In the latest edition of a company podcast series, a managing director at global investment banking giant Goldman Sachs called blockchain technology an innovation that could “drive change” while improving the financial industry.
The comments, issued on 20th January, find Goldman Sachs co-head of technology and managing director Don Duet opening up about his views on blockchain and distributed ledger tech at a time when competitors Cit, JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley are moving to invest in or partner with industry startups or consortiums.
Goldman Sachs has so far advanced on both fronts, investing in bitcoin services firm Circle in April and joining R3’s 42-member bank consortium in September.
During the 30-minute podcast, Duet discussed topics including the impact of open source and big data on the industry. By contrast, his statements on blockchain were more introductory, as questions sought to compel Duet to describe the big opportunities the emerging technology could potentially unleash.
Duet 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.”
Overall, Duet’s comments were broad and positive, with remarks aimed at illuminating for his audience what Goldman Sachs saw as its biggest opportunities.
To this, Duet answered that it was the blockchain’s ability to provide a “single truth” to the many institutions that need to share information on asset transfers.
“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.
Elsewhere, Duet spoke on how blockchain-based systems are more secure and efficient than today’s centralized ledger systems.
Goldman Sachs image via Shutterstock