BCB Group Blaze the Trail on Corda Network with DASL
Following on from the recent press release, Oliver von Landsberg-Sadie CEO & Founder of BCB Group discusses how the global cryptocurrency brokerage firm are blazing the trail on Corda Network.
“Our evolution as a company has followed the technology path.”
Please introduce yourself and BCB Group and tell us more about the broker market within digital assets
BCB was started a couple of years ago with a former MBA colleague, I am from the finance and tech background, he came from law, compliance and regulation. We have tracked changes through the broker markets, the buying public and the institutional markets, with the pace of change being rapid. We started as an OTC broker, but we have noticed that platforms like the Corda framework has taken parts of this market and professionalised it with efficiency. Our evolution as a company has followed the technology path.
With the announcement of BCB going live with DASL, elaborate on the need to seamlessly move between different digital assets
The main problem in the crypto space is that there are so many different varieties of cryptocurrencies with varying ways to store them, different wallet types, with no real uniform set way. This is all brand new compared to the traditional markets, having said this, there are a broad variety of payment mechanisms such as sending cash to a European counterparty over the SEPA network. We are excited about DASL because it provides a uniformed way to send money, crypto or any kind of security token, and in a way that reduces operational risk. Customers want to know that money gets from A to B, both parties are looking at the same data so there are no reconciliation problems, this all needs to be done fast.
“Using DASL we are at the cutting edge of cash and settlements technology.”
With Ethereum coins ETH and ERC now able to flow onto the Corda network, what opportunity does this open up for BCB and your clients?
One of Ethereum’s main features is also one of its short comings, it is a global public blockchain, institutions want this robustness and reach but also need privacy and sophistication to provide features such as smart contracts.
What Corda and DASL does is to employ these ideal features but tailor them for a more Institutional Market with specific needs. BCB can use the best of the cryptocurrency technology but in a language and a framework that Institutions are more comfortable with. Using DASL we are at the cutting edge of cash and settlements technology.
What are the key trends, challenges and opportunities you see for the next 12-24 months both for BCB, and the broader market?
The professionalisation of this industry is one of the key trends. In the past it has had fairly technical routes with hacker domains and mining rigs, but now Institutions are recognising digital assets and cryptocurrencies as a legitimate asset class and technology. We are seeing this through the lens of regulation, the voice of big investment banks and huge platforms like Corda which enables technology like LAB577’S DASL.
One less addressed challenge that Corda, LAB577 and DASL are addressing is Stablecoin fungibility. There are many Stablecoins that are based on USD and increasing amounts will come out on GBP or Euro, it will be interesting to see how these will be played out with each other. The interesting problem to solve, for example, is how you can send one version of crypto USD to another version of crypto USD. Within these challenges there is opportunity, the grounds are ripe for innovation.
