R3 – Corda

R3 is an enterprise blockchain software firm working with a broad ecosystem of more than 200 members and partners across multiple industries from both the private and public sectors to develop on Corda, its open-source blockchain platform, and Corda Enterprise, a commercial version of Corda for enterprise usage.

R3’s global team of over 180 professionals in 13 countries is supported by over 2,000 technology, financial, and legal experts drawn from its global member base. R3 is backed by investment of over USD 120 million from more than 45 firms.

The Corda platform is already being used in industries from financial services to healthcare, shipping, insurance and more. It records, manages and executes institutions’ financial agreements in perfect synchrony with their peers, creating a world of frictionless commerce.

Corda: the natural home of security tokens

R3 is uniquely positioned to facilitate the emerging ‘token economy’ in a secure and regulated manner. The same enterprise-ready focus that led to the design and capabilities of our Corda platform can be extended to bringing the best innovations of the ‘wild west’ of the token world to the enterprise.

Corda was designed from inception to solve the problem of how to represent real-world agreements on a blockchain in a canonical and enforceable way, and this approach can be directly applied to security token issuance. Financial agreements on Corda take the form of smart contracts, linking business logic and data to associated legal prose in order to ensure that trades executed on the platform are rooted firmly in law.

Other key considerations for security token issuance, such as identity, security, data privacy and settlement finality, are already handled elegantly by Corda and have been key drivers in securing its position as the blockchain platform of choice in capital markets.

Corda-based token examples actually emerged back in 2016, when we began a collaboration with Bank of Canada, Payments Canada and others under the name Project Jasper, where a token called CAD-COIN[8] represented collateral held by the central bank. Since then, we have seen pilot and production examples from our partners, in particular from HQLAxin securities lending and Tradewind Markets in gold trading.

Connectivity with the established financial services community also differentiates Corda from any other platform in the space. R3 is already in talks with a number of major market infrastructure providers about creating regulated environments for security tokens, underpinned by Corda, and the 200+ member ecosystem includes most of the biggest names in financial services, giving token issuers access to a vast network of high quality investors. Corporates, banks, asset managers, and market infrastructure providers are also crowding in to provide a stable, regulated settlement asset on Corda. Corda’s unique design supports delivery of digital security tokens against payment in digital cash instruments in a single, atomic transaction. This will reduce time, cost, and perhaps most importantly, risk in the emerging token-enabled credit market on Corda.

Platforms like Corda provide the catalyst and foundation to enable security tokens to become a new and potentially invaluable tool in the capital markets toolbox. Unregulated ICOs provided the inspiration for this next wave, yet the shift is already underway to make tokens enterprise-grade. The third blockchain revolution of digital assets will arguably be the most important and impactful to date.

The benefits of using R3’s Corda platform are:

Increased Transaction Speeds

• The Corda blockchain platform carries a UTXO vs. account based transaction model. This paired with the permissioned consensus layer provides a scalable network that can support very high throughput systems.

Stable and Mature Network

• Corda’s ecosystem is composed of the industry’s largest and most reputable banks, market infrastructure, and buy-side institutions. These organizations have already been transacting digital assets on Corda, and are looking for the next wave of the token marketplace on Corda.
• Corda participants interact in business networks, which can be made completely open or conditionally restricted. This allows issuers and holders to form business networks with the correct level of openness at different stages of the digital asset lifecycle.

Easy to Use Tools

• Corda provides the data structures, flows, and network for useful, regulation-friendly token issuance.
• Cordite provides tools that very simply enable the enforcement of governance, metering, and the creation of currencies in Corda applications.