One of the major QA challenges for financial firms over the coming years will be the testing of distributed ledger platforms and smart contracts. To unleash the potential of blockchain, there has to be quality assurance of the interoperability of large, heterogenous, networks of nodes connecting complex markets.
According Moray Grieve, head of QA at R3, their enterprise blockchain software platform, that is a “near-infinite, N²” challenge. Not only are there possibly hundreds of millions of nodal connections in the existing marketplace that have to be tested, but the assurance framework has to take account of the likely evolution of that particular blockchain network over years to come. State-of-the-art automated testing is the only possible answer to this challenge, on which R3 has been working with Exactpro Systems, which specialises in testing software in complex financial markets.
Since its launch in 2014 as a bank consortium for blockchain projects, R3 has developed its Corda platform as an “ecosystem” that now encompasses more than 300 different firms. In financial markets, it’s now involved in blockchain projects for markets ranging from the US cash equities markets, the FX interbank market, syndicate loans and Sukuk securities trading. It is working with a number of fintechs on these projects, as well as leading markets infrastructure providers, such as SIX Digital Exchange and CLS.
The QA Financial Forum London, which takes place on March 12th, will feature a Q&A session featuring R3’s Grieve and Iosif Itkin, the co-CEO and founder of Exactpro.
In the session, Grieve and Itkin will drill down into the specifics of functional and non-functional testing for blockchain networks, and how the requirements of testing Corda differs from the testing requirements of existing electronic exchange platforms.
And while each new marketplace presents its own, changeable conditions that appear only once the network is constructed, blockchain also offers the opportunity to construct smart contracts and distributed ledgers that themselves facilitate software automation and quality assurance.
To join us at the QA Financial Forum London on March 12th, visit: www.qa-financial.com/events.
