Blockchain is finding a natural home in commodity markets, Blythe Masters told those at the London Metal Exchange annual dinner last week.

It could result in greater confidentiality, fewer paper exchanges, better provenance and a boost in productivity, the former JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive said.

Masters, who now heads up New York-based FinTech firm Digital Asset Holdings, which has developed a distributed ledger platform targeted at the world’s largest financial institutions, commented: “Supply chains are notoriously complex and inefficient. This is especially true in the metals and mining industry where many operational and commercial practices remain inefficient and antiquated, leading to critical data omissions, security vulnerabilities, expenses, corruption, and unethical provenance.”

“Blockchain technology has the potential to impact mining industry supply chains profoundly,” she added, noting that there are “tens if not hundreds” of projects under way.

“Blockchain facilitates the exchange of critical trade documents, bills of lading, letters of credit between connected users securely and confidentially,” Masters continued. “Clearly the indications for metals mining, shipping, storage, and logistics industries are nontrivial.”