Polish Bank Alior Starts Using Ethereum Blockchain To Validate Clients’ Documents

Warsaw, Poland-based Alior Bank has begun using the public blockchain Ethereum to authorize clients’ records. As per the news report, an Alior client who has received any kind of document from the bank can confirm the originality by using a web link that leads to the Ethereum blockchain.

This implies that clients can validate that the document word by word without a need for third-party.

Piotr Adamczyk, the head of blockchain technology at Alior, elaborates as follows:

“We know exactly in which block of Ethereum the document with a given hash is published. If we know the block number, we also know the timestamp […] We know that the document was published some time ago and hasn’t been changed in that time [if the hash stored on the blockchain is identical to the hash calculated from the document], so we can prove it hasn’t been replaced on our servers.”

Alior built the blockchain system as a reply to unstable rules in Poland, where the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection passed a rule in 2017 that says websites are considered as a tamper proof medium for issuing official documents as it can be modified easily.

To resolve the issue, Alior built the tamper proof blockchain system that supports official documents. Furthermore, Alior has claimed that it is the first bank to utilize a public blockchain system such as Ethereum, instead of a private one.

Tomasz Sienicki, head of blockchain strategy at Alior said:

“We want people to verify that we did everything right and we don’t conceal anything. If we say the documents are actually verified and authentic, everybody can check it and confirm […] That’s not possible using a private blockchain.”

Notably, South Korean banks are increasingly adopting blockchain technology for various processes such as document verifications and p2p (peer-to-peer) services. Howeverm, the domestic banks in South Korea do not provide any services related to cryptocurrencies.

Sung-jung Kim, a South Korean financial analyst, stated that banks are mainly looking at the option of establishing a private blockchain or hybridized blockchains that are already in existence.