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Have built a fintech startup here in Germany ten years ago. The article mentions lots of important things. Here‘s another one: Time synchronization. It is incr

Have built a fintech startup here in Germany ten years ago. The article mentions lots of important things. Here‘s another one: Time synchronization. It is incredibly important in fintech applications for a number of reasons: 1. *Transaction Ordering:* Financial transactions often need to be processed in the order they were initiated. This is especially crucial in high-frequency trading where trades are often made in milliseconds or microseconds. A small difference in timing could potentially lead to substantial financial gains or losses. Therefore, accurate time synchronization ensures fairness and order in the execution of these transactions. 2. *Security:* Accurate timekeeping helps in maintaining security. For instance, time-based one-time passwords (TOTPs) are widely used in two-factor authentication systems. These passwords are valid only for a short period of time and rely on synchronized clocks on the server and client side. 3. *Audit Trails and Dispute Resolution:* Timestamping transactions can help create a precise audit trail, which is critical for detecting and investigating fraudulent activities. In case of any dispute, a detailed and accurate transaction history backed by synchronized time can help resolve the issue. 4. *Distributed Systems:* In distributed systems, time synchronization is important to ensure data consistency. Many financial systems are distributed over different geographical locations, and transactions need to be coordinated between these systems in an orderly fashion. This requires all servers to have their clocks synchronized. I am sure there are even more fields where this is relevant.

jorangreef 3y ago
This was also a surprise to me when we started TigerBeetle. How clock synchronization protocols can experience unaligned network partitions, where the ledger database cluster is able to continue running, but now with the risk of unsynchronized clocks and far-future timestamps, which can in turn then lead to money being locked up in 2PC payment protocols. We therefore spent considerable effort [0] on clock synchronization in TigerBeetle, not for the consensus protocol—we never risk stale reads or take a chance with clock error bounds—but rather simply for accurate audit trails and to keep inflight liquidity from being locked up if transactions take too long to get rolled back. [0] https://tigerbeetle.com/blog/three-clocks-are-better-than-one/ https://tigerbeetle.com/blog/three-clocks-are-better-than-on...
troupo 3y ago
> Financial transactions often need to be processed in the order they were initiated. And then the banks send you info in batches and out of order :) This happened to us more than once. So the team responsible wouldn't settle/cancel a payment for X even if bank said so. They would read a few other sync batches yo make sure that nothing else changed for X. Because "Financial transactions need to be processed in the order they were initiated" is a must :)
juancn 3y ago
Also, sometimes currencies require timestamps. You don't represent money as (<currency>, <decimal amount>), you may want to store it as (<currency>, <decimal amount>, <timestamp>) to be able to apply the correct exchange rate post-facto, and not have to deduce from the transaction history. It also helps with cross-checks/consistency verification. Also, preserve the original timezone in the timestamp. It can save many headaches down the road.
Solvency 3y ago
All of this is exactly why mainframes still exist and still excel at what they do.

jorangreef 3y ago

This was also a surprise to me when we started TigerBeetle. How clock synchronization protocols can experience unaligned network partitions, where the ledger database cluster is able to continue running, but now with the risk of unsynchronized clocks and far-future timestamps, which can in turn then lead to money being locked up in 2PC payment protocols. We therefore spent considerable effort [0] on clock synchronization in TigerBeetle, not for the consensus protocol—we never risk stale reads or take a chance with clock error bounds—but rather simply for accurate audit trails and to keep inflight liquidity from being locked up if transactions take too long to get rolled back. [0] https://tigerbeetle.com/blog/three-clocks-are-better-than-one/ https://tigerbeetle.com/blog/three-clocks-are-better-than-on...

troupo 3y ago

> Financial transactions often need to be processed in the order they were initiated. And then the banks send you info in batches and out of order :) This happened to us more than once. So the team responsible wouldn't settle/cancel a payment for X even if bank said so. They would read a few other sync batches yo make sure that nothing else changed for X. Because "Financial transactions need to be processed in the order they were initiated" is a must :)

juancn 3y ago

Also, sometimes currencies require timestamps. You don't represent money as (<currency>, <decimal amount>), you may want to store it as (<currency>, <decimal amount>, <timestamp>) to be able to apply the correct exchange rate post-facto, and not have to deduce from the transaction history. It also helps with cross-checks/consistency verification. Also, preserve the original timezone in the timestamp. It can save many headaches down the road.

Solvency 3y ago

All of this is exactly why mainframes still exist and still excel at what they do.