Since the birth of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency, over the last few years hype has surrounded Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and especially blockchain. These technologies have not yet delivered on promises, but experts believe that DLT has the potential to transform the financial services industry and will soon start to deliver full value propositions. This paper is therefore meant as a practical tool for risk managers to accelerate the accomplishment of the productive phase of DLT.
The CRO Forum believes that, although traditional risk management frameworks remain valid, there are specific issues to consider when assessing the risk of a DLT-based application. The paper introduces the technology, provides advice on how to perform a risk assessment, discusses risk management governance, and highlights the contribution that CROs can provide within respective companies as well as to the broader DLT ecosystem. To make the paper practical, a detailed risk catalogue and two risk assessments of real DLT-based solutions are provided.