Community Blog

In today’s innovation-driven economy, open source software has become a powerhouse for collaboration, rapid development, and cost-effective solutions. At the same time, patents—often seen as tools of exclusivity and protection—play a crucial, if sometimes underappreciated, role in safeguarding these projects. When managed strategically, patents not only protect innovations but also enhance the credibility and financial viability of open source initiatives. This article explores the intersection of patents and open source projects, with a particular emphasis on their importance in the financial sector.

Watch an engaging session in the Open Source in Finance Webinar Series, where Hedera’s Mike Cave and Justin Atwell dive into how Web3, distributed ledger technology (DLT), and AI are transforming financial infrastructure—featuring real-world use cases, sustainability insights, and Hedera’s unique approach to decentralized governance through open source.

The 2024 API Innovation Hackathon, part of the annual SupTech Week organized by Cambridge SupTech Lab, ran virtually from December 3 to December 13. This year, the hackathon attracted 104 participants from 16 countries, forming 18 registered teams, with 4 teams reaching the final showcase during SupTech Week.

Explore Cambridge SupTech Lab Hackathon & community engagement opportunities here.

This hackathon, Supported by FINOS, focused on developing a cutting-edge API builder for financial supervision, leveraging open standards and tools to revolutionize regulatory frameworks. The goal was to create efficient, adaptable, and future-ready solutions that enhance financial authorities' ability to manage data and intelligence flows.

The delay in getting commercial value on real world applications from quantum computing can be attributed to one overarching fact, the hardware is not ready yet. Whereas classical information is represented on transistors as “bits,” quantum information is represented on physical quantum bits, aka “qubits.” Now, how does one engineer a qubit? There are different proposals for this. However, physical qubits remain in relatively short supply, and like early transistors are far too error-prone for reliable computation. We need breakthroughs.

The financial industry got a significant upgrade in data standardization with the release of CDM 6.0, the latest production version of the Common Domain Model. This release, the second major update since the model found its home at FINOS, represents a collaborative effort with ISDA, ISLA, and ICMA and brings over 100 functional and technical enhancements. If you're involved in financial data management and building systems for post-trade services, this is a release you need to know about.

Major components of this release include:

• Asset Refactoring: This is a major overhaul of how financial products are represented in the CDM, bringing greater consistency and clarity across a wider range of asset classes. This refactoring is crucial for supporting complex securities financing transactions and enabling future expansion of the model.
• Option Payout Refactoring: Simplifies the definition of option contracts, making them easier to understand and manage.
• Standardized IM Schedule: Introduces a standardized approach to calculating initial margin.

... as well as several additional model changes, bug fixes and synonym mappings since the last production release (CDM 5.20).

Watch an engaging session in the Open Source in Finance Webinar Series, where ControlPlane's Francesco Beltramini shares insights on Cyber Incident Response Tabletop Exercises (TTX) enhancing the cybersecurity posture of regulated organizations such as financial institutions.