Blockchain technology startup SETL.io says its distributed ledger system is now capable of handling 1 billion transactions per day.
The startup, launched in July, was co-founded by former Chi-x CEO Peter Randall and Anthony Culligan, who founded peer-to-peer Bitcoin trading site Roolo.
SETL.io announced that it has reached a capacity of 1 billion transactions-per-day, sufficient to settle today's markets
SETL.io is looking to develop a network of private blockchain systems that would handle the payment and settlement processes of trading institutions. The goal is to vastly improve the efficiency and reduce the costs of legacy processes, while maintaining a high level of transparency for regulators. It claims to be in talks with more than 40 financial institutions.
The startup is keen to point out that a 'legacy blockchain' system like Bitcoin is not suitable for a regulated, high volume trading environment. Bitcoin is only capable of up to 7 transactions per second, usually less- especially when under attack, often from unknown players. Even according to one ambitious plan to improve Bitcoin's capacity, it would still be magnitudes short of the level needed to settle financial markets (other proposals, such as the 'Lightning Network', have yet to be fully demonstrated).
SETL.io announced that it broke the 1 billion transactions-per-day capacity barrier in its testing environment, bringing it to a level sufficient to settle today's markets. When first launched in July, the startup claimed a capacity of 5,000 transactions per second, or 432 million per day.
The startup claimed to have developed unique techniques to process transactions in parallel, and thereby "remove practical constraints on volume."
SETL.io co-founder and COO Peter Randall
It says that its network runs across a set of nodes in the UK and Europe, and assets can be transmitted between different blockchains via a 'witness node'.
Randall told Finance Magnates that the technology used for trades settlement may be radically different 5 years from now. The startup is determined, therefore, to do for post-trade settlement what Chi-x did for trading in Europe. BATS Chi-x Europe is a low-cost, low latency exchange that has conquered sizeable market share from traditional exchanges within a span of 8 years.
Randall will be presenting at this year's Finance Magnates London Summit. His session, 'Recording Finance', will lay out the benefits and challenges of a distributed-ledger based financial sector, providing a look into what is going on inside banks’ innovation labs as well as a discussion regarding the hoards of startups poised to revolutionize the trading industry’s heavy machinery.
