The actual Bitcoin network (7 transactions per second maximum worldwide) is insufficiently fast enough to conduct settlement of one player of a stock market simulation trading with 5 bots in a tutorial level. Reports of Wall Street adopting it for settlement purposes seem slightly optimistic.
I'm not sure I understand the point of using a blockchain in securities trading? I mean, it's not like it would actually have any of the advantages of Bitcoin[1]. You'll still need to settle accounts periodically (transfer money/stock certificates/etc). Those things aren't going to go away.<p>Once the parties need to trust each other for that, they might as well cut costs by pooling money and buying a centralized order-matching system. That is, make exactly the thing they already have today.<p>[1]-I don't think those advantages are all that great either, but that's beside the point. The point is they don't even apply here!
Given that most Bitcoin mining is done behind the Great Firewall[1], what happens if a midlevel bureaucrat partitions the network? (inadvertently or not) Seems there'd be a greater partion behind the firewall, and a lesser partition outside the firewall.<p>How does the protocol deal with that? Assuming it's partitioned for days, weeks, or months?<p>[1] Chun Wang comment from <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.bitcoin.devel/8001" rel="nofollow">http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.comp.bitcoin.devel/8001</a><p>"Ignorant. You seem do not understand the current situation. We suffered from orphans a lot when we started in 2013. It is now your turn. If Western miners do not find a China-based VPN into China, or if Western pools do not manage to improve their connectivity to China, or run a node in China, it would be them to have higher orphans, not us. Because we have 50%+."
This is obviously a trivial point, but the word blockchain seems to have lost its definite article.<p>eg (from the linked article):
"Last month, Symbiont, which plans to use blockchain to make ..."<p>"Other firms investigating finance-related uses of blockchain ..."
> Eighty-four percent of respondents said blockchain could reduce the risk a trade won’t settle and the time that process takes, while 74 percent said it could alleviate the chance your counterparty to a trade won’t make good on the deal.<p>Karma to anyone who can explain this to me. How does the blockchain reduce counterparty risk. The counterparty can either produce the required shares or they can't.<p>And to be honest, currently cash equities settle on a T + 3 days basis and options settle on a T + 1 day basis. Most people view that as a feature not a bug.<p>If the markets wanted instantaneous settlement of cash equities they could do it, no one does.