Why it is easier on one ledger
Traditionally, the asset and the cash sit in different systems, often at different institutions. Coupling them requires a third party to hold one leg while the other completes, or a settlement window in which both are provisional. Where the asset and the cash are recorded on the same digital ledger, both legs can execute in a single transaction. No interval exists in which one has settled and the other has not, so an intermediary has nothing to hold. See Atomic Settlement. The shared ledger makes tokenized deposits and tokenized securities more useful together than either is alone: the cash leg is already there. See Securities and Jack Henry, which supports tokenizing securities held on the general ledger.What still has to be true
Removing principal risk does not remove the other requirements of securities settlement:- The asset’s authoritative register has to reflect the transfer, which for most securities is a custodian or central securities depository rather than the bank’s own core
- Transfer restrictions have to be enforced at the moment of transfer, not detected afterwards
- Both legs have to reach finality, and the weaker of the two governs. See Finality
This page is a placeholder. Tokenized securities are not a shipped product today.
The settlement mechanics described here follow from the architecture, not from a
documented implementation. Contact sales@cosmoslabs.io to discuss a securities
use case.