SEC Approves Plan to Issue Stock Via Bitcoin's Blockchain | WIRED - http://www.wired.com/2015/12/sec-approves-plan-to-issue-company-stock-via-the-bitcoin-blockchain/

The Securities and Exchange Commission has approved a plan from online retailer Overstock.com to issue company stock via the Internet, signaling a significant shift in the way financial securities will be distributed and traded in the years to come.
The blockchain is essentially an enormous database that runs across a global network of independent computers.
Such a system could eliminate the unnecessary middlemen who have traditionally controlled the market.
Public documents filed by Overstock show that the SEC has approved an amended Form S-3 that would allow the company to issue public securities via blockchain-based technology, and Byrne plans to announce the news this evening at a bitcoin conference in San Diego.
Each business would need separate approval from the SEC, but Overstock could use the system to issue stock for a third-party before issuing its own.
"We want to make it un-rig-able."
TO is now just one of several efforts to reinvent the financial markets via the blockchain.
"It can increase transparency, reduce costs, and remove the middleman--in this case remove a [traditional] exchange or a broker." He calls Overstock's plan "very interesting" but notes this is new territory and the regulatory landscape can be tricky because there's little precedent for such a thing.
In early 2014, Overstock became the largest online retailer to accept bitcoin, letting consumers buy everything from smartphone cases to patio furniture with the digital currency.
Basically, naked shorting involves selling stock shares that don't exist.
And last spring, it filed papers seeking SEC approval for such an offering.
Beyond issuing private bonds, TO offers tools that let companies lend and borrow shares through the blockchain.
And TO hopes to extend its blockchain technology into other parts of the market.
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