
Blockchain’s Next Big Test: Trillion-Dollar Repo Market - prostoalex
http://www.wsj.com/article_email/bitcoin-technologys-next-big-test-trillion-dollar-repo-market-1459256400-lMyQjAxMTA2NDI0OTAyMzkwWj
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tristanj
This is really huge news for blockchain tech. DTCC is _the_ clearinghouse for
securities in the US, they facilitate ownership transfer for the entire stock
market and most of the derivatives market. DTCC processes so much wealth it's
beyond silly, last year they processed something like $1.6 quadrillion worth.
it's Anyway, DTCC published a whitepaper [1] where they explained some of the
benefits of a blockchain based system. One enormous benefit (that the WSJ
authors missed) is that with a distributed blockchain-based system you can
reduce the current 3-business-day settlement period to a 0-business-day
settlement period (hours). A lower settlement time would make it easier to
evaluate positions and reconcile them. There'd need to be regulatory change
for this to happen, but if the current trial goes well and DTCC can show it
works, the system can be changed for the better.

We live in very exciting times :)

BTW, if the whitepaper is a bit too long to read, there's a great summary of
the DTCC blockchain situation here [https://medium.com/@Magnr/settlement-
authority-dtcc-wants-to...](https://medium.com/@Magnr/settlement-authority-
dtcc-wants-to-embrace-blockchain-technology-ad8253a49422) . Found it through
this HN thread
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11011805](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11011805)

Link to the whitepaper: [https://www.finextra.com/finextra-
downloads/newsdocs/embraci...](https://www.finextra.com/finextra-
downloads/newsdocs/embracing%20disruption%20white%20paper_final_jan-16.pdf)

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jgalt212
Not sure how this can be done given the blockchain's extremely low throughput.

If they want a database with complete history over time, why not choose a
solution like Dataomic?

