Goldman Sachs ‘hugely supportive’ of exploring further use cases for blockchain tech
Considering the Wall Street giant recently laid off roughly 3200 employees, its interest in hiring blockchain experts lends further weight to the potential of blockchain technology application in traditional banking.
Goldman Sachs Group believes blockchain technology can help improve various TradFi markets like private equity and is committed to exploring further use cases for the tech, Bloomberg News reported Feb. 28.
Goldman Managing Director Mathew McDermott told Bloomberg that the lender “hugely supportive” of blockchain applications following the recent launch of its blockchain tokenization platform GS DAP and is on the lookout to hire additional experts in the field as needed over the coming months.
Considering the Wall Street giant recently laid off roughly 3,200 employees, its interest in hiring blockchain experts lends further weight to the potential of blockchain technology application in traditional banking.
GS DAP is a private blockchain developed by Goldman Sachs that was recently used by Hong Kong to tokenize and sell a green bond. The platform enabled settlement one day after trade versus the normal five days it takes traditional methods. Private blockchains are generally centralized compared to public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
McDermott believes GS DAP can be used to tokenize a multitude of assets in the traditional financial markets, including private equity, derivates and fund units. However, he added that blockchain tech is unlikely to bring improvements in initial public offerings or equities as they are already settled efficiently.
McDermott said the blockchain platform gives investors greater transparency and accurate pricing of assets which encourages liquidity and, in turn, will bring more investors to the secondary markets.
McDermott also said that it is unlikely that traditional financial transactions will move to public blockchains in the near future and will likely take years as regulatory uncertainty and distrust of crypto remain prevalent.