Overstock, one of the most active businesses in the Bitcoin world with a business not built on Bitcoin, is creating a software that allows users to issue corporate stock in a more decentralized, transparent, and democratic manner.
Medici is its operating name, and it’s being developed by two of the people behind CounterParty, a platform designed to build Financial tools on the Bitcoin network.
A Decentralized Stock Market?
Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne, who seems to be head-over-heels for Bitcoin and blockchain technology, mused last July that having the stock market under control of centralized organizations like NASDAQ worked for a time, but is now an antiquated idea. His alternative was a “cryptosecurity”, a publicly traded stock over a decentralized network.
And toward the end of September, Byrne made an announcement on Twitter that he had “some interesting announcements to make” at the Las Vegas Bitcoin Conference.
This announcement came about around the same time as news that Overstock was hiring a senior backend developer. One of the requirements was that they be familiar with blockchain technology.
Judd Bagley, Overstock’s Director of Communications, told The CoinFront they were also hiring a senior web developer and senior devops engineer, “both for a specific crypto-related project”.
This seems to be it.
Medici’s Potential?
The idea is to create an open-source, decentralized alternative to Wall Street in much the same way Bitcoin provides an alternative to the fiat currency system.
Medici aims to not only decrease the costs associated with issuing and trading stock, but also to get rid of some of the loopholes in the system which can sometimes lead to abuse.
Once Medici is completed, Byrne plans to present it to regulators for approval. This may be a hard sell, but the regulatory climate regarding Bitcoin by the time Medici is ready is anyone’s guess. The result of New York’s controversial BitLicence may be a good indicator.
Overstock's Medici Could Dethrone Wall Street
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