Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation’s (CSIRO) Data61, the legal firm Herbert Smith Freehills (HSF) and IBM have partnered to create Australia’s first blockchain based smart contract ecosystem for Australian businesses. The new platform will enable companies to enjoy the smart contract infrastructure in the country’s digital economy as it plans to spread the technology beyond Australia’s borders
Smart Contracts Down Under
A statement issued by the new consortium said the Australian National Blockchain (ANB) platform facilitate the use of digitized contracts, data exchange, confirmation of authenticity and the status of legal contracts among the participating companies. The ANB will enable companies to manage the lifespan of contracts digitally from negotiation, signing throughout the agreement period with enhanced transparency and authorized access between the parties. Herbert Smith Freehills’ Natasha Blycha elaborated on the platform’s potential:
“This presents a huge opportunity for agile and forward-thinking firms and has potential to deliver significant benefits to our clients and the business community. Our clients are enthusiastic about process automation, and how it can support a move away from paper-based systems, simplify supply chains and quickly and securely share information with customers and regulators.”
The Timeline
The consortium will build the technology’s pilot project, which it expects to be up and running by the end of the year on IBM’s Hyperledger blockchain and regulators, law firms, banks and select Australian businesses will test it and offer feedback. The Australian National Blockchain (ANB) is the first publicly available platform of its kind open to all businesses and is tailor-made for the Australian legal framework to trigger events and processes.
Last year, Data61 gave the Treasury comprehensive report on the adoption of blockchain technology across the government and industries and concluded there was a huge opportunity for Australia to create a digital infrastructure to enhance innovation. Data61’s senior research scientist remarked:
“For complex enterprise contracts, there are huge opportunities to benefit from our research into blockchain architecture and into computational law. Smart contracts have many applications, and as the ANB progresses we look forward to exploring other business use cases to roll out.”
From process automation, trashing paper systems, streamlining supply chains, improving contract management and confidential information sharing between regulators and customers, the Australian National Blockchain (ANB) will propel Australia to a world-class destination for a well-organized, modernized business and according to Paul Hutchison of IBM:
“Blockchain will be to transactions what the internet was to communication–what starts as a tool for sharing information becomes transformational once the adoption is widespread.”
