The recently established Sydney Stock Exchange (SSX) is working on a blockchain settlement system that will be promoted as a low-cost alternative to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX).

SSX, formerly known as the Asia Pacific Stock Exchange, belongs to the businessman George Wang, reports Sydney Morning Herald. It is only two years old and has only three stocks listed. However, its low profile can be explained by the monopoly of clearing and settlement that ASX held until 30 March 2016 when the government of Australia dеcidеd to open the way for competition.

However, according to SSX, the work on the project started as early as a year ago. A public blockchain for the stock exchange is being created with the help of Bit Trade Labs. According to David Lawrence, COO of the exchange, the project’s main goal is “to improve efficiency and save our market participants’ and brokers’ money” and to “hand them back some controls.”

SSX is not the first exchange in Australia to experiment with blockchain. As CoinFox reported earlier, ASX has been planning to implement a private blockchain for real-time clearing and settlement. However, unlike its competitor, SSX believes that the future belongs to public distributed ledgers. According to Loretta Joseph, SSX's chief consultant on the blockchain project,

“The banks are effectively trying to build an intranet. If we put a control around who could come into [the Internet] and who can't, we wouldn't have the Internet today.”

When the project is launched, which is expected in early 2018, the exchange also plans to sell versions of its system to other exchanges. Mr Lawrence stated: “We will be developing our blockchain solution initially for the SSX but we fully intend to make it available to other markets, and have an open access philosophy.” 

Alexey Tereshchenko