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Blockchain starts trading
By Teamspirit on Tuesday, 3 July 2018
This week saw the first ever live blockchain-based financial trades take place in Europe, using the blockchain platform we.trade.
we.trade is a joint venture by nine European banks using IBM’s proprietary Blockchain Platform. The goal is to allow banks to facilitate trade transactions between SMEs with greater transparency, more automation and lower risk than traditional methods. Distributed ledger technology (DLT) means everyone involved has access to a decentralised, open record.
The technology has been in development for a few years, but HSBC’s announcement that three of its clients have used it to complete open account transactions marks its first commercial use.
For a decade now, the world has watched blockchain grow from niche interest to a crypto-fuelled global phenomenon. Now the race is on to find definitive commercial uses for DLT.
If successful, this latest development could be just that, and mark a turning point for the technology that some say will soon come to dominate financial services – and beyond.
But for all the optimism, blockchain’s rise has been accompanied by a healthy dose of scepticism from some quarters. One thing is for certain: the fate of we.trade will be watched closely by many – including us.
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