The first accelerators developed by the Reply Competence Centre and based on the Blockchain Technology are ready to go

17 December 2015​

Reply [MTA, STAR: REY], a company specialising in the design and implementation of solutions based on digital media and new communication channels, presents the first accelerators based on the Blockchain Technology, developed by the company's Competence Centre in Europe. The Centre consists of highly skilled professionals able to support the Fintech industry through their understanding and analysis of the potential offered by the Blockchain technology, and thanks to the experimentation of these new technologies through accelerators that enable the development of expert business solutions.

Blockchain is a new technological model that is revolutionising the economic system, transforming the fundamental aspects of transactions, property and trust. The Reply Blockchain Competence Centre has been observing the market for over a year. Based on this analysis, a number of key facts have emerged: investments in the Fintech sector have increasingly focused on ideas based on the Blockchain technology; 42 global banks have joined in an R3 initiative designed to define a de facto standard concerning the use of the Blockchain technology within an interbanking context; major international stock exchanges have begun experimenting with the Blockchain technology as a new basic stock exchange framework; central banks and regulators at various levels are working hard to create a framework and regulate cryptocurrencies based on the Blockchain technology.

Within this context, Reply has invested and developed a number of accelerators that steer the use of the Blockchain Technology towards various use cases, particularly in areas relating to:

• IoT (Internet of Things), where objects rely on the use of the Blockchain technology to manage the authentication and integrity of messaging between themselves, in order to guarantee the use of a safe and reliable IoT network;
• Property: a Blockchain accelerator manages the change of property ownership, in other words the transfer of ownership of any digital or physical asset (e.g. vehicles, equity, houses, etc.). Through the registration of a transaction in the Blockchain register, the identity of the seller and the buyer, the unique identifier of the asset and the time stamp associated with the transaction are guaranteed and cannot be modified;
• Voting: in contexts that require a high level of transparency and security, such as voting in public ballots (e.g. to express a preference in a survey), the Blockchain technology relies on crypto currencies to guarantee both the legal certainty of the vote and the transparency of the process;
• Ticketing and Coupons: the creation, management and sale of tickets and coupons using the Blockchain technology. Here interoperability between agencies/partners required to provide the necessary critical mass in creating tickets/coupons and their relative use/redemption is based on the Blockchain registry access standard, which is open-source and therefore reliable, affordable and secure.

The extended model developed by the Reply Competence Centre is a key aspect of the group's work with the Blockchain technology. The model is based on the ability to bring together young talents to work and develop ideas focused on creating prototypes and models that can be used in the business world. Reply has developed the first Blockchain accelerators able to rely on new multidisciplinary expertise in the Fintech, Security and Payments sectors, such as professionals specialised in Blockchain Design and Architecture, Smart Contracts, Mining Techniques, Block Explorers and Bitcoin scripting. Recently, Reply organised a competition focused on the Blockchain theme, in collaboration with three major European universities. The initiative involved approximately 600 students and generated over 50 new ideas concerning the possible application and use of the Blockchain technology.

In the context of developments based on the Blockchain Technology, Reply has also defined the architecture that supports HI Credits, the company's proprietary platform for mobile payments, Bitcoin payments and money transfers.

Among the first projects implemented, Reply has used the "Bitcoin Blockchain" to "register and store" the source code for the software newly developed by the Sator Group: Tinaba (www.tinaba.it). Within this context, the Bitcoin Blockchain acts as an "international notary" where the source code and the name of the owner are registered, and a timestamp is affixed. Everything is protected by a cryptographic key that shows the ownership of the software, but makes it impossible to use the source code.

For more information: www.reply.eu/en/blockchain