ING bank reportedly entering crypto custody space

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There’s an issue inherent to the financial space that has existed since money was first conceived. There are, and always have been, individuals who will try to steal from anyone they can. This is true in the cryptocurrency space, as well, although steps are being taken to make theft more difficult. According to an exclusive report by Reuters, a global banking giant wants to get involved in securing digital assets and Dutch bank ING is now working on new solutions. 

ING is working on technology that it says will help protect digital assets more securely. It has launched a development project in Amsterdam to figure out a better solution, although the project is still only its infancy. Digital asset security is said to be just one of the projects the financial company is working on as it has apparently decided to embrace the future of blockchain and crypto. 

According to a statement ING delivered to Reuters, the bank “sees increasing opportunities with regard to digital assets on both asset-backed and native security tokens.” It is focusing a lot of its efforts in asset storage in order to give its customers a compliant and trustworthy way to get into the Bitcoin ecosystem, which the bank acknowledges is going to become a part of a global financial environment. 

Blockchain offers a lot of benefits other platforms can’t. Any type of contract can be instantly saved and shared across the globe in a register that cannot be altered, and can be done at a minute fraction of the standard costs of doing business. More companies across the globe are beginning to realize the advantages to blockchain adoption, especially in the financial realm, and are exploring ways to get involved in order to become more efficient and to reduce costs. 

Financial entities have also come to the realization that blockchain and crypto aren’t going to go away—that they’re not just a passing fad. As interest grows, competition is forcing them to answer the call from their customers, or face exoduses as their clients look for solutions that can fit all of their needs. 

Many are going about it the wrong way, though. Banks and financial entities are trying to develop their own blockchain solutions and the vast majority of these, even after years of testing, are still not ready to be introduced. The better solution would be to integrate an established blockchain that has already been shown to be stable and capable of fulfilling their needs, drastically reducing the amount of resources these entities put into their solutions.