uTrade launches India’s first blockchain product uClear, enabling smart settlement of securities transactions based on a multi-chain platform

uTrade Solutions, a financial technology company dedicated to providing enterprise-level trading technology solutions, recently announced the release of a product, uClear.

uClear is India's first blockchain-based solution that provides real-time contract settlement for cash and derivatives transactions in the financial market. uClear is based on OTC (Over-the-Counter) transactions and does not require a central clearing house such as a foreign exchange (FX) exchange or fixed income securities market.

uClear is based on Multichain technology (full text download of Multichain white paper), which makes transaction processing more efficient because it can perform risk management, risk reporting and generate transmission instructions in real time.

Kunal Nandwani, co-founder and CEO of uTrade Solutions, explained in detail the reason for the sudden launch of blockchain products:

We believe that blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize the way financial services work. Blockchain today is the equivalent of the Internet 20 years ago. Blockchain is always at the center of the conversation, with some people hyping it up and others skeptical. Regardless, the Internet has indeed improved our lives, and I believe that blockchain will eventually do the same.

He also elaborated on the opportunities and challenges facing the field of financial technology innovation:

The widespread adoption of blockchain technology will take years because of regulators and legal systems’ aversion to transparency, which happens to be a significant advantage of blockchain’s distributed ledgers, as all transactions can be cryptographically verified.

uTrade also announced that GMEX Tech, a subsidiary of the UK-based Global Markets Exchange Group (GMEX), will be the first user of uClear in July 2016. GMEX is a multi-asset trading technology service provider that provides cost-effective electronic trading solutions for financial markets in developed and developing countries.

GMEX CEO Hirander Misra said:

We are excited about the potential of blockchain technology and we agree that GMEX Tech’s use of uClear will help drive innovation in the financial technology sector. We are jointly exploring a new blockchain-based settlement mechanism to support the workflow of global exchanges (including clearing houses, repositories, and warehouse receipts). This new mechanism will help GMEX and our customers adapt to the rapidly changing market while also providing regulatory transparency to governments. The securities market is ever-changing, and working with uTrade Solutions will help us adapt to this pace, so we are very optimistic about this cooperation.

When asked about the company’s future development, uTrade Solutions co-founder and CTO Harwinder Sidhu said:

Our goal is to continue developing blockchain-based solutions for global clients, including exchanges, brokers and other financial institutions. We are increasing our R&D efforts and hope to contribute to the development of global financial markets.

In December 2015, Nasdaq became the first exchange to use its own blockchain technology platform, NASDAQ Linq, to ​​record private securities transactions. Nasdaq's Tallinn Stock Exchange in Estonia and the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) have both proposed many ideas for the application of blockchain technology, including electronic voting, post-trade processing and other solutions.