It is undoubtedly the latest buzz in the business community, especially among fintech (financial technology) firms. Indeed one major bank has centered its digital transformation around the blockchain.

Providing the component of the major platforms in the country’s financial institutions and many other blockchain-based projects is ConsenSys, a software technology company based in New York. ConsenSys is building decentralized applications (dApps) for a multitude of industries in anticipation of the mass adoption of blockchain.

“ConsenSys provides the technology and the platform but we are also advisers especially when it comes to regulation and compliance with central banks because we have done this project or we are doing it simultaneously in different countries. Like in Singapore in South Africa in Canada in the US and in parts of Europe,” said Aiai Garcia, global business development lead for ConsenSys in the Asia-Pacific.

In May, ConsenSys launched Kaleido, a Blockchain Business Cloud platform that speeds and simplifies companies’ experience in using the technology. It is the first Software-as-a-Service technology and is offered in collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The platform runs on AWS and provides clients the ability to seamlessly connect to other popular AWS services, reducing the cost of real-world projects that often require complex integrations.

The first customer of Kaleido is UnionBank of the Philippines (UBP) which launched Project i2i (island-to-island) on the same month to offer a real-time, cost-effective, and secure retail payment system in the blockchain. Project i2i aims to link rural banks using the technology to achieve an interconnection similar to what the SWIFT and Bancnet systems deliver.

Initially five rural banks comprised of Cantilan Bank, PR Savings Bank, City Savings Bank, FairBank and Progressive Bank took part of the program per approval from Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Garcia added, “Kaleido is the blockchain which makes it easier to spin up connection networks without hiring developers and systems architects to write their own code. So instead of a system architect spending say two weeks to write a code, Kaleido allows him to do it in seven minutes.”

Aside from linking all the rural banks in an interoperable ecosystem using the Kaleido platforms, ConsenSys also plans to roll out a blockchain-based real estate fund called Meridio in the Philippines to unlock the potential of property development through so-called “fractional ownership.”

Meridio will be different from existing plaftform of real estate project since fractional ownership allows a property owner to reallocate one piece of it to multiple investors. In reverse, it allows them to co-own a property or properties that are normally not affordable.

She said ConsenSys is also involved in blockchain-based lending, decentralized exchanges and other projects.

Garcia is positive about the blockchain’s prospects in the country that she is staking a claim for the Philippines as an innovator on a global scale.

“This is indeed a very exciting time for the Philippines blockchain industry. There are plenty of exciting projects, and the good thing is that all the regulators we’ve talked with or are talking to are also excited about the technology and looking for ways to adopt and use it to improve the current system,” she said.

Garcia said the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Department of Finance (DoF) and other Philippine government agencies all have created technical teams to study the technology and find ways to adopt it on their system.

Blockchain is not only to understand the technology better but to devise ways of adopting it.

“Today, the Philippines has one of the most advanced blockchain payments apps in the world (Coins.ph), which provides five million Filipinos alternative access to their finances and other value-added services. Filipino regulators were also amongst the first to announce the regulation of Bitcoin as security,” she added.

As one of the very active domestic banks on the blockchain, UBP is relying heavily on Consensys’s technology to develop its digital transformation agenda.

In a separate interview, UBP Board Chairman Justo Ortiz said the initiative of the bank is “to get ahead of the game” to meet the changing landscape of the financial sector, but more importantly, “to elevate lives and fulfill dreams.”

He said UBP partnered with ConsenSys so the millions of unbanked Filipinos who also need financial services will also be served.

“Rural banks are part of the community. They can serve more people on the ground that are out of reach by big, modern banks,” Ortiz said and added that rural banks can do the next step to elevate lives and fulfill this dream that has eluded us for centuries.

They also provide a ready network to bring financial services as they have nearly 2,600 branches across the country, larger than the biggest Philippine bank and much larger than UnionBank’s 300 branches.

“You can now appreciate the power of the blockchain in really making a difference to people’s lives. That’s why I’m so hot on it. They raise the customer experience because of their relationship with the community. Those 50 million Filipinos that remain unbanked are the customers. Rural banks can extend credits or business loans. Pawnshops are not going to do that, even the telcos won’t,” Ortiz said.

Playing an important part in the Philippine blockchain ecosystem is afinancial services platform Coins.ph, the largest cryptocurrency exchange operator in the country with more than five million digital wallets.

Coin.ph Maria Gaitanidou said blockchain could play a crucial role in providing financial inclusion and freedom as envisioned by the Duterte administration.

She said, “The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said they want to provide financial inclusion and that this is their number one fundamental commitments. How we go in line with that is we think of financial services not just about specific bank or bank account. You don’t need a bank account to be able to avail of these financial services. And on the other side, a bank does not need to offer all its services to one individual because they have a bank account.”

A customer in a far-flung community can have access to “banking services” without having a bank account, Gaitanidou added.

But she was quick to dismiss the notion that digital currency exchanges are competing with banks and would eventually replace them, describing it as a wrong idea which should not be promoted at all.

“What we actually do is we open the reach for them so all of a sudden, they (bank) have access to a lot more customers that they might not even think of,” she said.