Delaware Judge Pushes for Blockchain Proxy Voting
A judge for the Delaware Chancery Court has advocated for blockchain-based proxy voting as a means to put more power in the hands of shareholders. Chancery Court Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster spoke late last month during a meeting of the Council of Institutional Investors, a nonprofit organization dedicated to institutional investment issues. In his speech, Laster took aim at the business ecosystem for proxy voting – services that enable shareholders to cast votes on corporate decisions – arguing that “the current system works poorly and harms stockholders”. He argued that issues with....
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Recently the Russia’s National Settlement Depository (NDS), an organization that provides settlement and depository services, began testing blockchain technology as a potential solution for a corporate e-proxy voting system. The results will not shock you but the origin of praise for the system just might. NDS began looking into solutions for e-proxy voting in August of 2014. The prototype they recently tested is based on the NXT platform. The system also adheres to the ISO 20022 standard for messaging. NDS worked with the UK based DSX Technologies to develop the e-proxy voting system. The....
In a highly symbolical moment indicating the realization across the world of blockchain’s potential to create more equitable and efficient trading relations, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster told the Council of Institutional Investors to “start a takeover.” “I want you, the institutional stockholders of America, to take back the voting and stockholding infrastructure of the U.S. securities markets.” – said the Delaware judge. After giving a scathing critique of the current stockholding infrastructure over which he presides in adjudicating cases, Laster stated that the blockchain allows for....
In a keynote speech at the Financial News Awards for Excellence in Trading and Technology, Europe 2015, in London, Nasdaq's Chief Executive Bob Greifeld declared that the exchange was going to use blockchain to manage the proxy voting system. In a nutshell, proxy voting is an important yet time-consuming exercise which is handled by a listings exchange. This exercise allows the shareholders to participate in the votes at a company's annual general meeting without attending an AGM. The Financial News also quoted him as saying that this move would first be tested on the Nasdaq's market in....
A Delaware judge is urging institutional investors to use the blockchain as a way of protecting their voting rights, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal. Last month, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster, presented a speech at the Council of Institutional Investors advising shareholders that the blockchain could help to remove the middleman when it comes to how shares are held and voted. According to Laster, the current system is outdated and too complex making it difficult to determine who actually owns a share and how it’s used in corporate decision making. At present,....
A blockchain voting project netted $10,000 in a recent contest organized by cybersecurity firm Kapersky Labs. Dubbed Votebook, the proposed system connects voting machines via a private blockchain run by, say, a local elections authority. The Votebook concept would enable constituents to check that their votes were actually counted, according to the team, which hails from New York University. As the team behind the project explained in their pitch, hosted on the website of The Economist: “Votebook not only satisfies the requirements of an acceptable voting system, it is also realistically....