The Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) has announced yet another delay to its high-profile AU $250 million ($188 million) blockchain pivot, which has been branded “the world’s first industrial-scale usage” of such systems.
The ASX aimed to introduce a successor for its clearing house electronic subregister system (CHESS) in April, according to NCA NewsWire and The West Australian.
CHESS is the ASX’s technology backbone for settling share transactions. However, it seems that the new blockchain-powered system will now be released somewhere in the second half of the year.
Since its announcement in 2016, the upgrading of ASX’s 25-year-old system has been beset by difficulties. The project was supposed to go online in April of last year.
However, concerns over COVID-19, as well as a public consultation, caused the ETA to be postponed by 12 months. CHESS has now been placed on hold by the ASX until April of this year.
“ASX warns that there is a substantial chance of a delay to the go-live date,” ASX executive Tim Hogben said in a statement posted Monday.
This time, it seems that the delay is due to a delayed software update by ASX’s technology partner, Digital Asset. In December 2017, the New York-based company was awarded the contract to deploy the blockchain system.
 has announced yet another delay to its high-profile AU $250 million ($188 million) blockchain pivot){kind=link}