This story was delivered to BI Intelligence " Fintech Briefing " subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here . Office of Accenture in downtown Helsinki The consultancy giant has caused upset in the fintech community by patenting an editable blockchain that allows a central administrator to edit or delete information stored in a permissioned blockchain system, the Financial Times reports. A permissioned system is governed by a central administrator using agreed upon rules. This differs from permissionless systems, like those used by blockchain pioneers such as Bitcoin, which have no central authority. A key feature of permissionless systems is that the records they contain cannot be changed. Accenture unveiled a prototype of the blockchain on Tuesday developed jointly by Accenture and Giuseppe Anteniese, a Stevens Institute of Technology professor. The prototype aims to make blockchain more practical for use in financial services. Accenture’s head of financial services said that the prototype will make blockchain more attractive to financial services providers and regulators, and encourage their uptake of blockchain technology. This is because these parties "need a means to quickly correct errors on the blockchain," which is not possible when using a blockchain-based system that creates immutable ledgers. It is only possible to reverse an entry on such a system, removing it completely, and that can be time-consuming. Fast corrections would be especially critical were blockchain to be used in the securities industry, where trades are conducted at high speed, but where errors, such as assigning a trade to the wrong counterparty could have serious financial consequences. But it goes against one of blockchain technology’s key principals — immutability. The move is controversial to many because blockchain was conceived as an immutable, tamper-proof ledger, which eliminated the need for a centralized authority. However, Accenture insists that immutability is […]
