Randall also dismissed the prospect of one “almighty” blockchain that the entire industry would use simultaneously.
“I believe there will not be one big blockchain as there will be many who need to be able to talk to each other, as many of them will have the same themes.
“Compare this to a current mobile phone networks as not everybody is on the same network and the same will apply for blockchain.”
Speaking at Sibos 2016 in Geneva, panellists discussed the implementation of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and specifically blockchain.
Randall also suggested that 21st century technology must be applied to the post-trade space and that blockchain can fulfil post-trade requirements if it meets certain criteria.
“For the post-trade space, we feel that a DLT is a proper and fitting proof of concept that can drop into that the post-trade environment and cover what it needs to in terms of regulatory resilience and security.
“In terms of blockchain there are five areas that it needs to cover, firstly it has to operate at a real world speed. Some can operate at around 10 to 30 transactions per second but it needs to be tens of thousands per second because that is what banks do and the same can be said for daily capacity.
“Thirdly, it must be KYC complaint and have this in its fabric of from the very start and fourthly it has to move real world assets because again that is what banks do,” said Randall.
Blockchain technology has been hailed by custodians as being the future of the industry with potential to streamline processes such as settlement, clearing and corporate actions.
Following increased discussion and speculation at the end of 2015, recent months have seen the industry increase its engagement with the technology, with SIX the most recent example of a post-trade services provider teaming up with a blockchain provider, in Digital Asset.
One of the developments to keep an eye on in the coming years is how regulators respond to blockchain developments.
Fellow panellist and FCA director David Geale also talked about the potential developments for blockchain from a regulatory perspective but stressed there were other disruptive technologies the industry should be considering.
“Looking at DLT we are seeing what can be done as it is a huge area for experimenting and finding opportunities as a regulator.
“We would encourage it but its only part of FinTech as we are looking at other possibilities such as using cloud for firms communicating with regulators machine learning and use of API’s,” said Geale.