New research from financial services giant Credit Suisse seeks to analyze the impact of blockchain on 14 existing market participants and their stock performance.
Written in response to investor questions, companies examined include major exchanges (the Australian Securities Exchange and Nasdaq ), incumbent business process facilitators (Computershare and Equiniti) as well as financial services providers (Experian and JPMorgan ).
The 135-page report, released today , highlights four areas where the technology can potentially lead to disruption – payments, capital markets, financial services and media. Ultimately, however, the report concludes the stock performance of select firms in these categories will not be significantly impacted.
The report reads: "Our broadest conclusion is that blockchain is less relevant in sectors where there has already been significant investment and innovation." Overall, the report is more bullish on blockchain than bitcoin, a statement that echoes similar findings from research efforts commissioned by incumbents.
The report also sketches out 13 barriers to bitcoin, questioning the digital currency’s ability to scale to Visa-level transactions and noting its current slow transaction processing times.
The authors argue, however, that blockchain tech more generally is better positioned for a broader impact.
"We find blockchain more easily optimizable to different objectives than bitcoin and think three key properties – disintermediation of trust, immutable record and smart contracts – endow the technology with real advantages to legacy systems," it reads.
The biggest impact areas, the report said, would likely be financial services, exchanges and post-trade settlement.Of all the public companies studied, Credit Suisse determined most faced no near-term threat from blockchain, and that the technology in fact offers long-term opportunities in four areas. Payments Though it acknowledges that it’s impossible to know where blockchain will ultimately be used, the report argues changes provoked by blockchain are inevitable.Payments, an industry that includes merchant acquirers, card issuers and financial payments […]
