The Bank of Italy has selected Algorand to serve as its public blockchain platform. The platform, due to launch early next year, will be the first time an EU member state uses blockchain technology for bank and insurance guarantees.
CETIF Advisory, the Research Center for Technologies, Innovations, and Finance of the Catholic University of Milan, has been leading the effort to develop a blockchain-based open “Digital Sureties” platform that will serve the needs of Italy’s banking and insurance markets.
The project is part of Italy’s post-Covid National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP). The EU allocated roughly €200 billion to Italy, to be used for co-grants and co-loans as part of the Recovery Plan. It is expected that a significant percentage of bank and insurance guarantees will leverage digital ledger technologies as part of Italy’s NRRP.
“We selected Algorand because of its unparalleled level of innovation and security among permissionless DLTs, as well as because of its leadership in sustainability,” said Federico Rajola, professor, CETIF. “Our goal is to help Italy not only recover from the economic impact of Covid-19 but also excel through innovation and leadership. Our ecosystemic projects are meant to help generate strategic platforms, such as the Digital Sureties platform supported by Algorand. We believe these platforms can and will dramatically contribute to the country’s competitive sustainability for the benefit of all.”
Blockchain is ideally suited to these types of programs given the technology’s ability to provide fast, efficient, low-cost, and scalable data transactions. Even more importantly, digital ledger technologies help protect against fraud, a known challenge with bank and insurance guarantees.
“We are proud and honored to be the public blockchain chosen by the Digital Sureties platform of Italy,” said Silvio Micali, Founder of Algorand Inc. “Through Algorand’s technology, we can help solve many critical issues facing financial institutions and governments across the world today, bringing opportunity and inclusion to communities in need everywhere.”