, where processes are largely paper-based, labour intensive and open to fraud, a proof-of-concept was completed in August. It demonstrated that shared ledger technology could reduce operational and compliance costs of trade financing by 10 to 15 percent and increase bank revenues by as much as 15 percent.