A group of firms including Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Microsoft Corp, Deloitte and Cboe Global Markets Inc are joining a new blockchain system aimed at linking disparate institutional applications, potentially encouraging broader adoption of distributed ledger technology in financial markets.
Participants in the Canton Network, which is scheduled to begin testing some features in July, say the system offers better privacy and controls than what is currently available.
At the same time, it would achieve a scale and standard appropriate for financial institutions, the companies said in a statement on Tuesday.
Photo: Bloomberg
Other participating firms include Digital Asset Holdings, ASX, BNP Paribas, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Deutsche Borse Group, Cumberland DRW LLC, Moody’s Investors Service, Paxos Trust Co and SBI Digital Asset Holdings Co.
The network would bind together blockchain apps that were created using Daml — a smart-contract language created by Digital Asset, the blockchain start-up formerly led by former JPMorgan Chase & Co senior executive Blythe Masters and backed by some of the world’s largest financial institutions.
Banks and other large corporations have been developing and testing blockchain applications for years in the hope that they can simplify and speed up some of their most complex processes.
Part of the effort has revolved around exploring ways to transform traditional securities, such as stocks and bonds, into tokens on a blockchain. Others have focused on speeding up trading and settlement of various assets, or facilitating international payments.
While a number of systems have been tested and some applications have gone live, such blockchain networks have yet to be taken up on a large scale.
Part of what is holding the existing applications back is their inability to connect different blockchain systems built by different organizations, while at the same time allowing creators to retain the controls and privacy required in regulated financial markets, the network’s proponents said.
As a so-called “network of networks,” Canton says it can overcome this by allowing systems to work together without requiring the entities that run them to give up control.
This could also enable firms to link in systems that are separate in today’s market — for example, asset registries and cash payment systems, the statement said.
At present, Canton can connect existing applications built using Daml — such as Goldman’s Digital Asset Platform, a system for issuing assets on the blockchain — with Deutsche Borse Group’s D7 post trade platform, the statement said.
The network’s reach should grow as more applications are built using this coding language.
While the initiative has gained the support of about 30 firms, there have been several blockchain consortia in finance with high-profile participants throughout the years. Their level of success has varied.
Large blockchain projects in finance are complex: New technology must be deployed across numerous firms operating in regulated markets. The complexity has in some cases resulted in projects being delayed, paused or scrapped.
Semiconductor shares in China surged yesterday after Reuters reported the US had ordered chipmaking giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to halt shipments of advanced chips to Chinese customers, which investors believe could accelerate Beijing’s self-reliance efforts. TSMC yesterday started to suspend shipments of certain sophisticated chips to some Chinese clients after receiving a letter from the US Department of Commerce imposing export restrictions on those products, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing an unnamed source. The US imposed export restrictions on TSMC’s 7-nanometer or more advanced designs, Reuters reported. Investors figured that would encourage authorities to support China’s industry and bought shares
FLEXIBLE: Taiwan can develop its own ground station equipment, and has highly competitive manufacturers and suppliers with diversified production, the MOEA said The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) yesterday disputed reports that suppliers to US-based Space Exploration Technologies Corp (SpaceX) had been asked to move production out of Taiwan. Reuters had reported on Tuesday last week that Elon Musk-owned SpaceX had asked their manufacturers to produce outside of Taiwan given geopolitical risks and that at least one Taiwanese supplier had been pushed to relocate production to Vietnam. SpaceX’s requests place a renewed focus on the contentious relationship Musk has had with Taiwan, especially after he said last year that Taiwan is an “integral part” of China, sparking sharp criticism from Taiwanese authorities. The ministry said
US President Joe Biden’s administration is racing to complete CHIPS and Science Act agreements with companies such as Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co, aiming to shore up one of its signature initiatives before US president-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. The US Department of Commerce has allocated more than 90 percent of the US$39 billion in grants under the act, a landmark law enacted in 2022 designed to rebuild the domestic chip industry. However, the agency has only announced one binding agreement so far. The next two months would prove critical for more than 20 companies still in the process
CHANGING JAPAN: Nvidia-powered AI services over cellular networks ‘will result in an artificial intelligence grid that runs across Japan,’ Nvidia’s Jensen Huang said Softbank Group Corp would be the first to build a supercomputer with chips using Nvidia Corp’s new Blackwell design, a demonstration of the Japanese company’s ambitions to catch up on artificial intelligence (AI). The group’s telecom unit, Softbank Corp, plans to build Japan’s most powerful AI supercomputer to support local services, it said. That computer would be based on Nvidia’s DGX B200 product, which combines computer processors with so-called AI accelerator chips. A follow-up effort will feature Grace Blackwell, a more advanced version, the company said. The announcement indicates that Softbank Group, which until early 2019 owned 4.9 percent of Nvidia, has secured a
RSS