Blockchain Can Disrupt Existing System, Says Goldman Sachs Director

Global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs has been taking interest in blockchain technology. The bank joined the blockchain consortium led by financial innovation company R3 and has also filed a patent application for “Cryptographic Currency For Securities Settlement”. It has also invested in Circle Internet Financial, a bitcoin financial services startup. 

In the latest edition of a company podcast series, Don Duet, co-head of the Technology Division at Goldman Sachs, discussed the technological transformation of the financial services industry, and how advances in open source, big data, blockchain and other areas are driving further innovation.

Speaking on blockchain technology, Duet said:

“Blockchain is a cryptographically secure ledger, so it is ability to provide a decentralized way of different institutions looking at the same information in a way that doesn’t require to be at a single place. It enables us to really look at solutions where we have a common sense of truth and be able bring that into a digital form that is both secure as well as comprehensive.”

He added that it was the ability of blockchain technology to provide a "single truth" to the multiple institutions that need to share information on asset transfers, CoinDesk reported.

“Blockchain…is the core technology that underpins much of bitcoin ...and so the ability to have a technological solution that enables multiple counterparts to see and enact upon the same understanding of truth on an asset transfer in a way again that is immutable, that’s protected, that uses cryptology to make sure you cannot go back and change something inappropriately… creates a new way to envision the way that we do many parts of the financial industry, particularly again in places where we have multiple parties wanting to have single version of truth.”

Duet further said that he is excited about the ongoing technological awareness in the financial industry. He said:

"You could ask the question, 'Why couldn’t this have been designed before?' And that’s a very valid question. What I find personally very exciting about this is just the awareness that is happening within the financial community that there is a technological answer that can drive change and improve our system."

"Because of the structure and the technological capabilities as it was being designed and created over the last several decades, you have this situation where you have multiple versions of the truth, which means that everyone needs to reconcile," he explained.