The contract was signed to carry out “key technology and engineering R&D for [a] blockchain payment network.” The privately-held bank’s payment system runs on the Ethereum (ETH) network and implements the Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) consensus protocol. This reduces both transaction times and costs. According to the bank, the algo has reduced the transaction times to less than one second.
The implementation of the blockchain-based payment system has resulted in storing transaction data in a secure and tamper proof manner. The merchants will also be able to view the entire transaction records at any given time on their blockchain account book.
Fubon Commercial bank also stated that the transaction volume of cooperative merchants in the University zone has quadrupled within two weeks that followed the launch of the blockchain based merchant payment system. The bank aims to expand the blockchain-based payment system to retail stores and businesses across the Chengchi area.
Notably, Taipei has already announced its intention to turn into a smart city by using blockchain to track health history of citizens and collect pollution related data. In February, Yang Chin-long, governor of Taiwan’s central bank had stated that the bank is exploring blockchain technology to improve “security and efficiency of payment systems.”