In the last few years there has been a surge in financial technologies. Companies of all sizes, from startups to well establish giants of the financial services, have been exploring new ways for people to move their assets and place their capital. Perhaps one of the most innovative breakthroughs in financial technologies has been the development of distributed ledgers and blockchain systems, which allow for transaction settlements and verifications to be carried almost automatically using nodes, saving transaction costs and times. Such technologies could be an alternative to the global SWIFT system which, although revolutionary in its moment, still requires bank chains which make transactions slower and more costly than they need to be.
Despite how amazing distributed ledger technology (DLT) is yet to live up to their full potential. The creation of the first cryptocurrencies back in 2009 was a rightful motive for hype. It was believed that the Bitcoin would soon replace traditional currencies, raising the interest of companies, governments and traders. After more than a decade however, this doesn’t seem any closer to being reality. Many enterprises have made their own ventures into the uncharted territory of distributed ledgers and blockchain-based assets with varying degrees of success, but none of them have made the revolutionary breakthrough that DLT can achieve. The Ripple network with its XRP currency has been the host of countless transactions and the Ethereum platform has paved the way for the creation of many interesting applications employing the Ether crypto. Nevertheless, it’s not quite common to hear a person talking about how many Ethers they spent in their last grocery shopping session, or how much XRP their last Christmas present for their children cost them. As amazing as digital currencies are, most of them remain as little more than tools for monetary speculation.
To learn more: https://financialnewsjournal.com/the-need-for-a-new-asset-class/
