UniCredit, an Italian global banking and financial services company, has published a whitepaper towards the end of February that seeks to provide the basis for a discussion on the blockchain technology and its potential applications in the banking framework.

Titled “Blockchain Technology and Applications from a Financial Perspective’, the report has been authored by Matteo Biella and Vittorio Zinetti and comes months after UniCredit joined the R3 blockchain Consortium.

The paper says that, while the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies is still dubious, they can be perceived as a threat from a financial institution’s point of view. However, the underlying blockchain technology blockchain technology has the potential of reshaping the current financial services technical infrastructure.

“A large participation into blockchain applications will maximize financial industry advantages. Furthermore a relationship with fintech environment based not only on competition but also on collaboration will bring great advantages to both financial institutions and fintech start-ups”, it said.

It says that the “post-Bitcoin phase” has opened new opportunities, noting that several financial institutions have already started to study and experiment with blockchains and a large number of related startups have been funded.

“Venture capitalist (VC) investments in Bitcoin and blockchain industry show an increasing trend, considering that in 2015,investment summed up to 462 m$ until Q3, compared to a total of 230 m$ in2014”, the paper said.

The paper further explores various use cases of the technology such as interbank payments, know your customer (KYC) process, trade finance and post-trade lifecycle. It discusses these use cases from the standpoint of two approaches: a “restricted scenario” in order to ensure fast adoption and a “disruptive solution” spanning through a longer period.

“UniCredit is investing in blockchain technology throughout internal research, experimentation and participation to DLG banking consortium. This contribution will play an important role in the global blockchain initiative”, the paper added.