SIA, Quant Network team up to explore blockchain interoperability

Italian tech company SIA has partnered with blockchain startup Quant Network to explore blockchain interoperability.

SIA was founded in 1977 by the Bank of Italy, ABI (the Italian Banking Association) and a number of Italian banks, in order to develop the domestic payments system by exploiting the potential of information and communication technologies. In 2017, it launched SIAchain – a blockchain-based infrastructure for financial institutions, corporate, and public administration bodies.

SIAchain leverages 570 European network nodes within SIAnet – a high-speed and low-latency fiber optic network stretching over 186,000 kilometres.

Under the partnership, the entities will aim to integrate Quant Network’s blockchain operating system Overledger into the SIAchain infrastructure to enable interoperability. They intend to develop agnostic cross-platform applications and services for banks and financial institutions.

“We’re pleased to collaborate with SIA to explore how Overledger can enable financial institutions on SIAchain or part of SIAnet to benefit from cross-platform and interoperable blockchain applications to embrace new business models, improve operational efficiencies and deliver new innovation to customers”, Gilbert Verdian, CEO, Quant Network, said.

The first interoperability tests will be executed on R3’s Corda and private Ethereum platforms, according to the press release.

SIA noted that interoperability is one of the biggest challenges faced by the financial industry to develop and implement applications based on blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) spanning different technologies.

Daniele Savarè, Innovation & Business Solutions Director, SIA, said that the company aims to support financial markets with a high-performance and secure architecture and a clear governance model.

“We actively continue on our path of innovation and the achievement of a fully interoperable blockchain network is the foremost objective we want to reach with the collaboration of Quant Network and its disruptive vision on DLT,” he said.