Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NSD), the country’s sole central securities depository, has tested a blockchain-based e-proxy voting system using the NXT blockchain platform. The NSD provides settlement services for government bonds, municipal bonds and corporate bonds, accounting for 99% of domestic corporate bond issues.
E-proxy voting is a technology designed for corporate actions processing that provides electronic interaction between securities holders and issuers for the purpose of exchanging information and documents. According to the NXT Foundation, initial tests have revealed that the NXT blockchain based voting system can support 80 votes per second, however the NSD hopes to scale the system’s throughput to 300 instructions per second.
Dave Pearce, founding member of the NXT Foundation, commented:
“The National Settlement Depository’s decision to use NXT technology for its voting system demonstrates very effectively how mature and versatile our platform is. NXT blockchain technology provides a technological quantum leap that allows institutions to replace external verification processes carried out by computers or humans, with a blockchain-based system that has these verification mechanisms built into its very core.”
E-proxy technology was introduced at NSD in August 2014. In April 2015, NSD upgraded the technology, bringing it in line with the global ISO standards. In April 2016, a blockchain-based prototype of e-proxy voting successfully passed the testing related to bondholder meetings. The NSD’s decision to trial a blockchain voting system is the latest announcement from a number of institutions to trial blockchain technology and create greater efficiency and transparency in financial markets.
