Why we believe Open Order Book will become the industry standard for trading digital securities on the blockchain

This week, we announced the launch of our digital securities exchange software, Open Order Book, to power order-driven digital securities exchanges around the globe.

The technology pairs with a retail trading app where investors of all levels can buy, sell, and instantly settle digital assets directly from their smartphone.

Open Order Book is not just a wallet to wallet matching engine. The marketplaces are designed to look and feel like traditional public marketplaces with best bids and offers displayed in real-time on the Ethereum public blockchain.

Our goal — to increase liquidity potential for issuers and investors through a global network of accessible trading venues.

We also work to address many of the current secondary trading issues we see across the digital asset marketplace.

Below we walk you through some of the features participants will experience on a digital securities exchange powered by Open Order Book:

FIAT ON-RAMP & OFF-RAMP

One major problem prevalent in existing blockchain exchanges is the correspondent banking dilemma. You can read more about it here but in brief, correspondent banking is when two banks establish reciprocal accounts with one another to streamline currency exchanges, money transfers, and other international transactions.

The dilemma — most traditional banks aren’t comfortable transacting funds that are in any way connected to cryptocurrencies.

So while investors are able to deposit funds into an exchange without delay, those ready to exchange their cryptocurrency earnings into fiat may long settlement periods and other road blocks.

Through Open Order Book, trading-pairs are quoted, traded and immediately settled exclusively against the exchanges’ deposits of fiat currency, eliminating exposure to cryptocurrency price volatility.

FULL TRANSPARENCY

This is a big deal as one of the core benefits of the blockchain is transparency.

Unfortunately the majority of digital securities trading venues are private or off chain, which we feel takes away from the true power operating on a public blockchain can offer.

Open Order Book is built on the Ethereum public blockchain, with offers to buy and sell shares displayed in real-time, hence the name “Open Order Book.”

HACK SAFEGUARDS

With centralized exchanges, investors have to entrust their private keys to a central entity. This creates a gold mine for hackers to try and break into to access private keys and private information.

Open Order Book powered exchanges take a decentralized approach. Traders alone hold their private key and all trades are cryptographically and biometrically signed, adding increased investor protection from dangerous hacks.

ORDER DRIVEN MARKETPLACES

Open Order Book exchanges are designed to look and feel like a traditional public marketplace with trades conducted on a best bid and offer basis, not just wallet-to-wallet matching.

Further, while centralized exchanges suffer from wash trades, “fake” trade volume, iceberg orders, and other market manipulations; Open Order Book exchanges have anti-market manipulation programmed into the software. This means no hidden fees, wash trades, inaccurate volumes, or other common manipulations. This aims to create an honest and accurate marketplace while leveling the playing field for the everyday investor.

CRYPTOGRAPHICALLY SECURE TRADING

Open Order Book is paired with a white-label smartphone trading app and was designed for today’s investor.

Through the trading app, all transactions are cryptographically secure with timestamped transaction records stored on the Ethereum public blockchain.

In conclusion

There is truly nothing like Open Order Book software that exists today in the digital securities community. Stay tuned to learn more about which jurisdictions around the world will be deploying Open Order Book powered exchanges in the future.

Other interested entities can reach us at horizon@horizon-globex.com and those who want to be one of the first to try our demo trading app Game of Trades can join the waitlist here.