Foreign media commentators believe that Wall Street's recent push for "blockchain" projects resembles a return to old ways in traditional finance. Unlike the open public blockchains commonly understood in the crypto industry, this round of projects is more focused on permissioned blockchains controlled by institutions, with key applications including tokenized stocks, clearing, and 24/7 trading.

Tokenized stocks become a new selling point

Recent projects disclosed include DTCC's collaboration with JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to pilot tokenized stocks, and the London Stock Exchange's announcement of plans to launch a blockchain-based 24-hour stock trading service later this year. The article argues that these moves demonstrate that traditional financial institutions are attempting to integrate on-chain technology into their existing market structures.

However, the commentary points out that the "blockchain" mentioned by these institutions is often not an open network like Bitcoin or Ethereum, but an enterprise-level system managed by a few participants, such as the Hyperledger Besu Network, Canton Network, or an internal platform that runs on cloud services.

The controversy centers on control

The article cites Columbia University professor Omid Malekan's view that the problem with permissioned blockchains lies not in the technological slogans, but in the structure of interests. As long as the network is dominated by a specific institution, it is difficult to avoid bias towards a few participants and to form truly broad industry collaboration.

Following this logic, while financial institutions are willing to promote on-chain technology, they may not be willing to allow competitors to benefit equally on the same infrastructure. Commentators argue that this will weaken the network effect of permissioned blockchains and limit their ultimate reach.

• The pilot participants include DTCC, JPMorgan Chase, and Morgan Stanley.
• Relevant scenarios include tokenized stocks, clearing, and 24-hour trading.
• The enterprise networks named include Besu and Canton.

The article is optimistic that public blockchains will continue to benefit.

This commentary compares the current trend to the institutional frenzy of 2016, which advocated "blockchain only, no Bitcoin," arguing that after banks invested heavily back then, it was decentralized public blockchains, rather than closed enterprise blockchains, that truly continued to expand.

Based on this, the article concludes that this wave of permissioned blockchain hype may still bring consulting, pilot programs, and industry conferences, but it may not necessarily lead to decisive infrastructure changes. In contrast, Ethereum, which has undergone years of operation and market testing, is still more likely to become the underlying software layer for the next stage of financial innovation.