Distributed ledger technology – panacea or flash in the pan?Conclusion
DLT has a disruptive potential in the financial market. Like the hammer that shatters glass yet can forge steel, it may bring advantages to some actors and disintermediate others.
From a central bank perspective, in the context of our strategic reflections on the future of Eurosystem’s market infrastructures, we are certainly open to new technologies and, like many market players, have launched some experimental work with DLT.
Bringing our Eurosystem market infrastructures on DLT automatically means bringing central bank money on DLT. This may have implications on the central bank functions which go beyond the operational and technical sphere. It is therefore important to structure the discussion along the lines of who could access the central bank ledger.
We very much welcome the industry’s efforts to work on standardisation and interoperability both in the payments and in the post-trade domain.
It is clear that we have a lot of more thinking to do on DLT-related questions and their policy implications. Before wielding the hammer we have to make sure that we have a strong anvil.
https://www.ecb.europa.eu/press/key/date/2016/html/sp160425_2.en.htmlDLT - SO HOT RIGHT NOW!
