MUFG, Akamai to Launch Blockchain Payment Network, MUFG Coin

The Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG), alongside with US-based cloud delivery platform Akamai Technologies, announced a blockchain-based global payment network. The bank will also release a proprietary cryptocurrency called MUFG Coin by 2019.

The partnership aims to develop a blockchain that can handle 1 million transactions per second at latencies of less than 2 seconds. That means the time it takes to confirm a batch of transactions on the ledger, the companies said.

Further, they expect the service to be capable of handling 10 million transactions per seconds as they continue to improve the technology.

Akamai’s market-leading cloud security offerings will accelerate and secure transactions executed across the network. In addition, these capabilities will help provide material cost efficiencies and security enhancements to back digital payments at unparalleled scale.

“This new blockchain-based online payment system, built upon our cloud platform, will be designed to address the concerns related to scalability, latency and security that have to date hindered broader use of blockchain,” said Dr. Tom Leighton, CEO and co-founder of Akamai.

“Akamai and MUFG are committed to delivering innovative solutions that can better serve customers and their payment processing needs.”

MUFG and Akamai plan to leverage the technology as it was built and deployed on the Akamai Intelligence Platform. The move is to allow the companies to offer the new payment network in Japan during the 1st half of 2020.

Additionally, the services available are expected to include support for current payment processing, pay-per-use, micropayments, and other developing Internet of Things-enabled payment transactions, said MUFG and Akamai.

“For year, the financial industry has sought to utilize blockchain to secure and hasten transaction processing and lower associated costs,” said Nobuyuki Hirano, president and group CEO of MUFG.

“We have high expectations for our partnership with Akamai to provide customers the ability to support significantly greater volumes of high-speed payments transactions without compromising the level of security required for payment networks.”

Moreover, the new blockchain platform brings improved scalability, reliability, performance, and security. It is unique to Akamai’s Intelligent Platform, which the top brands around the world trust.

MUFG Coin

MUFG has plans to trial MUFG Coin with over 100,000 of its account holders by 2019.

The project is set for a release in 2019, and it will be “compatible with IoT and other new technologies.”

According to the report, participants in the trial will install an app that will convert deposits into MUFG Coins. The cryptocurrency will have a value set equivalent to one yen.

Furthermore, the initiative will launch in limited areas of Japan. It will allow users to make payments at restaurants and retailers and transfer currency to other trial participants.

Officials from the bank will conduct an analysis to verify settlements “smoothly and in a secure way.”

Moreover, MUFG’s President Hirano has previously showed his enthusiasm for the bank creating its own cryptocurrency. He believed it could be more stable than bitcoin.

The bank is trying to “overcome issues [such as volatility] of virtual currencies and create a highly useful currency,” said Hirano.