We are running hands-on, practical experiments to explore whether, and if so, how, a blockchain-based application can feasibly be used to settle securities transactions. The prototype we have developed in conjunction with Deutsche Börse works. It can settle payments, both delivery-versus-payment (DvP) and free-of-payment (FoP) securities transactions, and it can process straightforward capital measures such as interest payments and redemptions of maturing bonds.
The challenge we are facing now is to engineer the prototype to a degree that yields robust insights into its performance. Being a provider of market infrastructure, we are naturally curious to know whether the technology is scalable, what it will really cost when it’s up and running, which technical issues might crop up when settling large numbers of trades, and much more besides.