The last few months have brought blockchain technology a considerable amount of popularity, with numerous financial institutions and companies exploring the use cases of the technology, and developing new services.
According to a recent patent application published by the global stock exchange operator known as NASDAQ, the company is exploring potential uses of blockchain technology in regards to storing asset ownership data. In the patent application, submitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, NASDAQ explains how it will use the technology to record the owners of assets, while also allowing owners to access their assets via a special digital wallet.
The patent application mentions that:
“Information regarding the ownership of particular assets (e.g., shares in a company, etc.) are stored in a blockchain, and various data processing operations (referred to below as “application processing”) are performed using this ownership information.”
Not only this, but it also talks about the security potential of blockchain technology thanks to its immutability feature, which does not allow anyone to modify data being stored. As a network of nodes continuously verifies information being stored on the network, publishing false data on asset owners is not possible. According to the application, NASDAQ will use a form of distributed ledger technology where each of the nodes store an entire copy of the asset owner data. This way, neither security, nor efficiency will be a problem.
NASDAQ also believes that:
“While distributed ledger technologies such as blockchain show great potential, further improvements in the performance, efficiency, and capabilities of such technologies are needed.”
Therefore, it is important to point out the fact that in the past, NASDAQ has expressed its concerns on the potential disadvantages of blockchain technology, as more time needs to be invested to develop a fault-free system. Therefore, at this time, the technology cannot be fully implemented into the already-existing systems. Yet, once it is developed, then chances are that the system will provide great benefits, as inter-system integration will no longer be an issue, according to the head of product development for NASDAQ.
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what are your thoughts on NASDAQ exploring blockchain technology use cases for storing asset owner data? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.
