Virtual currency: The only common element in the wave of initiatives has been a reluctance to use bitcoin. In fact, it’s hard to say that the latest proposals from the R3 investment bank consortium or Blythe Masters’ Digital Asset Holdings look like blockchains in the purest sense. – Reuters
LONDON: The finance world’s attempt to build a white-collar version of blockchain – the shared-ledger technology that underpins rebellious virtual currencies such as bitcoin – has generated Silicon Valley quantities of buzz. There hasn’t been much genuine risk-taking, though, nor have we seen much of a result.
This year will bring a needed dose of reality. It might even herald a shake-out of an increasingly over-hyped sector as the banking industry tries to get myriad projects out of the lab and into the real world.
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