We all know NASDAQ, but for many the initial thought is it is a Stock Market and price reporting company. No, no no. For quite some time NASDAQ has transformed into a fintech company. They are extremely active in blockchain technology and all the potential applications. So guess what (this will really shock you)? The head of blockchain innovation there thinks it’s really big and has even more potential than first thought. Whoa!! Looks like someone is going to ask for a raise. All kidding aside, great insight to a leader in financial innovation.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
'As vice president of blockchain innovation at Nasdaq, Fredrik Voss is one of the most experienced executives working with blockchain technology, which many believe will transform financial services as well as other industries.
According to a recent report by Bain & Company, 80% of financial market participants say the technology will transform their industry and expect their companies to adopt it by 2020.
Nasdaq was the first financial services incumbent to create a product based on the technology that powers bitcoin. Called Nasdaq Linq, it uses blockchain technology to power capitalization tables, which private firms use to manage shares in their companies. Since then, Nasdaq has also tested its blockchain-powered electronic shareholder voting system in Estonia.
And what does Voss conclude about blockchain based on his experience? “There is a long way to go before we see a very wide scale adoption of the technology in capital markets, but it looks more promising now than we thought three years ago,” he says.
In the latest episode of my podcast Unchained (Google Play, iTunes, Stitcher or TuneIn Radio), Voss talks about what he’s learned about blockchain in the years he’s worked with it, how Nasdaq evaluates whether a project could be helped by a blockchain, how the technology still needs to develop in order to be more widely used, and why he considers blockchain a way of giving a “special set of goggles to regulators....”'
Read Full Article at Forbes.com