From Our Man At The 31st Annual FIA Futures & Options Expo - Tom Groenfeldt: Exchanges Are Interested In Blockchain, Wary Of Bitcoin

Exchange CEOs are interested in Blockchain. Edward Tilly, CEO of the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) said he thinks all the exchanges have been approached by companies with some great ideas for using Blockchain.

“Blockchain technology has the potential to drive efficiencies in the back office,” said Phupinder Gill, CEO of the CME Group. “We have questions about its ability to scale and there are questions about limits on the boundaries, but its innovative features could remove a lot of inefficiencies in the back office.”

No one appeared to be excited about bitcoin, but the distributed ledger of Blockchain has stirred interest.

Andreas Preuss, CEO of Eurex, expressed some impatience. Major IT vendors are clueless about Blockchain, he said, suggesting it is time to industrialize it.

“With all the hundreds of companies working on blockchain and the $1 billion invested so far, the investments of startups need to be married up with the mainstream industry, We would be complete fools if we dismissed this blockchain development. It could be a disruptive agent of change to how our business functions.”