Kynetix Brings the Blockchain to Commodity Markets

Kynetix, a global settlement and post-trade technology platform from Croydon in the United Kingdom, has announced plans to offer a blockchain consortium. The focus is on the effect of distributed ledgers across commodity and settlement markets. The organization has an active interest in exploring these digital concepts and will have an inaugural dinner to discuss this venture.

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Commodities Blockchain Consortium

The meeting that includes 15 participants within commodities trading, brokerages and exchange operators will look at how the new technology can benefit existing financial platforms. The event will begin in London on November 25th at the legendary Innholders Hall with Kynetix as host, a company that is a global provider of “Delivery & Settlement, Financing & Collateral, Self-Service inventory and Post Trade services for the Commodities markets.”

The Inaugural meeting will allow key players within finance the ability to innovate through collaboration. Kynetix has built services such as LMEsword and ICE Guardian that focus on Physical Commodity Operations worldwide and have provided the company with settlement experience for over ten years. Now, Distributed Ledger technology is the next step for the company that believes a consortium of financial executives and leaders is the best method of blockchain advancement.

CEO Paul Smyth feels problematic issues within settlements like the Qingdao port scandal could be avoided when distributed ledger tech is utilized. The port has been seized by Chinese authorities because a trader named Chen Jihong and associates allegedly manipulated metals and base commodities. Smyth explains that the corruption could have been stopped, saying:

“The Qingdao port scandal might never have happened if the financing of metal had been operated through a distributed ledger.”

“Our aim is to bridge the gap between the physical economy, the financial markets and blockchain technology in order to help the participants of the consortium explore and define the key areas where blockchain could be applied to this very unique, physical marketplace,” Guillaume Kendall, head of business development at Kynetix, added.

Smyth opines in his paper, titled “7 Ways Blockchain Technology Could Disrupt the Post-Trade Ecosystem” that disruption is in the air. “Because of the blockchain’s distributed consensus approach, in which multiple copies of a shared single ledger are constantly evaluated to prevent fraud or error from entering, there is a high degree of security built in,” he says. The CEO also believes that blockchain settlements will be more transparent and provide better ways to avoid error.

Bank for International Settlements Warms to Bitcoin

Recently the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) reported their favorable opinion concerning digital currencies. The paper called the CPMI Report on Digital Currencies reveals enthusiasm for the technical aspects of virtual money. The paper states that “Digital currencies, and especially those which have an embedded decentralised payment mechanism based on the use of a distributed ledger, are an innovation that could have a range of impacts on various aspects of financial markets and the wider economy.”

BIS explains that consumers and merchants can benefit from its use, but its adoption and “wider economy is negligible today.” Wide use cases may happen in the “long term,” but may strictly stay with individual institutions over enterprise financial services. The entire paper demonstrates a positive attitude towards cryptocurrency while admitting that the technology will be a disruptor. The paper states:

“These impacts could include potential disruption to business models and systems, as well as facilitating new economic interactions and linkages.”

Kynetix has a similar vision for this technology and believes both a digital currency and blockchain frameworks will disrupt the way we handle payments.

“Blockchain technology and bitcoin will not only change the way we do payments it will also lower the costs of finance and ultimately should increase market liquidity,” explains Smyth.

The dinner at Innholders Hall will be the first of many meetings depending on the outcome of the blockchain consortium.

Do you feel that digital currencies and its technology will reshape settlements? Let us know in the comments below!

Images courtesy of Redmemes, The Kynetix website, and Pixbay