Austrac pilots Blockchain Technology to Automate Funds Transfer Instructions

According reported by the business tech news site ZDNet, The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) is conducting a trial program of a blockchain prototype for the automation of funds transfer instructions.

Austrac, a government financial intelligence agency, is collaborating with the Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne to verify the blockchain usage and smart contract technology that would help several actors to automate their international fund transfer instructions (IFTIs) within the entities reporting to Austrac. Banks, remitters and casinos would be some of the reporting entities.

An unspecified spokesman told to ZDNet that the operations on the blockchain about proof-of-concept that would be needed for IFTI reporting automation had kicked off during the last December. The article also speaks about Swinburne’s newly launched Blockchain Center of Excellence which was established in the previous month in collaboration with Paris-headquartered multinational consultancy firm Capgemini.

The Center, based at the university’s Hawthorn campus in Melbourne would concentrate on nurturing industry fluency for the execution of blockchain technologies, platforms, assets and systems. The center would operate with Capgemini to mutually develop blockchain solutions from PoC to production and for such operations, they would draw the information available on Swinburne’s existing Blockchain Innovation Lab.

The deputy vice-chancellor of research and development at Swinburne, Aleksandar Subic, speaking to ZDNet stated that “We see this technology as the key digital innovation platform supporting global supply chains, intellectual property, and trade across a range of industry sectors in the future.”

Further, Swinburne has also joined hands with ArtChain Global, a blockchain and artificial intelligence registry platform, at the beginning of 2018 to execute blockchain and Internet of Things technologies to enhance the art trade industry globally.

Also in April 2018, Austrac had established a licensing structure for domestic cryptocurrency exchanges where operators need to get registered and follow the rules prescribed by Anti-Money Laundering and verification of Know-Your-Customer efficiently.

At the beginning of this month, IBM had announced its Hyperledger-powered blockchain from its Melbourne-based data center that permits the company to operate its applications on the company cloud. IBM had also signed a five-year $740 million contract with the Australian government in the mid of the last year to deploy blockchain and other latest technologies in order to enhance data security and automation throughout the federal departments that include defense and home affairs.