NPCI mulls using blockchain solution to strengthen digital payments

Payments network NPCI is considering using highly scalable blockchain solution to further strengthen digital payments, which have seen an exponential growth in recent times.

A blockchain or distributed ledger is a continuously growing list of encrypted transactions called blocks. A block may contain any type of data such as unique digital identifiers of physical products

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is an umbrella organisation for all retail payments in India. It was set up with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India and the Indian Banks Association (IBA).

Promoted by 10 banks in India under the aegis of the IBA, it aims to become the "best payments network globally". Presently, 56 banks are shareholders of NPCI.

"NPCI intends to develop a resilient, real time and highly scalable blockchain solution. It is proposed to develop this solution using an open source technology/ framework/solution," it said in a notification.

In this regard, the NPCI has ..