Overstock Purchases Stake in Stock Brokerage Firm for Upcoming Blockchain-based Securities Exchange
by GIULIO PRISCO on MAY 20, 2015
The Salt Lake City-based online retailer Overstock is working on a revolutionary new development: a new independent stock exchange dubbed Medici, powered by Bitcoin technology. The new stock exchange could sidestep traditional stock exchanges such as NYSE and NASDAQ and issue corporate stock directly over the Internet.
In a prospectus filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 24, Overstock indicated that it may issue up to $500 million in stock or other securities through an alternative trading system built upon blockchain technology that powers bitcoin. Overstock’s CEO Patrick Byrne is confident that the SEC will approve the filing eventually: “I wouldn’t have taken all the time and trouble and expense to do this if I didn’t plan on using it someday soon,” he told Wired. ... more
https://bitcoinmagazine.com/20482/overstock-purchases-stake-stock-brokerage-firm-upcoming-blockchain-based-securities-exchange/
Topic: NYSE launches a bitcoin index (Read 462 times)
Well, here´s another one. Enjoy.
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Nasdaq Signals Confidence in Bitcoin, Not Just the Blockchain
by SARAH TODD
MAY 19, 2015 3:10pm ET
Critics often pay Bitcoin a backhanded compliment by calling it the Napster of finance. The underlying technology may change how business is done, they say, but the system itself isn't long for this world.
Now the Nasdaq stock exchange is challenging that conventional wisdom by not only testing Bitcoin's much-vaunted blockchain technology, but doing so on the Bitcoin network.
Last week Nasdaq announced plans to use Bitcoin's blockchain – a real-time public ledger of transactions – with the exchange's private markets platform, designated for firms preparing for initial public offerings. Users will be able to issue and transfer securities on the blockchain via the Open Assets protocol, which uses specific units of bitcoin as tokens to represent ownership of equity shares or other assets. These tokens are referred to as "colored coins." If all goes well, Nasdaq may expand its use of blockchain technology to other businesses, including its central counterparty clearinghouses and central security depositories, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.
The shift to the blockchain represents a leap into the digital age for Nasdaq. Most stock exchanges use an outdated record-keeping system that relies on paper certificates. Bitcoin's distributed ledger will improve the auditability of Nasdaq's records and allow officials to keep better track of ownership of assets as they change hands, according to the person familiar with the decision.
Nasdaq is far from the only big-name firm to proclaim interest in using distributed-ledger technology to facilitate speedier, cheaper and more auditable transactions. But financial firms have typically dismissed Bitcoin itself as too risky for mainstream use.
Cryptocurrency researcher Tim Swanson explained this hesitancy in a report earlier this year, writing that banks were unlikely to adopt Bitcoin's "permissionless ledger" because the anonymity of blockchain users would make it hard to hold anyone accountable in instances of fraud or other transactions gone awry.
But now the financial industry has a "brand-name firm experimenting for real" with the Bitcoin blockchain, as Richard Gendal Brown, IBM UK's executive architect for innovation in banking and financial markets, wrote in a blog post last week. Nasdaq's move lends credence to the idea of using "the inherent security and open-access of the Bitcoin system to 'carry' representations of real-world assets," Brown wrote. "Dismissing [Bitcoin] entirely could be a big mistake." ..... more
http://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-technology/nasdaq-signals-confidence-in-bitcoin-not-just-the-blockchain-1074405-1.html
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Nasdaq Signals Confidence in Bitcoin, Not Just the Blockchain
by SARAH TODD
MAY 19, 2015 3:10pm ET
Critics often pay Bitcoin a backhanded compliment by calling it the Napster of finance. The underlying technology may change how business is done, they say, but the system itself isn't long for this world.
Now the Nasdaq stock exchange is challenging that conventional wisdom by not only testing Bitcoin's much-vaunted blockchain technology, but doing so on the Bitcoin network.
Last week Nasdaq announced plans to use Bitcoin's blockchain – a real-time public ledger of transactions – with the exchange's private markets platform, designated for firms preparing for initial public offerings. Users will be able to issue and transfer securities on the blockchain via the Open Assets protocol, which uses specific units of bitcoin as tokens to represent ownership of equity shares or other assets. These tokens are referred to as "colored coins." If all goes well, Nasdaq may expand its use of blockchain technology to other businesses, including its central counterparty clearinghouses and central security depositories, according to a person familiar with the company's thinking.
