Aber is a strategic agreement, termed “Azzam” by the joint central bank of Saudi Arabia and Central bank of UAE to foster domestic and cross border banking between the two nations. As reported in a recent overview, the ongoing project shows significant improvement and will strengthen bilateral trades among the users. Hence, it is fit to say that Aber helps the nations overcome centralized banking hassles. , 

“The name Aber was selected because, as the Arabic word, for ‘crossing boundaries,’ it both captures the cross-border nature of the project as well as our hope that it would also cross boundaries in terms of the use of the technology,” the 90-page long report reads.

Aber has been designed as an open-source, yet priorities security and privacy. Hence, the team says it is exploring private permissioned blockchain systems. Such networks as the IBM and Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, JP Morgan; Ethereum based Quorum, and R3’s Corda networks are case studies at its early stage. It has since stated that the project will not be considering public permissioned systems as stated below; 

“Note that public blockchain protocols such as Ripple and Stellar (XLM, -0.44%), which are often positioned for cross-border remittance use cases, were ruled out because of the obvious need for permissioning and privacy for an interbank payment use case (which these protocols didn’t support),”

It’s choice of open source, private, and secured systems are to achieve optimum privacy and security to foster serving the two-nation in the long term. 

Aber has confirmed a work in progress, and as such, has its one share of challenges. However, according to the report, the project has many benefits and will foster cross-border trades and banking. 

Okereke Chinweokwu

Okereke has a passion for researching blockchain and cryptocurrency. He enjoys creating long form educational content to inform others on the opportunities in this space.