The UK RLN Experimentation Phase that concluded in September 2024 had explored three important use cases for the technology, but there was clearly a great deal more that could be done with the RLN platform. The Hackathon brought together market-leading innovators to test the capabilities and explore the wider potential of programmable tokenised commercial bank money and shared ledgers for businesses, consumers and the UK’s ‘smart data economy’. The hackathon generated and tested amazing ideas, from utilising corporate IDs and digitally certified credentials to tackle, at source, the growing challenge of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud from online marketplaces, to increasing access to carbon credits for investors. 

Building interoperability between systems 

The RLN platform can enable interoperability between different forms of digital assets and money, allowing businesses and consumers to use them as a means of payment and settlement. Kaleido, who were the winners of the hackathon, built a solution to facilitate cross-ledger transactions by connecting external asset networks running on various protocols with RLN, to manage payments in different forms of money. Participants advanced the platform’s huge potential to connect different payment systems together through interoperable programmable ledgers. R3, who also showcased a solution at the hackathon, looked to streamline cross-border payments using the RLN platform, including the use of smart contracts to streamline the process of receiving, checking and processing payments between businesses overseas.  

Enabling new functionality in payments 

SETL, one of the runners up, created a solution that utilised the RLN platform to settle ‘location-based’ payments, where the business app supported e.g. car-parking and congestion charging zones. Meanwhile, Applied Blockchain leveraged the fact that the UK now has in place the Electronic Trade Documents Act 2023, to develop an application to streamline and digitise the workflow of trade settlements and value exchange by using electronic bill of lading documentation, locked deposit tokens and smart contracts, whilst preserving privacy among participants. Projective Group, on the other hand, utilised the innovative capabilities of RLN to develop a solution to develop an automated VAT payment system, which could open-up possibilities for utilising VAT pots for other collateral.  

Instant settlement of assets 

The potential to instantaneously exchange assets and securities with commercial bank money using a DLT is an important use case for both central and commercial banks. For the hackathon, Clearbank / GMEX developed a solution to utilise this element of the RLN platform to automatically connect accounting data with carbon credits to advance the accessibility of carbon credit trading. EPAM also looked to leverage this capability by developing an automated payroll system, using automatic settlement built through the RLN platform to pay employees at specific times of the calendar month, including e.g. hour by hour. In a similar vein, the Santander team explored the benefits of digital money transactions for the gig economy. The Lloyds Banking Group team looked at the business challenge of syndicated loans and developed a solution to automate this process, using multi-locks to manage the disbursement of funds. 

Advancing the control, security and resilience of payments 

One of the foundational capabilities of the RLN platform is an ability to ‘lock’ and ‘unlock’ funds at various stages of the payment lifecycle. Commerzbank, who came second, developed a corporate payments solution, which took full advantage of the platform's ability to give businesses more control over the corporate contract payments: using smart contracts and funds locking, from the supplier order acceptance stage, to redeeming the deposit token. Wipro developed a solution to automate the payment of procuration fees to mortgage brokers on the back of a smart contract attached to completion of a mortgage application. Quant developed a solution for allowing friends to split expenses but with guaranteed settlement at a specified time. Meanwhile, Barclays showcased a novel idea for account supervision, utilising the RLN functionality to enable great confidence and security for vulnerable customers. 

Enabling digital verification and identity 

Participants showcased the power of seamlessly connecting advanced digital verification and identity capabilities with settlement of funds. OneID’s solution showcased the potential of developing an ID verification user interface for consumers paying for goods in online marketplaces, giving them the ability to fully authenticate a business or peer-to-peer seller using their corporate identification through Companies House, or an authorised form of personal verification (driver’s license, passport). 

Next steps 

A big thank you to the teams who also presented solutions at the hackathon.  

The hackathon was a fantastic showcase of the opportunities the RLN ‘platform for innovation’ can unlock. Thanks to all the teams involved who brought a number of great ideas to life in just a few hours. The next phase for the RLN project is now being defined and UK Finance looks forward to advancing the work with members and other stakeholders, helping to bring about the ambition, laid out in the recent National Payments Vision, of a “trusted, world-leading payments ecosystem delivered on next generation technology”. 

UK Finance will be publishing the full suite of presentations from each participating firm, so be on the lookout for these in the coming weeks. See here for further details of the two days, including the winning team, and runners-up.