Swiss banking big UBS mentioned that it accomplished a proof-of-concept of its UBS Key4 Gold providing on the Ethereum layer-2 community ZKsync.
The simulation, which was performed on a ZKsync check community, is an indication of renewed curiosity in blockchain know-how amongst conventional monetary establishments. This isn’t UBS’ first experiment with blockchain. The financial institution beforehand launched a tokenized cash market funding fund, uMint, which can be constructed on Ethereum.
UBS’ Key4 Gold is likely one of the financial institution’s choices that lets its Swiss shoppers buy a direct declare to bodily gold. “It allows for fractional gold investments with real-time pricing, deep liquidity, secure physical storage, and optional physical delivery,” the staff mentioned in a press launch shared with CoinDesk.
The venture already exists on the financial institution’s non-public blockchain, the UBS Gold Community, however the staff was searching for methods to scale its venture whereas preserving its privateness. “They came to the conclusion that only zero-knowledge made sense for them, and so they wanted to really put this in practice for a product that they already have live and what this could look like if they use the validium instead,” Pearl Imbach, a Senior Enterprise Improvement Supervisor at Matter Labs, the principle developer agency behind ZKsync, advised CoinDesk in an interview.
ZKsync is a zero-knowledge rollup, a kind of layer 2 scaling system that goals to extend the pace of blockchain transactions and scale back their charges, by utilizing zero-knowledge cryptography. A validum is a special kind of layer-2, just like that of a rollup, however shops the info of these transactions off-chain.
The check transaction could sign that UBS may very well be trying extra intently at utilizing layer-2 applied sciences to energy a few of its actions. Nevertheless, the financial institution did not say whether or not they would come out with their very own layer-2, and Matter Labs’ Imbach advised CoinDesk {that a} rollup won’t be the precise match for them. “Is this the right product [for UBS]? Perhaps not, but it is something we’re just talking openly about, and thinking about what could actually be a good use case for them,” Imbach advised CoinDesk.
This is not the primary time a banking big has used ZKsync’s know-how for its personal merchandise. Deutsche Financial institution mentioned in December that it was additionally planning to construct a layer-2 with ZKsync’s know-how, indicating how blockchain know-how can co-exist and even make conventional monetary institutes’ merchandise work higher.
“What we are offering now, with privacy on top [of the blockchain] is something that is super interesting, and we’re doing more and more of these use cases now,” Imbach advised CoinDesk.
Learn extra: Deutsche Financial institution’s L2 Blockchain to Be ‘Public and Permissioned,’ Says Tech Companion
