(25 May 2018 – Japan) MUFG is partnering with US cloud software company Akamai to develop a blockchain service with the ability to process a million transactions per second and finalise transactions in less than two seconds.
The blockchain system will be built on Akamai’s cloud service, Akamai Intelligent Platform, with the bank planning to roll out the payment network service by 2019 or early 2020.
“MUFG and Akamai, using Akamai’s globally deployed high-speed and high-security platform, will utilize this new blockchain’s high-speed processing and secure value transfer abilities to promote pay-per-use, micropayments, and other new IoT generation payment methods,” the bank said in a statement.
As Japanese banks face falling loan demand brought about by a shrinking population they are increasingly turning to digital methods to cut costs.