Scotland launches center for digital trust and distributed ledger tech

Scotland is launching a new institution focused on bringing innovation into payments and other industries. Over the next two years, the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Digital Trust and Distributed Ledger Technology will be focusing on research and skills training in areas such as digital payments, digital assets and digital identity, the organization announced last week.

The Centre is co-developed by FinTech Scotland and hosted by the Edinburgh Napier University (ENU) and its ENU’s Blockpass ID Lab. The University of Edinburgh’s Blockchain Technology Lab and the University of Glasgow’s Trustworthy Connected Systems Lab are also collaborating on the initiative while the initial funding is provided by Scottish Enterprise.

Among its tasks will be to solve real-world challenges in digital trust and distributed ledger technologies in the financial services sector and beyond.

“In a world where the dark side of AI is making it impossible to distinguish between the real and not, continued innovation to strengthen trust using privacy-preserving technologies is essential,” says the Centre’s CEO Nanik Ramchandani.

The Centre’s work is set to align with the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF). It will also seek to align with the 2022 FinTech Research and Innovation Roadmap published by FinTech Scotland and the Scottish Blockchain Roadmap, laid out by the Digital Trust Taskforce, an organization gathering stakeholders from industry, academia and government.

Meanwhile, the Scottish head of digital strategy and policy Becca Fairless has announced a refresh of the Joint Digital Strategy for Scotland, originally launched in 2021.

The strategy laid out a vision of digital transformation within local authorities.

The 2025 refresh of the strategy will bring more detailed implementation plans and focus on a smaller number of core deliverables in the medium term, says Fairless.

Article Topics

blockchain  |  digital identity  |  digital trust  |  financial services  |  fintech  |  research and development  |  Scotland