Lex chats with Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, about the company’s transformation from its early institutional blockchain experiments to launching the Canton Network - a purpose-built, privacy-enabled smart contract platform designed for financial markets. Rooz shares insights into why Digital Asset was inspired by Bitcoin’s financial principles rather than its technical assumptions, highlighting the importance of rethinking blockchain infrastructure rather than replicating flawed legacy models. He also unpacks the hard lessons from high-stakes projects like the Australian Stock Exchange overhaul, emphasizing why large-scale financial infrastructure must evolve incrementally to succeed. Finally, the conversation dives into Canton’s unique tokenomics, where 70% of block rewards go to the developers and users who create economic activity on the network, challenging traditional validator-centric models and aligning incentives more fairly for long-term ecosystem growth.

Notable discussion points:

1. Canton’s innovative tokenomics: Unlike Ethereum, where validators capture most of the rewards, Canton allocates 70% of block rewards to developers and applications, creating sustainable alignment.

2. Lessons from ASX: Rooz reflects on the failed ASX blockchain migration, advocating for iterative upgrades rather than “big bang” infrastructure transformations.

3. True tokenization: Rooz critiques superficial on-chain IOU models, asserting that real tokenization must place the asset’s books and records natively on-chain to unlock the benefits of DeFi and composability.

MENTIONED IN THE CONVERSATION

Topics: Digital Asset, Canton Network, DRW, ASX, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Plaid, DAML, fintech, web3, tokenization, digital assets, financial infrastructure, DeFi, onchain

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TIMESTAMPS

1’28: From Wall Street to Web3: Yuval Rooz on Founding Digital Asset and the Birth of the Canton Network

4’29: Rethinking Blockchain: Rejecting Ethereum’s Assumptions to Build a Better Financial Infrastructure

8’18: Getting Banks to Say Yes: Bridging Blockchain Innovation with Regulatory Reality

12’43: Blockchain at Scale: Lessons from the ASX Project and Why Incremental Innovation Beats Big Bang Deployments

21’27: Agile by Design: How Canton Aims to Bring Continuous Delivery to Decentralized Blockchain Networks

23’50: Beyond the Hype: Why Crypto Needs Pragmatism, Not Just Vision, to Integrate with Financial Institutions

27’08: From DAML to Canton: Building Scalable, Privacy-First Infrastructure for Real-World Finance

30’52: Redefining Tokenization: Real On-Chain Finance at Scale with Trillions in Assets on Canton

35’34: Solving the Tokenization Gap: Bridging Legacy Infrastructure with Decentralized Architecture

39’13: Seeding Web3 with Real Assets: Canton’s Strategy to Power DeFi with Institutional-Grade Infrastructure

41’33: Custom Rules, Shared Rails: How Canton Balances Decentralization with Regulatory Flexibility

44’30: Aligning Incentives: How Canton’s Tokenomics and Fair Launch Redefine Value Creation on Chain

49’35: The channels used to connect with Yuval & learn more about Digital Asset and Canton Network

Disclaimer here — this newsletter does not provide investment advice and represents solely the views and opinions of FINTECH BLUEPRINT LTD.

Contributors: Lex, Laurence, Matt, Farhad, Mike, Daniella

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Laurence Gonzales - Episode 438