Supply chains are notoriously complex and inefficient, Masters said during her London speech. 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.
I would like to hear her comment upon coca cola's claims years ago that aluminum markets were deliberately manipulated in a profiteering manner inflating the price of aluminum cans far more than it otherwise be. I know there is a school of thought which suggests the complexity and inefficiency she cites is deliberately engineered into supply and distribution chains to artificially raise prices.
In that sense, there could be little or no gains utilized in adopting a blockchain over existing systems where market manipulation hinges strongly upon artificially generated supply shortages and inefficiencies in distribution created to raise the price of assets.
Awhile ago, Warren Buffett commented on how aliens watching us from space may observe people burying and later digging up gold in an effort to manipulate its price and be confounded at how terribly inefficient it is. I think that blockchain is a great technology and offers significant advances over existing tech. In some applications however, relating to markets which are highly manipulated, it may not make much of a difference.