Blockchain powered stock market rebuild started in 2017 delayed again
- Reference: 1648446259
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/03/28/asx_blockchain_chess_delay/
- Source link:
The application in question is called "CHESS" – the Clearing House Electronic Subregister System. ASX [1]trading data suggests it handles 39.7 million trades in an average month. The Register understands the platform was built in COBOL and runs on servers running the discontinued Itanium processors cooked up by HPE and Intel in the 1990s – a combination that saw the ASX announce a blockchain-based rebuild in 2017, with a planned go-live in 2021. That was subsequently [2]revised to April 2022, then April 2023 .
The ASX liked the idea of a blockchain-powered bourse because it would mean market participants could store their own copy of the distributed ledger that recorded the state of the market. Orders placed on participants' own systems would be mirrored across the network of participants, with all entries immutably recorded – just the way traders and regulators like it.
[3]
That vision has proven hard to realise.
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A [6]stakeholder communication [PDF] issued on Monday reveals "a strong likelihood of delay to the go-live date."
A delayed software update that adds features to the platform is the culprit. The stakeholder communication doesn't name the source of the delay, instead referring to "our technology provider". The Register understands that is a reference to Digital Asset – a startup that champions the Digital Asset Modelling Language (DAML) ASX is using on the project. VMware is also a key player in the project, with its blockchain used in the core app and its application packaging tech used to allow market participants to run and store their own copies of the ASX's distributed ledger.
[7]The Register just found 300-odd Itanium CPUs on eBay
[8]VMware’s launched a blockchain that may be very good. The packaging it's used is more important
[9]Epic snafu takes Australian Securities Exchange offline
The stakeholder communication advises that the delayed update will mean planned work in April has been pushed to July. Subsequent rehearsals of cutover from the COBOL system to the new version of CHESS will not take place in October as planned.
"We are confident with the delivery, testing and industry participation to date," the communication reads. "However, we also recognise the complexity and risk management necessary for this type of project and the need for comprehensive industry testing, integration and operational readiness."
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The platform itself – and blockchain – is said to be "performing well." That news will be well received by blockchain enthusiasts because the CHESS replacement project was one of the world's first substantial and mission-critical implementations of the technology in an environment that simply does not tolerate downtime or glitches. On the other hand, the delays show that Blockchain is no silver bullet for complex application buids.
Investors may not be tolerant of this delay. The ASX is listed on its own bourse, and its shares have dropped by over a dollar – about 1.5 per cent – since news of the CHESS replacement delay landed. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://www2.asx.com.au/about/market-statistics/trading-volumes
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2020/10/28/asx_chess_distributed_ledger_delayed/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YkGHWBFGzUL7wFa5-gIt4gAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YkGHWBFGzUL7wFa5-gIt4gAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YkGHWBFGzUL7wFa5-gIt4gAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www2.asx.com.au/content/dam/asx/markets/clearing-and-settlement-services/chess-replacement-project-update-220328.pdf
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/30/end_of_itanium_shipments/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/19/vmware_blockchain/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2016/09/19/australian_securities_exchange_offline/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YkGHWBFGzUL7wFa5-gIt4gAAANE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Too little too late?
Ah, you have been in projects to move on from those mainframe architectures to something perceived more modern - whatever that means. To my understanding (and I am not at the coalface of the migration project) it is pretty difficult to match the high throughput of that "ancient" architecture. Plus the hardware costs we have now will be basically replaced by database license fees ('cause management likes them big #ff0000 players, I guess), and then there's the cost of the project alltogehter... on the other hand, some of the former mainframe big players are reducing their effort, and since one is de facto locked in to a single vendor, there is some heavy price gouging from their part. So in order to have a future you might have to do these migration projects to "modern" (ehr...) systems, what is essentially a spruced up 80x86.
I do not really want to comment on the madness that is blockchain (though on a first glance it sounds compelling - see Friday's article on "bad ideas"). My first pavlovian reflex is of course ridicule.
Still looking for a problem to solve?
Looks like blockchain shills are still trying to find a single problem that they can solve, apart from money laundering and Ponzi schemes...
Good luck to them!
Re: Still looking for a problem to solve?
You forget collecting extorting money using ransomeware...
" The Register understands that is a reference to Digital Asset – a startup that champions the Digital Asset Modelling Language (DAML) ASX is using on the project. "
So they're swapping out a language where it's main knowledge base are dying (not the language itself), and swapping it with a language that's not widely used or really standard?
I mean, that can only ever end well.
The platform itself – and blockchain – is said to be "performing well."
I recognise these words. They are usually used during basic functionality, running a single task.
It they had said, "When running this at expected peak workload + 50%, with x thousand concurrent users" it performed well. I would be more impressed.
The problem with large systems come down to concurrency and locking/latching
Wrong place for blockchain
The whole point of blockchain is to decentralize record keeping for transactions between parties that have no reason to trust each other. A stock market requires centralized control to enforce regulations, it cannot allow off book trading or trading by unknown anonymous parties.
There's no benefit to using blockchain in a stock market. A stock market depends on trust, so there's no benefit from eliminating that requirement for trading, but the real problem is you'd need extra work to prevent things like someone anonymously buying up all the shares of a company to attempt a hostile takeover.
That's probably why they can't make it work, they have some true believer in charge who wants to turn the stock market into some sort of libertarian wet dream of a stock market without regulation, and he's fighting the people that are trying to make its implementation fit existing law.
Without regulation, there would be no way anyone on the outside could trust any of the information reported about a stock. The price, the volume, short interest, all could be manipulated at the whim of anyone able to add their own self dealing "trades" to the blockchain. Without accurate info, it is worse than the casino it too often resembles today. It would be like a casino where after you bet $1 million on black and the wheel is spun only then are you able to see it has only red numbers!
Re: Wrong place for blockchain
What's any of that got to do with this?
A blockchain can do whatever you want. Including preventing anybody from adding to it except the regulatory authority.
Bitcoin <> Blockchain.
April 1st already?
Blockchain in COBOL on Itanium - really?
A delayed software update that adds features to the platform is the culprit.
Who would ever have expected that?
[1]Prototype app outperforms and outlasts outsourced production version
Intriguingly, my lad* was one of blockchain's greatest ridiculers in the days he built his own custom gaming rigs and pirated Windows (he was young). When he became a financial consultant, he suddenly became one of its greatest evangelists. What is is about beancounters?
*AC for his sake.
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/14/who_me/
Too little too late?
Will it be a TLTL situation that sees the investors deciding to stop flushing money down the toilet?
Oh who the hell am I kidding, they'll keep shoveling the cash down the crapper as long as some sales & marketing wonk keeps blinding them with bullshit, filling their ears with buzzword bingo bollocks, & slipping the occaisional FatBrownEnvelope into someone important's hand.
*Reaches for my Dried Frog Pills in the hopes it can stave off another bout of frustration-induced insanity*