Morgan Stanley writes that Blockchain, the technology for an open, verifiable general ledger, is still in a "proof of concept" phase, and it may be several years before it is used in everyday practice for financial settlements. They see incumbents such as UBS and BNY Mellon having an early advantage in testing the technology. The reason for the soaring value of Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies is less clear, they write.
Fans of the financial ledger technology known as Blockchain may be interested to know Morgan Stanley analysts today unveiled a longish (43 pages) white paper on the state of the technology in the financial services business, declaring that there is yet not “killer app” for BlockChain, but rather “we are now firmly in the middle of the proof-of-concept phase of development."
The report also offers some thoughts about why Bitcoin, the crypto-currency that took off in tandem with Blockchain, has been soaring in value.
Tech analyst James Faucette, along with several of his colleagues at Morgan, take a look bake at how things have progressed in the twelve months since they first wrote about the prospects for BlockChain to be used in financial settlements and other services.
The authors take a look at five case studies that have been done, including a government bond settlement project by BNY Mellon (BK), and something from UBS Group AG (UBS) called “utility settlement coin."
The premise of all of these experiments, they note, has generally been that "Blockchain is a tool to improve efficiency." "As the technology matures, funds and securities firms will have an opportunity to further reduce headcount and operational expense as Blockchain technology becomes more widely used to clear and settle transactions."
read more here : http://www.barrons.com/articles/blockchains-got-no-killer-app-yet-says-morgan-stanley-even-as-bitcoin-soars-1497377427