Capgemini, one of the leading providers of consulting, technology and outsourcing services, has entered into a partnership with Berlin-based startup ascribe GmbH to develop a blockchain database solution built on BigchainDB – a scalable blockchain database – for a rewards and loyalty system for consumer banking that tracks processed transactions in real-time.

Under the partnership, Capgemini will bring its extensive financial services, consulting and digital technology expertise in BigchainDB to design and develop a loyalty and rewards system.

The blockchain database solution will help banks to have flexibility on offering a robust, cost-efficient and secure reward system, while providing consumers the ability to use rewards across multiple merchants. It will enable banks to offer consumers the ability to combine loyalty points from various programs and use them in real-time for redemption.

“The potential of blockchain technology to enable a better customer experience is considerable and Capgemini and ascribe are excited to be part of this transformation,” said Sankar Krishnan, Vice President, Financial Services, Capgemini. “For loyalty rewards programs, a blockchain-based solution could enable a real-time, localized view of data for both merchants and consumers, providing opportunities for new rewards programs for consumers as well as the potential for improved management of assets and resources for merchants.”

This news follows Capgemini‘s recent push to expand its blockchain practice. Last month, the company hired a core team of leading blockchain technology specialists to develop innovative digital frameworks and prototypes and build a world-class blockchain ecosystem. The company is collaborating with some of the world's leading financial services organizations to help them embrace blockchain technology and plans to expand its global team to more than 100 professionals by the end of this year. 

With its partnership with ascribe, Capgemini will be able to execute demonstrations for its retail banking clients and deliver on this vision.

Founded in 2014, ascribe is a service for creators to register and track intellectual property using blockchain technology. Leading artists, museums, and marketplaces have already started using the service. Since its inception, over 4,000 creators have declared 7,000 digital works and 30,000 unique editions. In addition, several marketplaces and platforms have signed-on to work with ascribe via their API.

“The world wants prototypes and use cases for blockchain technologies," said Bruce Pon, CEO of BigchainDB, part of ascribe. "Working with Capgemini, we’re going to develop multiple proof-of-concepts that are immediately applicable to the real-world.”

BigchainDB, started by ascribe last year, was a direct result of seeing scalability as a fundamental barrier to wider adoption of blockchain. BigchainDB is a decentralized, federated and customizable blockchain database capable of one million writes per second, petabytes of capacity, rich querying and permissioning. It has been in news recently for its partnership with Eris Industries and Encrypted Labs.