American Consequences - December 2019

THE ROAR I NG 2020s be created, transferred, and verified easily on the Ethereum network.

The 'Tokenizing' of theWorld

Of course, gold has some special properties. It's fungible, for one. Any gram of gold is equivalent in value to any other gram of gold, so once the authenticity of the gold is proven, anyone buying the token attached to the gold is assured of its value. But over the next decade, we'll start seeing more items of value become tokenized. I anticipate not just art or even a song from a musician's portfolio, but what about real estate or even shares of stock? What about tokenizing a building or even an oil well? Over the next decade, where rules are needed (tokenizing stocks and bonds, for example), those rules will be developed. And an ever- growing use by people who want to conduct transactions peer-to-peer will start to learn about tokenizing. Think of the possibilities such as buying tiny pieces of a classic car, a Rembrandt, or a piece of beachfront property... all items of value that are out of reach of most people. But by tokenizing the asset, smaller pieces can become liquid. How far can we take this? I was recently at a private meeting with an investor who is working on tokenizing health care services for people who may require future care... and want to own a piece of that care now. That's innovation that blockchain will make possible in the next decade.

ERICWADE

CRYPTOCURRENCY ANALYST AND ENTREPRENEUR

T his may take a while to play out, as technology is used for unlocking the value of real-world assets and services that previously haven't been very liquid. The big idea is called tokenizing. Tokenizing is a complicated process now... much like when digital scanners were first sold to consumers to use with their home computers. Those scanners were big, slow, hard to install, and they required special software. (Anyone remember installing drivers?) But after a few years, computer technology got better and scanners got smaller... And now there's a free scanner included in my desktop printer and it works easily every time. Tokenizing goods and services will work the same way. Right now, we have some tokenizing pioneers who have been successful attaching a gram of real gold to a crypto token. It all exists thanks to how tokens can some of the building blocks necessary to make it happen are still being perfected, but I foresee a time that blockchain

Think of the possibilities... all items of value that are out of reach of most people.

American Consequences

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