Following a long running thread of tips and rumours, the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) has finally confirmed to be continuing its experiments into digital assets and cryptocurrency oriented technologies as part of an ongoing internal project.
Although as-of-yet unannounced: recent patents stipulate they are working on a cryptocurrency exchange platform that will, supposedly, offer customers a range of investments trading features as well as a portfolio of merchant support enabling in-store and online purchases.
Canada has a history of crypto-friendly policymaking: manifesting in a large volume of companies opening up business operations in the nation, such as Bitbuy and Cred on November 4th.
As such, this is not the first news regarding rumours of Royal Bank of Canada activity in the realm of cryptocurrency and blockchain…
Back in May the country saw its first examples of blockchain adoption, which seemed to have opened the floodgates for cryptocurrency companies opening business in the region.
In September: it was even reported by Reuters that the RBC would be implementing a form of blockchain technology to facilitate transactions between the U.S. / Canada Corridor.
On October 16th, the National Bank of Canada announced its participation in partnership with R3 on a collateral trial of its Corda platform, alongside Raiffeisen Bank International of Austria.
Later in the same month, The Logic released a series of reports on the matter. Due to the specific nature of ‘The Logic’: the content of the aforementioned ‘reports are unfortunately pay-walled and thus not universally accessible to the general public. Their premium news community is restricted to those with an extra $299 per year burning a hole in their pockets.
The first such article, dated October 15, reported on how the RBC was in the process of developing a prospective digital currency with the intention of creating an alternative, compared to what it perceived as a rising “direct threat” of cryptocurrencies.
The second exclusive report was released on November 11 and detailed what the publication believed to be exploratory phase being undertaken by the RBC, regarding the establishment of a multi-faceted cryptocurrency-based payments platform. This report continued that to claim RBC had submitted filing for several patents applicable to Canada and the United States.
The Block paraphrases how one of these patents filed by the RBC had allegedly included, at least part, of formal documentation on how it may communicate the nature of how it may implement (and communicate) custody policies for customers of its cryptocurrency services or products.
“To individual users, managing cryptographic keys and transacting with different cryptographic assets can be a challenge. In some situations, cryptographic asset transactions may take time to be confirmed, and/or may not be compatible or supported by merchant systems or point-of-sale devices,”
via The Block
Barring the likes of Switzerland, Western countries have remained remarkably quiet with regards to the prospects of cryptocurrency adoption. Many banks and central financial institutions seem to be taking a ‘wait-and-see’ approach – most prominently working on blockchain enabled remittance solutions which rely on existing fiat standards.
Internationally, countries like China have been much more overt with their intentions: having all-but-confirmed full details regarding its forthcoming and highly-anticipated digital renminbi.