DAS2024: the aftermath

Blockworks Digital Asset Summit was a blast and super intense!

It was a 3-day powerful cross-pollination amongst technologists - FIs and crypto geeks.

There is a lot to unpack post-event, but here are some key points that I noted and gave me food for thought:

Infrastructure:

Interoperability and scalability were key topics of discussion as expected, as well as UX improvements and the realization that for a while systems will have to run in parallel (in crypto/TradFi environements). ?Payments was a hot topic and became apparent that digital payments is the killer use case but unsure which form of currency will be more popular; Stablecoins, Bitcoin, CBDCs, other? Discussions around bringing the silos down in infrastructure and the need to be able to work with multiple chains across jurisdictions as well as connecting the dots with different tech that serve the FIs. As one of the panelists at Institutional Grade DeFi infra panel said: DeFi didn’t start with the institutions in mind (on the contrary). But we now have to do some reverse engineering to meet their needs.?

Institutional adoption:

Bitcoin ETF certainly has stirred the interest and discussions around crypto positively again. It’s a product and narrative FIs understand and will help drive more crypto participation. However, who owns that bitcoin in the end? What happens if the custodian goes bust?

Real-world asset (RWA) tokenization is one of the attractive propositions for TradFi but they still see a lot of coplexity around regulation and risks involved.

Some TradFi institutions have been working on a number of projects in the space and have new in the pipeline, however a lot more still need to be convinced. ?One of the speakers, leading the digital assets strategy in his bank, questioned the liquidity created by all those active projects or if they have delivered liquidity at all. He also pointed out, how we still talk about scale and regulation, which although are real hinders we tend to avoid discussing the value each project is delivering. There is now anticipation for ETH ETF. Despite starting taking crypto seriously again and more actively looking at getting involved, there is still a lot of convicing to be done, and Solana memes don’t help :)

Regulation:

It was good to hear from C. Holmes and L. Cameron, about the UK governement’s positive mindset for crypto innovation and the appetite to harness the opportunity now, in order for the U.K (“not just London”) to lead and become the hub of tech innovation. Recognising the advantages of decentralised concepts and how policies should enable than hinder, they are actively getting involved in discussions (some of the DAS participants held meetings at number 10 last week), international collaborations, trying to understand how they can create policies and regulations that will enable crypto innovation as well as create global starndards. It was also interesting to hear how they look at crypto enabling financial inclusion, and the future skillsets that need to be developed for jobs that are yet to be created in crypto (and other tech). There is some truth in this statement that one of the speakers made: “the jurisdiction that will understand the intricacies of tokenisation and digital ownership and design appropriate policy will lead?the way” ; however, my view is that it goes beyond leadership as the digital economy and crypto markets are borderless so the need for global standards is evident.

Some of my favourite panels:

·?????? MakerDAO: The MAKER ENDGAME. This was one of my favourtie chats, hearing Rune Christensen, tallking about the upcoming rebranding and changes in governance. Looking forward to that.

·?????? Values in the coming future of digital currency: that was an inspirational speech by Chris Giancarlo, who reminded us that at the heart of every new innovation including digital money, should lie the “human worth and dignity”, referring to the identity and privacy aspects especially when it comes to CBDCs; tech should enhance the free world and ensure it’s worthy of human liberty. Something that crypto builders shouldn’t lose sight of. Having recently seen “The Great Taking” and started reading the book, this goes beyond privacy but the whole construct of the financial system.

·?????? ZK Tech panel with Matter Labes, Sygnum, Fidelity international

·?????? Scaling adoption with SDX and Chainlink labs

?·??????Bull case for RWA: S&P and Centrifuge

·?????? The Macro Case for Digital Assets with Noelle Acheson , Dan Tapiero and Anthony Scaramucci

A great number of sattelite events and opportunities for networking addedd to the buzz of the whole event.

Lots of notes and discussions to follow up on, as well as research and reading to do but already looking forward to the next one.