A report from Greenwich Associates – Securing the blockchain – looks at how distributed ledger technology is being adopted by organisations involved in capital markets, such as banks, brokers, asset managers, exchanges and technology vendors. The research also gathered opinions from some of the leading blockchain technology companies.

The research focuses on security concerns and looks at how blockchain security mechanisms work. It also assesses how industry leaders are approaching this topic. One of the major concerns highlighted by a majority of the survey's respondents was the security of private keys.

Problem with private keys

Author of the report, Greenwich Associates' Richard Johnson, said: “Private keys can be thought of as secret codes or passwords that prove ownership of digital assets. The recent hacking of the Bitfinex exchange has been attributed to lax security of these private keys.”

Hong Kong-based exchange Bitfinex was recently the victim of a $72 million cyber theft of bitcoins.

The report found that 56 per cent of respondents said that transaction confidentiality is a major security concern for distributed ledger technology and 63 per cent of the banks and brokers surveyed said they are concerned.