Overstock working with Counterparty to issue stock on the Blockchain

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On Tuesday afternoon, Overstock—one of the world’s largest online retailers, with $1.3 billion a year in sales—unveiled a webpage that explores how a public company could issue a “cryptosecurity” to potential investors. In an echo of the bitcoin digital currency, this would be a stock that’s controlled by cryptographic algorithms running across a network of computers owned by people and companies spread across the globe.

In other words, all stock trades would be governed by tools in the hands of the general public rather than by a traditional stock exchange, such as the NASDAQ or the New York Stock Exchange, and these trades would be mathematically verified and recorded in an online ledger that anyone can view at anytime—something that, Byrne believes, could eliminate some serious flaws in the world of high-stakes trading.

Overstock’s new webpage amounts to little more than a rough outline for how all this would work, but the company has invited others to help flesh things out. “How a public company would issue a cryptosecurity has yet to be established,” reads the webpage, a “wiki” that anyone can edit. “Because the methods of issuing and characteristics of a cryptosecurity may be novel, how such a security may be issued and traded, and the risks associated therewith, deserves careful thought.”

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