The Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) announced on Monday it has signed a three-party memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Digital Asset (DA) and VMware to work together on distributed ledger technology (DLT) initiatives in Australia and New Zealand.
ASX reported that under the new partnership it plans to provide its DLT offering with the support of DA and VMware, which will include the development of the application to replace CHESS (ASX’s equities clearing and settlement system), the support of DAML (the open-source smart contract programming language used to build distributed applications), and the provision and support of the distributed ledger and associated infrastructure that deliver ASX’s data privacy, confidentiality and security requirements at greater scale.
Speaking about the partnership, Peter Hiom, ASX Deputy CEO, stated:
“This new partnership is a very positive development that will help us support a wider range of DLT solutions developed by the industry. It confirms our belief in the potential of DLT as we remain on track to deliver the CHESS replacement system in March-April 2021.”
David Tennenhouse, Senior Vice President and Chief Research Officer at VMware, went on to add:
“Providing a state-of-the-art DLT-based system will create new business opportunities for the industry. We’re working closely with DA and ASX on a combined offering to provide the enterprise-grade foundation for ASX, and we look forward to expanding our relationship.”