Close Menu
TechCentralTechCentral

    Subscribe to the newsletter

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    Facebook X (Twitter) YouTube LinkedIn
    WhatsApp Facebook X (Twitter) LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentralTechCentral
    • News

      Legislative overhaul on the cards for South Africa’s ICT sector

      14 July 2025

      The 1940s visionary who imagined the Information Age

      14 July 2025

      Trump tariffs could wreck South Africa’s vehicle manufacturing industry

      14 July 2025

      Microsoft South Africa to get new MD as Lillian Barnard moves to regional role

      14 July 2025

      Zuckerberg used open source to scale AI – now the lock-in begins

      14 July 2025
    • World

      Grok 4 arrives with bold claims and fresh controversy

      10 July 2025

      Bitcoin pushes higher into record territory

      10 July 2025

      Cupertino vs Brussels: Apple challenges Big Tech crackdown

      7 July 2025

      Grammarly acquires e-mail start-up Superhuman

      1 July 2025

      Apple considers ditching its own AI in Siri overhaul

      1 July 2025
    • In-depth

      Siemens is battling Big Tech for AI supremacy in factories

      24 June 2025

      The algorithm will sing now: why musicians should be worried about AI

      20 June 2025

      Meta bets $72-billion on AI – and investors love it

      17 June 2025

      MultiChoice may unbundle SuperSport from DStv

      12 June 2025

      Grok promised bias-free chat. Then came the edits

      2 June 2025
    • TCS

      TCS+ | MVNX on the opportunities in South Africa’s booming MVNO market

      11 July 2025

      TCS | Connecting Saffas – Renier Lombard on The Lekker Network

      7 July 2025

      TechCentral Nexus S0E4: Takealot’s big Post Office jobs plan

      4 July 2025

      TCS | Tech, townships and tenacity: Spar’s plan to win with Spar2U

      3 July 2025

      TCS+ | First Distribution on the latest and greatest cloud technologies

      27 June 2025
    • Opinion

      In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

      30 June 2025

      E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

      30 June 2025

      South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

      17 June 2025

      AI and the future of ICT distribution

      16 June 2025

      Singapore soared – why can’t we? Lessons South Africa refuses to learn

      13 June 2025
    • Company Hubs
      • Africa Data Centres
      • AfriGIS
      • Altron Digital Business
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Altron Group
      • Arctic Wolf
      • AvertITD
      • Braintree
      • CallMiner
      • CambriLearn
      • CYBER1 Solutions
      • Digicloud Africa
      • Digimune
      • Domains.co.za
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • Incredible Business
      • iONLINE
      • Iris Network Systems
      • LSD Open
      • NEC XON
      • Network Platforms
      • Next DLP
      • Ovations
      • Paracon
      • Paratus
      • Q-KON
      • SevenC
      • SkyWire
      • Solid8 Technologies
      • Telit Cinterion
      • Tenable
      • Vertiv
      • Videri Digital
      • Wipro
      • Workday
    • Sections
      • AI and machine learning
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud services
      • Contact centres and CX
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Electronics and hardware
      • Energy and sustainability
      • Enterprise software
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Lifestyle
      • Motoring
      • Public sector
      • Retail and e-commerce
      • Science
      • SMEs and start-ups
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Events
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home » News » Reserve Bank in successful blockchain payments trial

    Reserve Bank in successful blockchain payments trial

    By Staff Reporter5 June 2018
    Twitter LinkedIn Facebook WhatsApp Email Telegram Copy Link
    News Alerts
    WhatsApp

    The South African Reserve Bank, through its fintech unit, has successfully demonstrated a real-world trial of a distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based wholesale payment system.

    The Bank has released a report on Project Khokha, which focused on providing participants, including South African banks, practical experience of aspects of using a distributed ledger for payments. Different deployments models were tested.

    “The results show that the typical daily volume of the South African payments system could be processed in less than two hours with full confidentiality of transactions and settlement finality,” the Bank said in a statement. “Transactions were processed within two seconds, across a network of geographically distributed nodes, with distributed consensus providing the requisite resilience. The Bank was able to view the detail of all the transactions to allow for regulatory oversight.”

    Transactions were processed within two seconds, across a network of geographically distributed nodes, with distributed consensus providing the requisite resilience

    The project was built on Quorum, using “Istanbul Byzantine Fault Tolerance”, “Pedersen commitments” and “range proofs” to deliver on the combination of scalability, resilience, confidentiality and finality, it said.

    “Central banks widely recognise the disruptive potential of and the probable risk from fintech. This prompted the Reserve Bank to initiate structures to monitor and gain insight for the development of appropriate policy frameworks and responses to changes emanating from fintech.”

    The first of these structures is the Bank’s fintech unit, which was established in August 2017 to assess the emergence of fintech in a structured and organised manner, and to consider its regulatory and strategic implications.

    “The objectives of Project Khokha were thus to build on the initiatives previously undertaken by global peers and to gain further insights on DLT developments in a South African wholesale payments context,” the Bank said in the statement. “The project provided the opportunity to broaden the DLT skills base in the South African banking industry and presented an opportunity to explore the type of collaborative innovation that is expected to become more common.”

    ‘Many issues to consider’

    It said the project has laid the foundations for future collaborative work — essential in the blockchain context — and has fulfilled its objective of providing useful insights to all participants. The report concluded that there are “many issues to consider before the decision to take a DLT-based system into production can be taken. Some of these issues relate to the practicalities of implementation, but also to legal and regulatory factors and to the broader economic impact.”

    One objective of Project Khokha is to provide a better understanding of how the South African Multiple Option Settlement (Samos) system would integrate with a DLT system. The intention is not to consider changing the approach with the Samos replacement, but to provide input to that project, the Bank said.

    “The future direction will also be influenced by further development of the technology and by central banks and other regulators globally continuing to contribute to this field of knowledge. The Reserve Bank anticipates continuing work in this area and expects to continue contributing to the body of work in DLT-based systems.”  — © 2018 NewsCentral Media



    Project Khokha Reserve Bank Sarb South African Reserve Bank
    Subscribe to TechCentral Subscribe to TechCentral
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email Copy Link
    Previous ArticleGDP shocker as economy contracts 2.2%
    Next Article Qualcomm takes aim at Intel with Snapdragon 850 chip

    Related Posts

    Cash addiction is costing South Africa billions

    30 June 2025

    Tech stability key to getting South Africa off damaging financial grey list

    23 June 2025

    TCS | Reserve Bank fintech head Lyle Horsley on the G20 TechSprint

    22 May 2025
    Company News

    Obsidian Systems makes the case for Linux in modern infrastructure

    14 July 2025

    Banking on LEO: Q-KON transforms financial services connectivity

    14 July 2025

    The future of business calling: Voys brings your landline to the cloud

    14 July 2025
    Opinion

    In defence of equity alternatives for BEE

    30 June 2025

    E-commerce in ICT distribution: enabler or disruptor?

    30 June 2025

    South Africa pioneered drone laws a decade ago – now it must catch up

    17 June 2025

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2025 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.