Blockchain is the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies, and unless you have been isolated on a remote island without wifi, you know it has been all over the press recently. The internet allows Information to be exchanged cheaply, quickly, easily and on a global scale; with blockchain technology, the same can be said about “exchanging value”.
Think about how complicated it was back in the dark days before the internet to read the New York Times on the day it came out, when you were somewhere else across the planet, say Cape Town. Or think about how long it took for the East India Trading Company to pass information from Mumbai to London and back to Mumbai in the 1600s. Things like this are hard to imagine now, as nearly all information is at our fingertips online.
In the introduction, I mentioned that we can cheaply, quickly, easily, reliably and globally transfer value from any kind of asset, thanks to the blockchain. Just imagine how this could affect our global economy and daily life the same way the internet has changed how we communicate and consume information.
Let’s say you are an accredited investor in the US who wants to invest in some promising companies in Austria, a European German-speaking country. As of now, this involves a lot of paperwork, and you need to understand what it means to be a “Gesellschafter” (a form of a shareholder of a company). It needs a lot of international bureaucracy in the form of consultations with lawyers, translations of company registers, etc., and an international bank transfer most likely via an escrow or a merchant bank. Simply put, it's not easy, and in many cases, there are multiple barriers to entry for companies looking to raise capital.
All of these things cost money, time and effort. A solution like tokenized equity could really change the game. To maintain part ownership in a company or buy a company’s bonds, it would be as simple as just sending an email or one click.
I am 100% certain that in the future, investments will be done via tokenized ownership in companies. The traditional standard of how investments are executed will change, because going the tokenized route is just much more efficient.
This process could actually be transferred to all forms of assets; one could very easily and straightforwardly purchase a property, a piece of land in other countries or any other type of physical or digital asset.
The future is bright, digital and tokenized.
Juergen Hoebarth is Managing Director of Tokenization Ltd. His involvement in cryptocurrencies dates back to 2014, and he was an early ICO investor of Ethereum and NEO. Juergen has profound and solid experience in the digital start-up and blockchain ecosystem and is also an evangelist who speaks about the potential of tokenization enabled via platforms such as Ethereum, EOS, NEM, NEO and Cardano.