三菱日联或在2020年推出区块链支付

为了提高支付速度，降低支付成本，日本最大的银行参与开发了一项新区块链服务。

过去一年半，三菱日联金融集团（Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group，MUFG）与美国科技公司Akamai合作设计了一种区块链。两家公司表示，该项区块链服务每秒可处理100万笔交易，延迟时间，即在分布式总账上确认一批交易的时间，不超过2秒。两家公司表示通过不断完善技术，预计该项服务未来每秒可处理1,000万笔交易。

而全球第一个区块链支持的加密货币比特币，每秒可处理7笔交易，延迟超过10分钟。

不同于比特币的区块链，三菱日联与Akamai开发的区块链属于“许可链”，只有经过验证的计算机才能加入网络，管理和确认支付。该区块链基于Akamai公司的云服务Akamai智能平台。

区块链技术一直是银行和许多公司之间的热门话题，他们希望通过区块链改造数据库。许多大公司对这项技术产生了浓厚兴趣，如摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）、沃尔玛（Walmart）、IBM、马士基（Maersk）、戴姆勒（Daimler）、空中客车（Airbus）等。

三菱日联总裁兼CEO平野信行在声明中表示：“多年来，金融行业一直在尝试利用区块链保证交易安全，加快交易处理速度，降低相关成本。”公司相信这项新技术将“支持更大规模的高速支付交易，并且不会降低防范欺诈交易需要保证的安全水平。”

Akamai公司研发部门Akamai Labs的首席技术官安迪·尚帕尼表示，他的团队与三菱日联共同开发的区块链，最适合在线进行传统支付交易。他预计这项技术将为“微支付类交易”（即用户经常为某些服务进行的小额支付，如支付几美分阅读一篇文章等）和“物联网”类交易（如洗衣机等自动运行的联网设备，在洗涤剂不足时自动下单购买）扫清道路。

尚帕尼称：“我们将在2020年初，与三菱日联携手推出支付网络应用。”

在涉足区块链技术的大公司当中，三菱日联是最为乐观的一家。日本媒体《Manichi》在今年早些时候报道称，三菱日联计划在几个月内测试自己的加密货币。此外，该公司还投资了美国最大的加密货币交易所Coinbase，并携手IBM、金融行业巨头R3、日本大型企业集团日立（Hitachi）、日本IT公司NTT Data和数字支付公司Ripple等开展了区块链试点项目。

Akamai公司CEO兼联合创始人汤姆·莱顿在声明中表示，两家公司联合开发的区块链解决了“妨碍区块链广泛应用的”技术障碍，如安全性和速度等问题。

尚帕尼表示，Akamai在去年年底已经申请了该项技术的专利。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/汪皓 

Japan’s biggest bank has codeveloped a new blockchain, or distributed financial ledger, to boost the speed and lower the cost of payments.

Over the past year and a half, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, or “MUFG” for short, partnered with Akamai, a U.S. tech company, to design a blockchain that can handle 1 million transactions per second at latencies of less than 2 seconds, meaning the time it takes to confirm a batch of transactions on the ledger, the companies said. They expect the service to be capable of handling 10 million transactions per second as they continue to improve the technology, they said.

In contrast, Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency backed by the world’s first blockchain, can process seven transactions per second at latencies exceeding 10 minutes.

Unlike Bitcoin’s blockchain, MUFG and Akamai’s is “permissioned,” meaning that only verified computers can join the network that orders and confirms payments. The blockchain is built on Akamai’s cloud service, called Akamai Intelligent Platform.

Blockchain technology has been a hot theme among banks and other companies looking to revamp their databases. The trend has attracted interest from big names, such as JPMorgan Chase, Walmart, IBM, Maersk, Daimler, Airbus, and plenty of corporations in between.

“For years, the financial industry has sought to utilize blockchain to secure and hasten transaction processing, and lower associated costs,” Nobuyuki Hirano, president and group CEO of MUFG, said in a statement. His firm is confident, he said, that the new tech will “support significantly greater volumes of high-speed payment transactions without compromising the level of security required to combat fraudulent transactions.”

Andy Champagne, chief technology officer of Akamai Labs, an R&D unit at the tech firm, said that the blockchain his team co-created with MUFG is best suited for making traditional payments online. He said he eventually expects the tech to help pave the way for “micropayment-type transactions,” where many people pay frequent, minuscule fees for services, like paying a few cents to read an article on a website, as well as “Internet of Things”-style payments, where connected devices operate autonomously, like a washing machine automatically placing an order for more detergent when supplies run low.

“We expect to roll forward on the payment network application with Mitsubishi in early 2020,” Champagne said.

MUFG has been one of the most bullish big corporations to dabble in blockchain tech. The bank is planning to test its own cryptocurrency in the months to come, as Manichi, a Japanese newspaper, reported earlier this year. The firm also invested in Coinbase, the biggest U.S. cryptocurrency exchange, and has worked on blockchain pilots and projects with IBM, financial industry consortium R3, Japanese conglomerate Hitachi, Japanese IT firm NTT Data, and digital payments firm Ripple, among others.

Tom Leighton, Akamai’s CEO and cofounder, said in a statement that the jointly developed blockchain should address technical obstacles, like security and speed, “that have to date hindered broader use of blockchain.”

Champagne said Akamai filed for patents covering the tech at the end of last year.