Nasdaq has enlisted blockchain infrastructure provider Chain for its project to use digital ledger technology for the issuance and transfer of private company securities.
Exchange operator Nasdaq outlined plans earlier this year to tap the Open Assets Protocol colored coin initiative to create blockchain-enabled digital ledger technology at its Nasdaq Private Market platform, which is used by private companies for pre-IPO trading.
It has now called in Chain to help with the experiment, with the vendor also set to become the first to actually use the blockchain technology on Nasdaq Private Market later this year.
Bob Greifeld, CEO, Nasdaq, says: "This Nasdaq Private Market project aims to simplify the overwhelming challenges private companies face with manual ledger record-keeping. As blockchain technology continues to redefine not only how the exchange sector operates, but the global financial economy as a whole, Nasdaq aims to be at the center of this watershed development."
Nasdaq believes that the blockchain will provide integrity, audit ability, governance and transfer of ownership capabilities. The Nasdaq Private Market experiment is just the first step in an "enterprise-wide" embrace of the distributed ledger that will be led by Fredrik Voss, who has been named the company's Blockchain Technology Evangelist.