Breaking Finance with Blockchain with Matthew Le Merle

Matthew Le Merle joined the podcast to discuss his journey from a consulting background to breaking finance with blockchain. He explains how he and his wife Alison pivoted to blockchain after recognizing it as the next major wave of digital value creation following the internet era. He breaks down the differences between blockchain, crypto, and DeFi, and shares how the financial industry is slow to adapt due to outdated systems and vested interests. While adoption may seem slow, it's actually progressing rapidly by historical standards, and transformation remains inevitable no matter what. 

We discuss...

• Matthew Le Merle transitioned from a career in consulting and digital innovation to blockchain venture investing after identifying it as the next major wave of value creation.
• He and his wife began investing in blockchain over a decade ago, seeing it as the foundation for digitalizing commerce and finance.
• Blockchain, or distributed ledger technology (DLT), complements the internet by enabling secure, trust-based value transfers.
• Crypto is a subset of digital assets—usually natively digital—enabled by tokenization on blockchain infrastructure.
• Tokenization allows any asset to be digitally represented and transacted without paper or manual processes.
• DeFi (Decentralized Finance) enables financial transactions through code rather than intermediaries, potentially removing banks and middlemen from the equation.
• The current financial system is deeply entrenched with inefficiencies and intermediaries that profit from friction and delay.
• Incumbent institutions like banks face both technological and incentive-based challenges in adopting blockchain solutions.
• Just as digital communication disrupted legacy industries, blockchain is likely to disrupt banking and finance despite institutional resistance.
• While adoption of smart contracts and blockchain applications has been slower than expected, it's following a similar long development arc as the early internet.
• Digital assets are designed to function natively on digital infrastructure, enabling real-time, frictionless movement.
• Discounted cash flow models can now be used to estimate intrinsic value for platforms like Ethereum and Solana.
• Bitcoin’s value is more abstract, deriving from its role as a hedge against government control, inflation, and confiscation.
• Blockchain investing spans six asset classes: early, mid/late, and public stages for both equity and token-based investments.
• Entry-level exposure to crypto can be done via small Bitcoin allocations, as recommended by BlackRock and others.
• The biggest blockchain fortunes have come from early-stage investments, not public market trading.

Today's Panelists:

• Kirk Chisholm | Innovative Wealth
• Barbara Friedberg | Barbara Friedberg Personal Finance

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For more information, visit the show notes at https://moneytreepodcast.com/breaking-finance-with-blockchain-matthew-le-merle-720