WASHINGTON—If broadly adopted by the world’s financial institutions, the blockchain that is at the root of digital payments such as bitcoin could cost recordkeeping professionals in the financial sector their jobs, one analysts is predicting.
That assessment was offered by J. Christopher Giancarlo, commissioner for the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), who recently discussed bitcoin and the blockchain during a lecture hosted by the Harvard School of Law.
Giancarlo said that the open ledger underlying bitcoin has "the potential to revolutionize modern financial ecosystems," pointing to examples like the recent blockchain working group established by the London Stock Exchange, the CME Group and several European banks and trade settlement organizations, Coindesk.com reported.
Should such a revolution happen, he noted, the impact on those working in the financial sector today could be significant:
"This transformation will not come without consequences, however, including a greatly disruptive impact on the human capital that supports the recordkeeping of contemporary financial markets,” said Giancarlo. “On the other hand, the blockchain will help reduce some of the enormous cost of the increased financial system infrastructure required by new laws and regulations, including Dodd-Frank."