SEC Approves Plan to Issue Stock Via Bitcoin's Blockchain

Byrne believes the technology "can do for the capital market what the Internet has done for consumers." It's designed to provide a secure, transparent, reliable, and largely automatic way of tracking who owns a given security at any given time. And in Byrne's mind, it could replace systems run by the New York and Nasdaq stock exchanges. Such a system could eliminate many of the middlemen who have traditionally controlled the market, and thanks to its technological precision, it could close certain market loopholes. "There are all kinds of ways to rig the market," Byrne told WIRED earlier this year. "We want to make it un-rig-able."