Allfunds Blockchain, the blockchain technology arm of Allfunds, is set to advance blockchain technology for the fund industry with its new partner and ConsenSys, the Ethereum software company.
Allfunds and ConsenSys will further support the streamlining of the fund distribution value chain, and other regulated industries.
The new agreement will see Allfunds’ Technical Solutions combine with ConsenSys Quorum to power the Allfunds Funds Industry Platform.
Allfunds Blockchain offers two independent solutions. The Technical Solution allows Allfunds Privacy Plugin to contribute unique capabilities on top of ConsenSys Quorum.
Allfunds says this solves “major concerns” about data governance in blockchain ecosystems, which Madeline Murray, product lead at ConsenSys Quorum, explains are not issues around the ability of blockchain technology to be operated securely.
“A more specific way to describe them would be that they are ‘functional gaps’ that exist between the way that blockchain data is typically managed on a blockchain network, on one hand, and the specific data flows that are required in the funds management industry, on the other hand,” says Murray.
According to Murray, at a technical level, this has to do with the ability to configure not only who is allowed to see what data, but also who is allowed to participate in the validation (or consensus) for each data.
The Technical Solution creates more granular ways to configure Ethereum blockchain networks in this respect.
The second solution, the Business Solution, Allfunds Business Smart Contracts, enables fund distribution activities on the Allfunds Industry Platform, unlocking new capabilities through blockchain technology.
The business solution is based on the technical solution as well as Allfunds' global network and technology.
Murray notes that it makes it possible for asset managers and fund distributors to manage fund subscriptions, redemptions and events in a dramatically streamlined way, leveraging the funds industry platform as a real time single source of truth among many actors.
Allfunds and ConsenSys will work together to further develop and support the Allfunds Blockchain Technical Solution in combination with ConsenSys Quorum, an open-source protocol layer for developing with Ethereum.
The solution includes advanced privacy features that enable participants in a blockchain network to control who is allowed to see information, and what nodes participate in the consensus validation of data containing confidential information.
The solution can be leveraged globally across different industry sectors, such as the funds industry.
Ruben Nieto, managing director at Allfunds Blockchain, says: “We selected ConsenSys Quorum to be our enterprise blockchain protocol because of its significant adoption in enterprise blockchain and the ongoing development and support ConsenSys provides. This is another important step forward in the evolution of Allfunds Blockchain technology.”
Murray states: "We are seeing growing global interest in ConsenSys Quorum, the open-source Enterprise Ethereum protocol built to simplify the use of enterprise blockchain. This partnership with Allfunds will further facilitate global blockchain adoption for the funds industry and enrich the ecosystem with technical innovations suitable for advanced privacy use cases."
