​On April 20, 2017, we were very proud to launch our inaugural “WSBA Innovation Spotlight”, sponsored by our friends at Capco. An exclusive, invite-only evening for senior executives from WSBA member firms, the event was designed to allow our members to engage in the deep, relevant conversation needed within financial markets to drive blockchain adoption and to really begin to answer the important questions that the industry needs answered. Questions that are now becoming about more than use cases or proofs of concept. Questions about things like governance & risk. Interoperability and integration. Reinvention and evolution.  And ultimately, as I mentioned in my opening comments for the evening, it is about a re-examining of “how we do what we do” as an industry, that will allow financial markets to evolve in a blockchain future. 

Our keynote address was by Ms. Joyce Shen, global director of emerging technology partnerships & investment for Thomson Reuters. She gave a wonderfully insightful commentary about the importance of innovation across financial markets, including innovation powered by the emergence of blockchain technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.

By Pete Harris, Principal, Lighthouse Partners, Inc. and WSBA Perspectives Blog Curator

In my last post, I gave an overview of some high profile open source blockchain platforms that are currently available or emerging.

But not everyone wants to go open source. So this time, I'll look at proprietary choices from ...

​Axoni - Axoni’s offering AxCore has been tested in several proof-of-concepts, including for processing of foreign exchange, equity swaps, corporate bond reference data and credit default swaps. In the CDS marketplace, Axoni is now working on a production rollout for the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. (DTCC). As a result of the DTCC deal, Axoni is expected to open source its platform, or at least a version of it.