After a series of mishaps working with bitcoin startups – including the infamous, now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox, Dwolla is once again hoping to work as the connector between the emerging technology and traditional financial worlds.
The alternative payment network has been quiet about its foray in the blockchain space, but Ben Milne, Dwolla ‘s founder and CEO, says the company is working closely with startups building solutions for tracking assets on the blockchain.
As assets are sent from one blockchain to another or from one business to another, there will have to be a real-world payment in fiat currency to settle that exchange so people can pay their mortgages and purchase other things that can’t be bought with a cryptocurrency or digital assets, Milne contends.
He told CoinDesk: "Cash assets between banks have to move so people get paid real cash for the things being exchanged." Milne believes as more cryptocurrencies are deployed and blockchain technology advances, whole new asset types will be created.
One of the more interesting ideas for blockchain-based asset exchange is logging the extension of credit.
When certain types of credit are extended, "it’s good for everyone to know who owns what debt and what debt is where," Milne said, adding: "Hypothetically, it would have been good to know who held the parts of the collateralized debt obligations during the 2008 crisis." Preventing another collapse
Leading up to the financial crisis, banks made poor loans because they could pool various loan types and sell that bundle to third party investors as mortgage-backed securities, passing off the risk.
The complexity of this process can limit investors ability to monitor risk themselves and competitive securitization markets are prone to declining underwriting standards.But instead of the opaque securitization process in place today, if registered on a blockchain, these exchanges could be transparent helping […]
