Wall Street traders and other conventional financial institutions are courting blockchain technology and its revolutionary disruption potential in recent years. While still being crypto-skeptic due to their reliance on the current system in place, Wall Street traders don’t want to be left behind in the overall blockchain race. For this purpose, a non-profit organization called Wall Street Blockchain Alliance (WSBA) was formed and it has since undertaken various initiatives to use the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), another name for the decentralized consensus-based approach within worldwide trading ecosystems.
According to the official website of the WSBA, the purpose for the establishment of this blockchain alliance is to use blockchain technology and smart contracts features to help modernize and improve markets not just of Wall Street but of those around the world.
The website states:
The long term result will be new asset classes, increased market efficiencies, more cost-effective technology solutions and ultimately greater value and wealth creation for all participants in global financial markets”
The organization aims to achieve this utility of decentralized consensus by playing within rules and regulatory safeguards put in place by the government. Over the time even though the industry as a whole is skeptical towards cryptocurrencies themselves including Bitcoin, the skepticism is slowly being eradicated away and now, even the WSBA is urging the government to put useful regulations in place and not tax small crypto amounts.
The WSBA in early February 2020 asked the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) not to tax small cryptocurrency transactions. In a letter written to the premier tax agency in the country, WSBA’s representatives asked the government to target large hoarders of the currency and their transactions rather than smaller users. They suggested the formation of a minimum taxable transaction below which there would be no taxes. The non-profit also urged the IRS to help regulate cryptocurrencies in the country too by coming up with innovative solutions that fit the disruptive sector because regular rules are not easily applicable in it.
This step especially shows that WSBA and other trading forums are now openly shunning their crypto bias and are fully backing this industry for the future.
The WSBA has been a part of the R3 Corda platform for a while. The R3 Corda is a blockchain enterprise solution that is partnering with different companies around the world rivalling the advance of IBM’s Hyperledger fabric. WSBA became part of the growing R3 Corda setup back in early 2019 and now over 300 organizations and companies are a part of the growing setup. With access to R3 Corda, WSBA will have a range of ready-to-implement blockchain applications and become part of a larger disruptive blockchain think tank.
At the time of the partnership, Ron Quaranta, CEO of the WSBA said:
“We are pleased to partner with R3 and introduce our trade association to the wide range of use cases that Corda enables throughout global financial services. We are certain that our members will benefit from our close collaboration with this leading industry body.”
The WSBA’s CEO Ron Quaranta is actively involved in promoting the organization as well as the cryptocurrency sector. He organizes weekly podcasts through the official WSBA platform and hosts them as well. The podcast’s segments including “Call the Lawyers” have been tuned in by a considerable number of people. He also organizes working group webinars and podcasts to help create awareness and increase collaborations within the blockchain community.
Follow the CEO Ron Quaranta on Twitter for updates regarding WSBA.
Follow WSBA on Twitter for Podcast updates.
Follow WSBA through its official platform.
Image source: pixabay.com
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