PwC partners Bank of England on Blockchain technology.

PwC’s local Blockchain team worked alongside the Bank to design and carry out a Proof of Concept to investigate the capability of distributed ledger technology.

This creates a single shared view of transactions, allowing every participant simultaneous access to a shared view of information.

The PwC announcement came the same day that the Bank of Canada, the country’s central bank, confirmed it was working with the country’s biggest banks to develop an electronic version of the Canadian dollar using Blockchain, the digital ledger that underpins cryptocurrency bitcoin.

Full adoption would mark a significant advance for the emerging technology.

The Bank of England’s Proof of Concept was built using PwC’s Belfast-based Blockchain technology team, to explore the potential opportunities and challenges of using DLT for payments settlement.

Nick Bouch, financial services data leader and partner at PwC, said:

“This is a significant piece of work and PwC are very excited to have been able to support the Bank in developing their first DLT Proof of Concept, which will enable the Bank to gain a better awareness of DL from both a technology and policy perspective.”

Rob Elsey, Chief Information Officer for the Bank of England, said:

“With PwC’s support, the Bank’s developers used the latest techniques and software to deliver this POC and have gained further skills that will enable additional rapid Proof of Concepts in the future.”