Two major Australian banks have joined global payments network Swift, as well as 32 peers in 15 other countries, to develop a new blockchain-based shared ledger that will standardise the instant cross-border movement of digital assets like cryptocurrency.

The new ledger will provide a secure, real-time log of transactions between financial institutions, providing a secure and permanent log of the movement of digital assets that complements the financial network Swift maintains across over 200 countries.

It will be based on a conceptual prototype developed by Ethereum blockchain specialist Consensys, which advertises itself as facilitator of the finance industry’s “broadband moment” and argues “Ethereum is the…