Can blockchain jolt energy payments? What about real estate?

Distributed ledgers such as blockchains have already attracted interest in streamlining cross-border transactions for e-commerce marketplaces, and the idea will soon be put to the test in markets such as energy payments and real estate.

In the power industry, for example, there’s a chance to trim time and cost from complicated transactions between power plants and the suppliers who sell electricity to consumers.

“When suppliers buy at wholesale, they want to be paid quickly,” said Joseph J. DePaolo, President and CEO at New York-based Signature Bank.

Signature Bank on Jan. 1 will open its Signet Platform to support real-time settlement for commercial payments. The bank is collaborating with truDigital Holdings, a New York-based blockchain infrastructure, exchange and settlement technology company.

Signet is positioned as a streamliner, similar to how Ripple and R3 use distributed ledgers to remove the...