The consultancy company Deloitte has announced it starts recruiting staff for its new blockchain development facility in Dublin. The lab will produce proof-of-concepts and blockchain-based apps.

Within the next 18 months, Deloitte’s Dublin-based lab will employ 50 blockchain developers and designers. The activity of the lab will be oriented to financial sectors of Europe, Middle East and North Africa.

“We are proud that Ireland has been chosen as the location for this lab. Not only was the strength, expertise, and proven capability of the Deloitte Ireland blockchain team recognised, but the proximity to the headquarters of many global technology companies, our strong focus on innovation and R&D, and the support from governmental institutions, academia, and the local FinTech industry were all key factors in securing this investment,”

says Brendan Jennings, managing partner at Deloitte Ireland.

Earlier Deloitte confirmed the information that it cooperates with five blockchain companies to provide its clients from financial sector with new technological capabilities. The companies in question are BlockCypher, Bloq, ConsenSys, Loyyal and the Stellar Development Foundation.

“There is significant demand from clients who are looking to use blockchain to speed up payments and transfer clearances, settlements, reconciliations and digital identity, and many other use cases,”

says David Dalton, head of financial services department of Deloitte Ireland.

In December 2015, Deloitte launched the Rubix project to explore potential uses of the blockchain technology for businesses. Among the sectors that could be enhanced by the use of blockchain and are being studied by Deloitte are the healthcare sector, supply chain sector and loyalty space.

In March 2016, the company’s report “Banking Industry Outlook: Banking reimagined” predicted total transformation of banking within ten years. According to the authors, blockchain is expected to revolutionise the payments ecosystem. Its effect will not be limited to retail payments but will also transform trade finance, cross-border payments and payment reconciliation. Deloitte expects the distributed ledger technology to be widely applied in payments over the next five years.

Anna Lavinskaya