[legolassexyman]

This is the main application for Bitcoin IMO: custody and trade settlement in securities. I have wanted to do this exact thing, issue bonds on a blockchain for some industry or government, since I found out about Bitcoin. Unfortunately, I do not have the kinds of connections necessary to be in the same room as major corporate bond sellers.

Between this news and the DTCC using blockchain for CDS it seems to me that Bitcoin is going to get left behind by the old world companies it sought to replace. Blockstream seems too happy to sit on their hands while the speculative value of Bitcoin increases, not realizing that the chance to actually matter in the world of finance is slipping through their fingers.

Bad news for Bitcoin: http://m.nasdaq.com/article/dtcc-to-launch-blockchain-credit...

[bo1024]

> This is the main application for Bitcoin IMO: custody and trade settlement in securities.

Could you explain what problem bitcoin (or blockchains in general) solve in this space, or what improvement they can bring?

[closeparen]

You can't be trusted to self-certify what you own. Middlemen who are trusted to keep the records of who owns what charge fees for their services.

[bo1024]

Wow, interesting, I had no idea something like that would be a problem. Still seems surprising to me that whoever creates the blockchain couldn't just maintain the data structure as a centralized trusted authority, e.g. if they are going to be the one paying out the bond later anyway.

[thisisit]

We routinely hear stories about a "fat fingered" trader. While most of the trades remain irreversible, sometimes they can be rolled back too. What happens if there is a massive error (or even a hack) and the trades of say 1billion cannot be rolled back?

The problem of immutability works both ways. Surely, DTCC could build a better solution, provide say better APIs (hmmm, startup idea if someone wants to take it up) to brokers so that the information is always up to date instead of relying on blockchain.

[atomical]

Why wouldn't they use Ethereum?

[legolassexyman]

Ethereum's main selling point is it lets you issue illegal unregistered securities. Why would a real company want to associate with that?

Also the lead developer is some kid who believes very much in moving fast and breaking things. This philosophy may work for a social network site but not for other people's money.

How many terrible bugs have been discovered in Ethereums short history? Too many. Additionally the size of its blockchain has already passed Bitcoin. It's file size is growing so fast and will pose a serious technical problem.

[anilshanbhag]

Ethereum's main selling point is it lets you issue illegal unregistered securities. => Well that is the whole point of being decentralized. Anyone can do anything allowed by EVM.

Also the lead developer is some kid who believes very much in moving fast and breaking things. This philosophy may work for a social network site but not for other people's money. => Well they have improved significantly. There are 3 implementations - one each in cpp, go and py. There are multiple miner implementation. It is significantly more mature and many people involved. See https://github.com/ethereum/go-ethereum for example.

'terrible bugs'? there was one terrible bug a long time ago

Additionally the size of its blockchain has already passed Bitcoin. It's file size is growing so fast and will pose a serious technical problem. => Storage is not a problem. We get TB size drives now. Most people use online wallets. There are various pruning measures which reduce the size significantly. There are many proposals to handle scaling if it were to become bottleneck.

[DennisP]

Also a very popular implementation in Rust.

https://parity.io/

[atomical]

Bitcoin is used for drugs, prostitution, and gambling.

That terrible bug was the DAO, but that's the nature of the blockchain and applies to Bitcoin as well. If you want rollbacks you use a centralized server.

[ryanlol]

Where can you pay for prostitutes with bitcoin? I've only ever seen cash and credit cards accepted.

[atomical]

I'm not familiar, but I know that 99% of the current startups that are using the ICO model are not targeting what made Bitcoin popular.

[brighton36]

backpage accepts bitcoin. So do the girls who use backpage, as a result

[grubles]

Bitcoin was also used to fund development for Ethereum.

[polotics]

Wow, if this were Wikipedia you'd get a few "citation needed"

[subway]

It's more likely they would use their own private blockchain. (Something ethereumish, like JP Morgan's Quorum, or Hyperledger Fabric).

[atomical]

I was trying to draw that point out. Sometimes news like this is used to pump crypto coins.

[jjn2009]

hyperledger fabric is not a 'coin'.