Large Spanish companies form the Alastria consortium to develop the blockchain ecosystem in Spain
The main Spanish banking, energy and telecommunications companies, among other sectors, have established Alastria, the world's first regulated national network based on blockchain. This non-profit consortium will develop the Ditributed Ledger Technology (DTL), which is set to become the new data exchange ecosystem and which will enable and accelerate the digital transformation of different industrial and business sectors in the coming years thanks to its agility, veracity, security and efficiency.
The Alastria consortium has been created to accelerate the creation of digital ecosystems by providing a common collaborative platform: the Alastria network. Since its very creation, the consortium has been made up of about 70 of the largest companies and institutions in different sectors.
Among its founders are also professionals such as notaries and lawyers who will ensure the security and veracity of information through the identification of natural and legal persons. Not in vain, the digital ID will be the main focus of Alastria in its beginnings through the standard of Digital Identity "ID Alastria", which will allow citizens to have control over their personal information in a transparent way following the guidelines set by the European Union.
The Alastria network will provide a shared platform on which the various participants, and in particular large companies, will be able to create digital representations of the assets with which they work in their usual economic activity, also known as tokens. With these tokens it is possible to develop new products and innovative cutting services, in addition to being able to develop current processes faster, safer and more efficiently. In this way, the network accelerates the digital transformation of current processes and enables a new paradigm of collaborative and multisectoral innovation in an efficient way.
From left to right: De izquierda a derecha: Carlos Kuchkovsky, de BBVA; Julio Faura, de Santander; María Parga, de BME; Javier Ibáñez, ICADE; and Leopoldo González-Echenique, lawyer at Herbert Smith Freehills.
Alastria's objective is to transcend the business sphere and has held meetings with representatives of the Public Administration and Regulators, who have expressed their interest in collaborating with the consortium. In this sense, Alastria has requested the opening of collaboration channels to identify cases of use in public agencies and monitor those services that are in the process of study and analysis. To promote awareness and adoption of the network, Alastria is organizing training sessions for the Administration.
The development of the platform will not remain in the growth of its number of partners, but in the own development of the technology, which will be open. In this way, the Alastria consortium will make resources and contacts available to the community so that the ecosystem can grow and expand its potential benefits to more companies and users.
The university community will also play an important role in the Consortium. At present, several agreements have already been signed with renowned centres and, in addition, it will be an open process in which a significant number of institutions and university centres will be added. The aim is to establish agreements that promote research, experimentation and training.
A pioneer proyect
Julio Faura, president of Alastria, said: "It is not easy for so many important companies to decide to bet a project together from the very beginning. That's the best proof of the incredible potential that this technology and the consortium have. He added: "We should be proud that a pioneering and unprecedented project throughout the world has been born in Spain, which places the industries of our country at the forefront of digital transformation.”
Alex Puig, Alastria's CEO, said: "Blockchain has the potential to become the biggest breakthrough in history in the way we share any digital element, whether it's a document, a service, a show ticket or money. In this regard, he stressed that the birth of the Consortium was necessary because "the internet is being reinvented so that we can share and do business in a verified and secure way, but it is necessary to have a standard that allows all industries and the developer community to work with the same base.”