EXCLUSIVE: Blockchain' Path To Customer Protection At Benzinga Fintech Event — 'We Need to Have Trust'

Speaking at Benzinga's Fintech Deal Day & Awards in New York on Monday, CoinDesk's Chief Content Officer Michael Casey led a panel discussion on the adoption of blockchain technology for enhancing transaction security in 2023, addressing the industry's progress and the challenges that still need to be overcome.

On stage, Casey was joined by Jay Biancamano, head of Tokenization at State Street Digital, John Avery, VP of Digital Assets, Tokenization, Web3 at FIS Global and Thomas Sullivan, managing director at Société Générale in a panel discussion titled "How Blockchain is Transforming Transaction Security and Efficiency."

Casey shared his insights on blockchain being used for security and said it’s a myth that nobody is using blockchain technology. He said that there are a lot of supply chains on blockchains, and asked panelists about ways to get everyone to swim together.

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Avery noted the lengthy timeline required for the development and approval of new technologies like blockchain, emphasizing, “we are talking a multi-year lifecycle – to build a business case to allocate budget even if we're talking $500,000 or a million dollars of investment in a small team to evaluate vendors, or new technology this stuff takes years to unpack.”

He went on to stress that while change can happen quickly, it is often preceded by a "five to 10 year build up," adding that there are some great retail use cases for blockchain technology.

Avery warned about the complexities faced by large financial institutions, noting, “with a whole bunch more zeros than you typically see in a B2C [business-to-consumer] or retail transaction, therefore appropriate care needs to be applied,” highlighting the scale and caution required in their transactions.

In the panel discussion, Biancamano pointed out a major issue in the blockchain industry: the lack of a clear, unified focus, stating that no one has really stepped up to declare a specific use case as the primary area of concentration.

“[For example] We're going to tokenize private equity or we're going to tokenize private debt, we're going to tokenize data, which is a huge opportunity – and I think that's really the problem is we have a lot of disparate use cases [for Blockchain],” Biancamano said.

He emphasized the need for clarity and the development of a well-defined use case for Blockchain technology, underscoring the importance of waiting for regulators to "bless it."

Sullivan, meanwhile, highlighted trust as a significant concern, noting that the FTX debacle has made regulators "gun shy" due to the fallout from FTX and Sam Bankman-Fried. He stressed the importance of prioritizing customer protection, adding, "we need to have trust."

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Photo: Piboon Thongtanyong