Soramitsu marks 10 years of Hyperledger Iroha in Bakong

Soramitsu has marked 10 years since Hyperledger Iroha entered the Hyperledger project, linking the milestone to the software's use in Cambodia's Bakong payment system.

Iroha was first proposed by contributors from Soramitsu, Hitachi, NTT DATA and Colu, and later moved into production with the release of Iroha 1.0. The open-source project has since been used in payments, digital assets and financial infrastructure, particularly in systems that institutions can operate directly.

Its most prominent deployment remains Bakong, the payment infrastructure developed with the National Bank of Cambodia and launched in 2020. Built on Hyperledger Iroha, the system connects participating financial institutions and supports payments in Cambodian riel and US dollars.

According to the National Bank of Cambodia's Financial Stability Review 2025, Bakong processed about 1.326 billion transactions in 2025, up 118.7% from the previous year. Total transaction value reached KHR 899.1 trillion, or about 4.5 times Cambodia's GDP.

Riel-denominated payments accounted for 58.2% of transactions by number, the review said. It also recorded QR payment connectivity arrangements with eight regional economies and four international payment service providers.

Regional use

Beyond Cambodia, Soramitsu has worked with central banks and public institutions across Asia and the Pacific on digital currency and payment projects based on Iroha.

In Laos, Soramitsu and the Bank of the Lao PDR began the DLak digital kip proof of concept in 2023, following a feasibility study initiated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. In the Solomon Islands, the Bokolo Cash proof of concept examined domestic payments, interbank transactions and simulated cross-border transfers.

In Papua New Guinea, Soramitsu worked with the Bank of Papua New Guinea and Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on the Digital Kina proof of concept, completed in early 2025. LF Decentralized Trust has highlighted Iroha's role in central bank digital currency proof-of-concept work in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The software has also been used beyond mainstream payments. Palau Invest, a digital savings bond prototype introduced in 2024 with support from Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, was built on Iroha 2 and aimed to link domestic savings with national development.

Soramitsu also joined the Asian Development Bank's cross-border securities settlement initiative, announced in 2022. In Japan, its Byacco payment system brought digital payments to the University of Aizu.

Other projects cited by Soramitsu included work on identity, insurance and supply-chain systems. In Indonesia, Soramitsu and PT Bank Central Asia completed a proof of concept for a self-sovereign identity system that used Iroha to store cryptographic proofs of verified documents shared between partners for know-your-customer and onboarding processes.

Earlier projects with Sompo Holdings explored weather-derivative workflows, while a proof of concept with Toray Industries examined traceability for recycled materials. Those projects reflected a broader effort to test the software in areas where permissions, auditability and shared records matter.

Next architecture

Hyperledger Iroha 3 and an associated architecture known as SORA Nexus remain in development. Soramitsu described SORA Nexus as a structure built around institutional data spaces, where banks, central banks and other organisations manage their own data, authority, policies and applications.

Under that design, each data space can contain multiple lanes used for transaction routing and certification. Iroha 3 is intended to support public, permissioned and consortium networks, while retaining explicit permissions and programmable assets through the Iroha Virtual Machine and its smart-contract language, Kotodama.

The aim is to let institutions connect domestic payments, cross-border exchange and digital assets while keeping control of policy and private data. Work on established financial messaging standards, including ISO 20022, is intended to support integration with existing systems.

A congratulatory message came from the Global Blockchain Business Council. "Congratulations to the Hyperledger Iroha open source community for achieving another major milestone, this time for 10 years of pioneering, building and leading. Global Blockchain Business Council is grateful and wishes Hyperledger Iroha and its contributors, such as Soramitsu, much success into the next decade," said Sandra Ro, Chief Executive Officer of the Global Blockchain Business Council.

Dr Makoto Takemiya, Co-Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer of Soramitsu, said the project's first decade had demonstrated the role of open-source software in public financial systems. "Hyperledger Iroha's first decade has shown what happens when open-source engineering meets institutions committed to serving their countries and communities. Bakong, in partnership with the National Bank of Cambodia, and our partners' work across Asia and the Pacific have made that purpose tangible.

"The next decade should make it easier for these systems to work together. With Iroha 3-powered SORA Nexus, our ambition is to connect economies globally, promoting high economic growth, while enabling central banks, corporations and other institutions to retain control of their currencies, policies and data."