Earlier this week Swift announced that it is partnering with Consensys to launch a conceptual prototype for a blockchain to form part of its infrastructure. While Consensys’s CEO Joe Lubin was reported as saying the ledger is the Linea Layer 2 blockchain, it’s more likely to be a clone of Linea as Swift’s Chief Innovation Officer Tom Zschach said the ledger did not yet exist.
The banking community has been strongly supportive of Swift’s initiative with 30 banks involved, but Fireblocks CEO Michael Shaulov was dismissive. Fireblocks is building its own payments network which targets both fintechs and traditional financial institutions. It has secured more than $10 trillion in digital asset transactions and counts BNY, Revolut and Worldpay as clients. In a LinkedIn post, Shaulov pointed to Swift conducting blockchain experiments since 2018 and that banks have lagged fintechs, despite a rapid acceleration this year. He added that Swift’s specifications are not appropriate for new market structures.
He stepped up the criticism by saying, “You can technically browse the internet using a fax machine – but I haven’t seen anyone doing it.”
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