The shift to the blockchain represents a leap into the digital age for Nasdaq. Most stock exchanges use an outdated record-keeping system that relies on paper certificates. Bitcoin's distributed ledger will improve the auditability of Nasdaq's records and allow officials to keep better track of ownership of assets as they change hands, according to the person familiar with the decision.
Nasdaq is far from the only big-name firm to proclaim interest in using distributed-ledger technology to facilitate speedier, cheaper and more auditable transactions. But financial firms have typically dismissed Bitcoin itself as too risky for mainstream use.
Cryptocurrency researcher Tim Swanson explained this hesitancy in a report earlier this year, writing that banks were unlikely to adopt Bitcoin's "permissionless ledger" because the anonymity of blockchain users would make it hard to hold anyone accountable in instances of fraud or other transactions gone awry.
But now the financial industry has a "brand-name firm experimenting for real" with the Bitcoin blockchain, as Richard Gendal Brown, IBM UK's executive architect for innovation in banking and financial markets, wrote in a blog post last week. Nasdaq's move lends credence to the idea of using "the inherent security and open-access of the Bitcoin system to 'carry' representations of real-world assets," Brown wrote. "Dismissing [Bitcoin] entirely could be a big mistake." ..... more
http://www.americanbanker.com/news/bank-technology/nasdaq-signals-confidence-in-bitcoin-not-just-the-blockchain-1074405-1.html
NYSE launches a bitcoin index
By Brett Molina May 19, 2015 10:34 am
The New York Stock Exchange is launching an index for tracking bitcoin, adding a new layer of credibility to the rising cryptocurrency.
In a statement released Tuesday, the exchange says the NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) will track the U.S. dollar value of one bitcoin based on how the currency trades at select exchanges.
“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class,” said NYSE Group President Thomas Farley in a statement.
The announcement of a bitcoin exchange follows details of a plan that will make trading the currency much easier. Last month, software company AlphaPoint unveiled a service that gives users access to 20 bitcoin exchanges through one account.
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/19/nyse-launches-a-bitcoin-index/
By Brett Molina May 19, 2015 10:34 am
The New York Stock Exchange is launching an index for tracking bitcoin, adding a new layer of credibility to the rising cryptocurrency.
In a statement released Tuesday, the exchange says the NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) will track the U.S. dollar value of one bitcoin based on how the currency trades at select exchanges.
“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class,” said NYSE Group President Thomas Farley in a statement.
The announcement of a bitcoin exchange follows details of a plan that will make trading the currency much easier. Last month, software company AlphaPoint unveiled a service that gives users access to 20 bitcoin exchanges through one account.
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/19/nyse-launches-a-bitcoin-index/
Keep the good news rolling in my friend.
I might be getting ahead of myself but could we be about to embark on a new bull run or bubble within the next couple of months?
This is the 2nd or 3rd positive article I've seen today that should hold some significance.
Just as I was starting to feel deflated about all things bitcoin
NYSE launches a bitcoin index
By Brett Molina May 19, 2015 10:34 am
The New York Stock Exchange is launching an index for tracking bitcoin, adding a new layer of credibility to the rising cryptocurrency.
In a statement released Tuesday, the exchange says the NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) will track the U.S. dollar value of one bitcoin based on how the currency trades at select exchanges.
“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class,” said NYSE Group President Thomas Farley in a statement.
The announcement of a bitcoin exchange follows details of a plan that will make trading the currency much easier. Last month, software company AlphaPoint unveiled a service that gives users access to 20 bitcoin exchanges through one account.
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/19/nyse-launches-a-bitcoin-index/
By Brett Molina May 19, 2015 10:34 am
The New York Stock Exchange is launching an index for tracking bitcoin, adding a new layer of credibility to the rising cryptocurrency.
In a statement released Tuesday, the exchange says the NYSE Bitcoin Index (NYXBT) will track the U.S. dollar value of one bitcoin based on how the currency trades at select exchanges.
“Bitcoin values are quickly becoming a data point that our customers want to follow as they consider transacting, trading or investing with this emerging asset class,” said NYSE Group President Thomas Farley in a statement.
The announcement of a bitcoin exchange follows details of a plan that will make trading the currency much easier. Last month, software company AlphaPoint unveiled a service that gives users access to 20 bitcoin exchanges through one account.
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2015/05/19/nyse-launches-a-bitcoin-index/
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