The R3 blockchain consortium is losing one of its key founding members. As reported, banking giant Goldman Sachs is walking away from the collaboration after failing to renew its membership last month.
The investment bank was one of the nine original founding members of the consortium; its separation from an otherwise active development project signals its changing perspectives towards the project’s future. It is, however, not clear whether other banks have the similar plans as that of Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs like few other banks in the consortium has been working on its own blockchain research and development in parallel. The bank’s decision may be linked to the recent decision by the consortium to make its Corda blockchain technology open source as it joined the Hyperledger project.
However, R3CEV — the New York-based fintech firm heading the consortium doesn’t seem to be losing sleep on it. A leading financial news outlet quoted an R3 spokesperson saying,
“Developing technology like this require dedication and significant resources, and our diverse pool of members all have different capacities and capabilities which naturally change over time.”
It is also reported that Goldman Sachs will not abandon its pursuit for blockchain-based applications, and the in-house development team will continue its work on creating new applications. The collaboration between Hyperledger and R3 Consortium was appreciated by many industry members as the combined forces will not only accelerate development but also helps create a single standard for the banking and financial industry. With Goldman Sachs deciding to pursue the goals independently, whether the standards will be impacted is something to be observed.
The investment bank already has strong blockchain-based companies like Circle in its portfolio. As long as other banks don’t move out of the consortium, the development of decentralized ledger technology for fintech will continue unhindered.
Ref: WSJ | Image: NewsBTC