Corda is a distributed ledger platform specifically designed for the financial sector, developed by the R3 consortium comprising over 70 financial institutions. It allows for the creation of permissioned, private networks to manage contracts and shared data, differing from traditional blockchains in that it does not broadcast transactions for global validation and lacks its own cryptocurrency. The platform aims to reduce transaction friction in business by avoiding intermediaries and focuses on delivering performance and security advantages tailored to financial applications.