IBM will implement a blockchain solution to support a loyalty bonus points exchange among multiple banks in China.
The project with China UnionPay E-payment Research Institute will enable consumers to exchange loyalty bonus points between any of the banks they do business with. Currently, credit card bonus points cannot be freely exchanged among different banks, so many bonus points go unused because of strict bonus points policies or a limited selection of goods for exchange.
“The combination of blockchain technology and expertise from IBM coupled with an innovative business approach by China UnionPay in the payment industry has resulted in a significant first of a kind demonstration of blockchain technology in the financial payments industry,” said Dr. Shen Xiaowei, Director of IBM Research – China, CTO of IBM Greater China Group. “IBM is partnering with the Hyperledger Project to build an open source, enterprise-grade blockchain platform and is helping clients define and develop more industry use cases. In time, we expect this to result in widespread adoption of permissioned blockchain networks to solve a number of business challenges.”
