Japanese megaBanks conduct 1,500 transactions on blockchain

Japan’s three biggest banking groups have partnered bitFlyer, Japan’s biggest bitcoin exchange to test the viability of domestic money transfers over blockchain technology.

The banks found in joint testing that domestic money transfers using blockchain technology were just as fast as current systems.

In a report today by regional publication Nikkei, few details have been revealed, about the banks-led blockchain tests including the crucial snipper of whether or not the distributed ledger used was, in fact, the bitcoin blockchain. It’s merely speculative, due to the involvement of bitFlyer, a Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange operator that recently saw monthly yen-bitcoin transacting volumes exceed 100 billion yen (approx. 1 billion USD) in July 2016.

Blockchain’s low processing speed was seen as a major drawback of the technology. But researchers were able to conduct 1,500 transactions per second using blockchain, on a par with the nearly 1,400 transactions the current interbank wire system is capable of handling at peak times.

The megabanks will continue to pursue blockchain’s commercial application by enlisting the aid of startups.