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Report #404 | | Members | Sign In

Blockchain Beyond Bitcoin: Insights for Credit Unions

Blockchain technologies and cryptocurrencies are revolutionizing the way people perceive and interact with money. Credit unions should focus on gleaning value from these technologies to grow their business.

  • Bruce Cahan CEO at Urban Logic

Executive Summary

Cyber attacks. Silk Road and the theft of bitcoins on early digital exchanges. State and federal regulations built for a world of fiat currency. Barriers to the legal adoption and deployment of money built on distributed ledgers produced by cryptographic- strength algorithms are real and evolving.

Credit unions are, at their core, ledgers of members’ accounts and contracts with each other, the credit union, and the credit union’s partners. The technology for maintaining the ledgers of accounts and contract rights is moving from paper to PDF to computer data with digital tags. Credit unions have a mission- based opportunity and an economic advantage in adopting blockchain technology.

This report explains emerging blockchain technologies and highlights how credit unions can collaborate to understand and deploy financial services built on distributed ledgers.

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