In the last couple of months, banks and other financial institutions have shown a growing interest in bitcoin and its underlying technology, the blockchain. In fact, NASDAQ has recently reported making their first share sale transaction with the help of the technology.

For those who are not yet aware, the blockchain is basically a public ledger which records and transmits a series of digital events, while also using cryptography to verify blocks of data. Once this is done, they are then distributed among the parties, thus enabling transactions to take place, be verified and relayed. Perhaps one of the main benefits of the system is the fact that transactions take place nearly simultaneously, instead of requiring people to wait for hours or days. Together with this, all afferent data is stored publicly, where it can be verified by anyone interested.