The distributed ledger technology: a potential revamp for financial markets?

Abstract

... The financial industry has been witnessing an exponential rise in the number of innovative start-ups. Waves of digital innovation (widely known as financial technology or FinTech) have reached the world of banking and finance, and the distributed ledger technology (DLT) is one of the leading ‘surfers’. The DLT might have been created for the main purpose of serving digital cash. Today, both the public and private sectors are actively studying the concept and seeking possible ways to extend its application to a variety of other activities and problems. The trend is growing and different DLT designs are under test. Being at a very early stage of development, there are still numerous issues to tackle before this technology eventually realizes its full potential.1 That being said, the more the DLT develops and expands, the more experts would be able to evaluate its intrinsic as well as practical risks and rewards. In other words, the concern is not only about whether the DLT is inherently good or bad; stakeholders are also looking at the purposes for which and ways in which it would eventually be implemented.