A Glimpse of Banking’s Future, Live on the Ethereum Blockchain
At first glance, this week’s move by the investment bank Societe Generale to issue a security token-like bond in which it was both the issuer and the sole investor might seem like a pointless act. Not so much a peer-to-peer transaction; just a peer transaction.
But one element of the announcement suggests this was actually an important step in financial institutions’ sometimes fractious relationship with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. You see, Societe Generale’s $112 million bond issue used smart contracts built not a private, permissioned blockchain but on the public, permissionless ethereum blockchain.