Australia’s CSIRO Formulates The Country’s National Blockchain System

Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is pioneering a joint effort in collaboration with Data61, IBM and law firm Herbert Smith Freehills, to launch a nationwide blockchain system for the country, for legal contracts. The project has been termed The Australian National Blockchain (ANB).

The entire vision behind ANB is to streamline the process of entering into legal contracts and make it more secure by facilitating it via a blockchain network. If there are legally-enforceable smart contracts and exchange of data, then that would greatly secure businesses across the nation. The pilot testing is all set to be done on an IBM Blockchain.

The Law Firm Herbert Smith Freehills stated

“The ANB will enable organisations to digitally manage the lifecycle of a contract, not just from negotiation to signing, but also continuing over the term of the agreement, with transparency and permissioned-based access among parties in the network,”

“The service will provide organisations of all sizes the ability to use blockchain-based smart contracts to trigger business processes and events.”

CSIRO’s Data 61, which is the country’s leading digital research network, explained how blockchain can be beneficial to business.

Construction site sensors could record the time and date of a delivery of a load on the blockchain and trigger a smart contract between the construction company and the bank that would automatically notify the bank that terms have been met to provide payment on that load delivery.

The pilot project is scheduled to hit the floor before the end of 2018 and a hoard of Australian regulators, banks, law firms and businesses are expected come onboard for this project.

This announcement comes on the heels of a bigger blockchain initiative where the World Bank tapped into The Commonwealth Bank of Australia to develop bonds based on blockchain.