The team behind the alternative IEX Exchange, which rose to fame thanks to the “Flash Boys” book by Michael Lewis, is now planning to disrupt the gold trading market. IEX's TradeWind Markets is reportedly already working on utilizing the power of Blockchain technology to bring transparency to this very popular but opaque instrument.
TradeWind's board member and a managing director at Bain Capital Ventures, Matt Harris, told the Reuters news agency a solution might reach the market in a few months. Describing the problem with the current way the gold market works, he said: "It's too slow, it's opaque as to who owns what and when along the way, and there's lots of room for error that requires manual reconciliation. A system that was instantly self-reconciling and 100 percent transparent would solve a lot of problems."
The IEX isn't the first to think about utilizing the technology for this purpose. In June we reported for example that New York based institutional Bitcoin exchange and blockchain technology company, itBit, has been selected by Euroclear group to explore opportunities for creating a next generation settlement service for the London gold market. Euroclear and itBit explain that they are working with other relevant market participants to develop a service to significantly minimize risk leading to a reduced capital charge, offer true delivery versus payment and reduce balance sheet constraints.
