The Australian stock exchange apologizes that it dropped the botched blockchain upgrade

The Australian stock exchange apologized for the fact that it has given up a long plan to switch its clearing and processing system to a series of delays to a modern blockchain-based platform.

The step of the Australian securities exchange to let the Upgrade of your clearing housing system fall, takes time for a project that the critic said that the country has cost its lead in developing a more efficient trading system.

Damian Roche, chairman of ASX, apologized for the disorder caused by the failed upgrade. "We have come to the conclusion that the path has not met the high standards of ASX and the market. There are considerable challenges in the areas of technology, governance and provision that need to be addressed," he said.

The Australian supervisory authorities had transferred ASX control over the project to promote more efficient trade. In contrast, the European Union has launched a technology pilot project to test the distributed Ledger technology for stock trading, and the British Ministry of Finance will do the same.

The project, which started seven years ago, was hit by repeated delays in implementing the system. ASX is booked a fee of 250 million AUD ($ 168 million) after she has admitted that it had to restart.

Philip Lowe, the governor of the Australian Central Bank, said that the banking industry had incurred considerable costs and that all depreciation would have to be fully borne by ASX.

"The announcement of ASX after many years of investments of both ASX and industry is very disappointing. ASX has to give priority to the development of a new plan to provide safe and reliable clearing and billing infrastructure," said Lowe.

banks and financial services companies have estimated to issue up to 150 million AUD for the preparation of the upgrade.

The decision to give up the blockchain upgrade followed a review by Accenture, which showed significant defects in the design of the software developed by a company in which ASX is involved, and its ability to ever come into question.

David Farrell, head of the FinClear trading platform, blamed the ASX and the supervisory authorities that “blindly” accepted that the upgrade would redeem its original promise.

"The technology is not the problem. It is the implementation," he said and found that his company developed trading platforms that use the same system that has broken off ASX.

Farrell said that the replacement for the upgrade of ASX could be outdated in two to three years if it arrives.

"We are now falling behind the rest of the world," he said, argumenting that other markets such as the United Kingdom and the EU had created "sand boxes" to promote innovations outside of traditional clearing houses that did not do Australia.

He said there is a risk that the regulatory authorities could force ASX to resolve by separating their stock exchange from their clearing operations. "That would benefit the market in the long term and damage the ASX," he said.

ASX shares closed unchanged on Thursday, but this year fell by almost a quarter to a market capitalization of 13.6 billion AUD.