Blythe Masters on the Significance of Blockchains in Financial Industries

Excerpts from Masters address at Singularity University’s Exponential Finance 2015 Event.

Transactions On The Blockchain

Economic transactions on a digital ledger (blockchain) can be programmed to record virtually anything of value. Your identity. A will. A deed. A title. A license. Intellectual property. An invention. But also, almost any type of financial instrument; like an equity, or a bond, or even a loan, the list goes on.

Distributed ledger (blockchain) technology does have the potential to be disruptive.. we won’t get there overnight, but we will get there.

How seriously should you take this? I would take it about as seriously as you should have taken the concept of the Internet in the early 1990s. It’s a big deal. And it is going to change the way our financial world operates.

“Blythe Masters Firm Acquires Two Blockchain Startups: HyperLedger and Bits of Proof” — Bloomberg

Wall Street

“Nasdaq, one Wall Street firm embracing the blockchain technology, is pushing forward a plan to integrate it into its private market, partnering with a San Francisco-based start-up called Chain to issue and transfer shares on Nasdaq Private Market.” — Wall Street Journal