R3 (blockchain)

R3 is a provider of enterprise technology and services that enable direct, digital collaboration in regulated industries where trust is critical. The company works to improve processes with banking, capital markets, global trade and insurance clients. R3 delivers a private, distributed ledger technology (DLT) application platform and confidential computing technology. The company maintains a DLT production ecosystem connecting over 400 institutions, including global systems integrators, cloud providers, technology firms, software vendors, corporates, regulators, and financial institutions from the public and private sectors.

The R3 consortium raised $107 million dollars in a May 2017 financing round led by large financial services and technology companies such as SBI Group, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, HSBC, Intel and Temasek.

R3 is developing a proprietary distributed ledger known as Corda. Corda is designed to work within existing financial services and regulatory frameworks and to develop a standard for financial institutions to develop a shared ledger of transactions and records.

The Corda distributed ledger has similarities shared with a decentralized blockchains networks however it is not a blockchain. A key difference is that not all data is replicated to all participants in the network, only verified transactions are shared. Additionally special user roles in the network known as supervisory observational nodes can be granted to regulators to ensure legal compliance.