Modern technology enables stock markets to be faster and more complex than ever.

But while the speed of order executions are infinitely more impressive across the board, the conceptual backbone behind the stock market itself hasn't changed much. In fact, the model we use today for settling trades and ensuring proper share ownership is still based on the one initially created in the early 17th century.

A DECENTRALIZATION OF EQUITIES?

Today's infographic comes to us from Equibit, and it envisions what a decentralized securities platform could look like.

In such a paradigm, the settlement of trades would not occur through centralized transfer agents, but instead through a blockchain with this feature “built in”.

The application of blockchain technology could take the modernization of the stock market one step further. Instead of technology being used simply to speed up more complex transactions, the blockchain could change how the plumbing behind the system works to mitigate current risks and problems.

But to understand how transformative this idea is, we need to look at the history behind the current model first.

THE ROOTS OF THE MODERN MARKET

The roots of the modern stock market can be traced back to Amsterdam in the year 1602, when the Dutch East India Company became the world's first “publicly traded” company.

Trade missions to the West Indies were risky and expensive – so shares and bonds in the company were initially sold to a large pool of interested investors to spread the risk. In turn, backers of the company received a guarantee of some future share of profits.

As investors began speculating about the prospects of the Dutch East India Company, a secondary market quickly developed for these securities. People bought and sold stock in high volumes, and a central registrar tracked the transfer of shares between parties.

THE BACKBONE OF TODAY'S MARKET

Over 400 years later, the stock market is not that much different from the earliest exchange found in Amsterdam.