The Rise of Self-Sovereignty: Reimagining Digital Asset Custody with Andrew Lawrence of Censo

In this episode of The Smart Economy Podcast, host Dylan Grabowski is joined by Andrew Lawrence, CEO and Co-Founder of Censo.

Join them as they:

Andrew Lawrence is the CEO and Co-Founder of Censo, a pioneering FinTech company that provides self-custody and private key management solutions for organizations to better manage and protect their digital assets. Andrew has a diverse background in financial markets and has been involved in the crypto space since 2012.

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[00:02:12] Recognizing the Power of Blockchain - Andrew’s journey into the world of blockchain began in 2012 when he stumbled upon the Bitcoin whitepaper. As a veteran of the financial markets, he immediately recognized the potential of blockchain technology. He saw a powerful parallel between the organization of blockchains and the mutual balances and credit systems used in traditional finance. This realization sparked his interest and set him on a path to explore the possibilities of blockchain technology. 

[00:10:44] The Importance of Self-Sovereignty - Andrew strongly believes that the core principles of self-sovereignty and decentralization are imperative for the success and longevity of the crypto ecosystem. Historically, value was stored in tangible entities like gold or food, under the custody of a centralized entity. Today, digital assets offer inherent self-sovereignty. Yet, many organizations still opt for centralized solutions to manage their digital assets, due to regulatory constraints and the complexities surrounding key management. Although central custodians provide an easier, though potentially risky, solution, many choose them for their convenience. To truly harness the potential of the crypto movement, Andrew believes in the need for decentralization and self-sovereignty.

[00:25:04] Seedless Sovereignty in Key Management - Censo gives users and organizations total sovereignty over their keys and assets, while eradicating the complexities and vulnerabilities traditionally associated with key management. Their solution is built on open-source, decentralized software that runs on clients' hardware, ensuring full control and non-extractability of keys. This system interacts with on-chain policy engines and establishes a secure trust connection between keys and users' mobile devices, with encryption safeguarded by the phones' hardware security modules. The unique feature of Censo's approach is its seedless key management. If a user loses a key, it can be cryptographically reconstructed via a multi-approver transaction. 

[00:29:09] The Pivotal Role of Mobile Phones and Biometric Authentication -  The Censo ecosystem integrates mobile phones as the core of its security approach. According to Andrew, mobile phones are the most secure individual computing devices available due to their hardware security modules from which keys cannot be extracted. The Censo system ties a user's identity to key signing through biometric authentication. It operates in two parts: a web app for initiating transactions and mobile phones for signing and approving them. The biometric gating of the phone's secure enclave ensures the keys remain inaccessible and secure. This entire mechanism guarantees that sensitive activities demanding trust are controlled by the users via their phones or contracts.

Previous guests include: Rusty Matveev, Chief Strategy Officer at Calaxy; Andrew Lawrence, CEO and Co-Founder of Censo; Zac Townsend, CEO and Co-Founder of Meanwhile; Jesper Johansen, CEO and Co-Founder of Northstake; Tama Churchouse, COO of Cumberland Labs; Holly Wood of Boson Protocol; Sid Powell of Maple Finance; Chad Barraford of THORChain; and many others.

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