Blockchain Online Payment Network Planned By Japanese Bank MUFG And Akamai

Announcements, Blockchain, News | February 13, 2019 By:

Cloud delivery platform Akamai Technologies and Japan-based Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), the world’s fifth-largest financial institution, are planning to offer a new blockchain-based online payment network.

The two firms, which have been collaborating for more than three years, announced that they are expanding their relationship through the establishment of a joint venture, the Global Open Network, Inc. (GO-NET). The joint venture aims to provide a comprehensive set of services, including support for existing payment processing functions, pay-per-use, micropayments and other developing Internet of Things (IoT) enabled payment transactions.

GO-NET, which will be launched in Japan during the first half of 2020, will utilize Akamai’s blockchain solution, called Intelligent Edge Platform, that is reportedly capable of processing more than one million transactions per second at under two-second latency per transaction. In addition, transactions executed on the platform will be secured and accelerated by Akamai’s cloud security and performance offerings. MUFG will provide extensive know-how of financial services and expertise in business development to bring sustainable growth and success to the joint venture.

Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai, said that the joint venture with MUFG sets the stage for a new blockchain-based online payment system that can better serve customers’ and partners’ payment processing needs.

“The collaboration between MUFG and Akamai over the last three years has demonstrated what is possible when industry leaders join forces to solve a challenging problem,” Leighton said. “Akamai and MUFG are committed to delivering innovative solutions at a level of security, scale and responsiveness never before achieved.”

Hironori Kamezawa, Group CDTO of MUFG and CEO of GO-NET, said that financial services need to embrace digital innovation to meet greater demands for security, capacity and efficiencies, and to serve evolving market and consumer needs.

“Our goal is to enable rapid innovation in digital payment services, leveraging a transformative platform, with built-in security, hyper-scale and efficiencies. GO-NET aims to expand the payment network business to a global scale, and enhance the services to support diverse payment ideas in the upcoming IoT era,” Kamezawa said.