Infoteria, a Japan-based software development firm, has been working with Myanmar microfinance firm BC Finance on an experiment to create a low-cost and highly reliable blockchain infrastructure to record financial transactions.
Nikkei Asian Review reported that Infoteria announced last month it has successfully demonstrated the application of the blockchain system to microfinance services in Myanmar for the first time in the world, recording financial transactions for low-income people.
The experiments were based on Tech Bureau’s Mijin private blockchain. Tech Bureau and Infoteria successfully transferred loan and deposit account data from BC Finance to the Mijin platform. The experiment took place between May 28 and June 5 of 2016 and was assessed by three engineers – two from Infoteria and one from BC finance.
Yoichiro Hirano, president and CEO of Infoteria, said that a blockchain can be built at a cost less than one-tenth of that needed to create a conventional database. However, he stressed that although blockchain experiments could be successfully demonstrated, it would take more than five years to introduce the technology in place of the existing systems.
Due to lack of confidence in Myanmar's internet infrastructure, a data center in Japan was used for the experiment. The successful results demonstrate the ability Myanmar's cloud-computing environment to handle the blockchain technology. Infoteria is considering using data centers in Singapore and India for the system, Nikkei Asian Review reported.
"As a major achievement of our successful demonstration experiment, we could confirm that cloud-computing environments are workable in Myanmar," Hirano said.
Infoteria intends to continue running demonstration tests on data records until next month. The Japanese company also plans to launch joint projects in collaboration with other companies to develop programs such as a management system for users of microfinance services. Hirano said that if the technology proves commercially applicable in Myanmar, Infoteria will expand the initiative to other emerging-market countries.
