Sydney Stock Exchange’s blockchain system targets venture capital funds, commodities
Two-year-old Sydney Stock Exchange is building a blockchain settlement system to avoid high ASX fees and build a market for venture capital funds to exit their investments and commodities markets. The distributed ledger will initially only be used to settle trades in private companies, but once regulatory approval is gained, it will settle trades in publicly listed stocks. SSX will promote the new settlement system as a low cost alternative to the ASX to try to attract private equity funds to exit their investments by listing on the SSX. Settlement instantaneous Once complete in early 2018, SSX hopes to sell versions of its system – which is being built with […]
Blockchain is here to stay
Blockchain, the technology that underpins Bitcoin, is the talk of the town at the moment. The financial services industry can’t get enough of it. The enthusiasm essentially boils down to the technology’s potential to reduce the financial transaction costs while ensuring robust security. While Bitcoin is unlikely to be make traditional currency extinct, blockchain has provided the impetus needed for new and innovative research into how the slow and often expensive centralised financial transaction systems that dominate banking, so what is this blockchain? Put simply, blockchain is a data structure that can be used to create digital ledgers of transactions shared among a distributed network of participating organisations. Financial institutions […]
Need to Know: Practical Bitcoin basics
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard the phrase Bitcoin uttered around tech circles, or maybe even on mainstream news outlets. Maybe you’ve seen Bitcoin as a payment option on stores like Steam and Microsoft’s. But what is Bitcoin, why should you care and is it worth bothering with? As to what Bitcoin is, simply put, it’s way of transferring money around. Some people think it’s a challenge to government reserve banks (probably not) or a whole new system of finance technology akin to the credit card (quite likely), but for us plebs, right now, it’s main utility is cheaply and quickly sending money from A to […]
R3 to raise up to $US200m from 42 global banks for blockchain trials
R3 CEV, the consortium of 42 global banks – including some of Australia’s biggest institutions – that is investigating how to employ blockchain technology in financial services, is planning an equity capital raising of up to $US200 million this year. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, National Australia Bank, Westpac Banking Corp and Macquarie are members of the R3 consortium that formed last year, so will be considering over the coming months the extent of their participation in the deal. Banks are investigating how to use blockchains, which could cut billions of dollars of costs from their organisations but also be disruptive given banks’ roles as trusted intermediaries and the fact that […]
PrimaryMarkets – First US Listing – Blockchain / Bitcoin
MEDIA RELEASE: PrimaryMarkets today announces its first US listing by offering for sale unlisted shares in one of the largest available exposures to the global blockchain / digital currency trade. PrimaryMarkets’ Members now have the opportunity to purchase a significant existing equity stake in this USA Company with a portfolio of more than 70 investments in 20 plus countries across early stage digital currency and blockchain investments, a bitcoin dealing desk and a digital currency fund management business. Existing investors include MasterCard, New York Life and Western Union. A newly appointed director of the Company is also a director of AT&T, NASDAQ and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. […]
Blockchain is useful for a lot more than just Bitcoin
Blockchains can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as tracking ownership or the provenance of documents, digital assets, physical assets or voting rights. Blockchain technology is not just useful for creating digital currencies such as Bitcoin or developing new financial technologies. Blockchains can be used for a wide variety of applications, such as tracking ownership or the provenance of documents, digital assets, physical assets or voting rights. Blockchain technology was popularised by the Bitcoin digital currency system. But, essentially, a blockchain is just a special kind of database. The Bitcoin blockchain stores cryptographically signed records of financial transfers, but blockchain systems can store any kind of data. […]
Fintech floater convinced blockchain its future
David Cassidy, the managing director of Irish float hopeful KYCkr says blockchain is the future of its business identity check business. KYCkr is raising between $6 million and $8 million by floating between 30 million and 40 million shares at 20¢ each on the Australian Securities Exchange in June. This would give it a market capitalisation of between $25 million and $27 million. The funds will be used to market the business in Europe and Asia as well as move its systems to a blockchain, or distributed ledger. The company, which has direct links with government business registries around the world, verifies the business customers of banks and other companies […]
Craig Wright says he will prove he is bitcoin creator
One day after Australian businessman Craig S. Wright declared he created the virtual currency bitcoin, he says he plans to prove it. After many bitcoin experts expressed scepticism about Mr. Wright’s claims, the 45-year-old computer scientist and engineer wrote Tuesday on his blog that he’ll present more evidence in coming days to prove he is Satoshi Nakomoto, bitcoin’s pseudonymous creator. “I will be posting a series of pieces that will lay the foundations for this extraordinary claim, which will include posting independently-verifiable documents and evidence,” Mr. Wright wrote. Specifically, Mr. Wright says he plans to move some bitcoin from an account that has been around since the early days of […]
