Digital Asset has built the tools to tokenise assets and is now encouraging network effects

A Future of Finance interview with Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, and Eric Saraniecki, co-founder and head of strategic initiatives at Digital Asset.In October this year, Digital Asset will celebrate the tenth anniversary of its foundation. Under the flamboyant leadership of Blythe Masters, who was CEO from 2015 to 2018, no start-up did more to promote the potential impact of blockchain technology on the capital markets. Over the five years that have passed since she stepped down, Digital Asset has transformed itself from a pioneer of institutional-grade blockchain technology for financial market infrastructures into a provider of tools for building the smart contracts that enable assets to be tokenised, and a sponsor of the public but permissioned Canton Network blockchain network. Above all, it survived unscathed the cancellation of the flagship ASX contract, won in January 2016, to rebuild the post-trade infrastructure of the Australian stock exchange. Though the current strategy can be portrayed as a pivot away from the grand visions of 2016, the company has remained remarkably consistent in its (eponymous) belief that one day all assets will be digital, and that blockchain will provide a secure technological foundation for a network of networks that will encompass tokenised securities, funds, private equity, real estate, privately managed assets, commodities, rights and royalties, and collectibles. Dominic Hobson, co-founder of Future of Finance, spoke to Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset, and Eric Saraniecki, co-founder and head of strategic initiatives at Digital Asset, about the history of the company, its products, the use-cases it has found and exploited, the thinking and the strategy behind the Canton Network, and the challenges the digital asset industry has still to overcome. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.