Deutsche Bank: Blockchain Tech Will Go Mainstream in Next Decade

Deutsche Bank believes that blockchain technology will become more widespread over the course of the next ten years.

The comments come after the German banking giant carried out a blockchain-based experiment that focused on programmable bonds.

While declining to disclose the two providers that worked with the bank during the experiment, Deutsche Bank told CoinDesk in an email:

"The test [a proof-of-value] is successfully completed. The corporate bond was ideal to test blockchain on the lifecycle of an asset (issuance, coupon payments, redemption), hence why we chose it; at this stage, we will not pursue the smart bond route as a first commercial product of the Bank."

"We do not say what we are looking into now," spokesperson Nicolas Nonnenmacher added.

According to the bank, the test resulted both compelling answers as well as fresh questions that will inform future explorations of the technology.

Deutsche Bank's recent test focused on programmable bonds because the institution wanted to explore "the smart contract front to back lifecycle concept", the spokesperson said. This process involved running simultaneous investigations on different kinds of blockchain-based rails.

Nonnenmacher explained:

"The result was that the blockchain technology achieved all that we set out to test in at the PoV [proof-of-value] scale, however, this would need to be taken further in respect to sufficiently testing scalable or stability on these use cases."

Deutsche Bank began to research blockchain applications last year, it said, later becoming part of a consortium of banks that are collectively looking at the technology. One of the key results of this process, the bank told CoinDesk, is that the the technology "will alter the business model of many financial businesses" and will likely see many different iterations.

"There will be many permissioned blockchains ... and it will be important to be able to move between them," the bank said.

Deutsche Bank said that it expects to see examples of commercial-scale products involving the blockchain hit the market in the next two years.

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