IBM Uses Blockchain Technology for Smart Contracts

IBM (NYSE:IBM) is using a version of bitcoin’s blockchain technology for smart contracts, and is planning to release an open source software in the coming months.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

International Business Machines Inc. thinks the technology that underpins the bitcoin digital currency can do a lot more than support cash 2.0. Within the next few months, the venerable tech giant plans to release open source software that could be used to create digital contracts that—like bitcoin transactions—would be recorded publicly and securely on a world-wide computer network.
IBM is zeroing in on a technology called blockchain, which serves as bitcoin’s online ledger. Blockchain allows the bitcoin network to track the currency’s movement from one online wallet to another. But it could be used to log other types of transactions.
Over the past year, IBM researchers have been developing their own version of blockchain, which the company said could be used to create secure online contracts. Mr. Krishna [senior vice-president of IBM research] isn’t sure who, if anyone, would embrace a project the company so far regards as experimental. But it could log transactions between banks or international businesses, or—more interestingly—let banks and businesses share the same system of record. For example, when a Chinese supplier and a U.S. buyer agreed that a product had been delivered, a U.S. bank could pay the supplier instantly over the Internet.

Click here to read the full article from the Wall Street Journal.