WEF Digital Asset Head expects blockchain adoption in the real world by 2023

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange, said in a speech at Davos that the industry must now focus on the development and promise of blockchain technology itself.

The World Economic Forum’s Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets Brynly Llyr shared similar views, particularly around blockchain applications in sustainability work and the environment.

In an interview at Davos with Forkast.News editor-in-chief Angie Lau, Llyr argued that 2023 should see more real adoption of blockchain technology. The following questions and answers have been edited for clarity and length.

Angie Lau: What do you think the trending issues are and what is most important to people after Davos?

Brynly Llyr: I would say that the review line has been about case studies, real case studies, enough of technical theory, although it is interesting. It’s time to really showcase the real use cases we see today.

Lau: I thought one of the biggest takeaways was interoperability. There are different ecosystems, and yet we all participate in a global digital economy. So when it comes to migrating from the old world to the new, if that interoperability doesn’t exist, will liquidity be trapped in the old ecosystem?

Ring: Yes. I think that is absolutely correct. And that’s where the work comes in and why the forum is so useful, because we bring these different voices together to come up with that interoperability solution. Because we are not small villages kept to ourselves, we are global.

Lau: The year 2022 started with Terra Luna and then ended with FTX. I note that financial institutions may have withdrawn interest in cryptocurrencies as a speculative alternative asset, but they did not withdraw interest in investing in blockchain. The technology did not fail.

Ring: It’s about what the blockchain can enable, what’s possible, and I still see a lot of enthusiasm around there. This goes back to the work we do on the forum related to crypto power. So we work with entrepreneurs around the world and in the US, right now we’re focused on the US. We will expand it. We see a number of use cases and a number of developers who continue to be energized and continue to work on these projects. And I think you still see money coming into them.

Lau: As new entrants enter this space, how do you ensure a transition to the digital economy that embraces the many rather than the few?

Ring: One, do we all need to be united? Maybe, maybe not. I mean, one of the advantages of a decentralized system is that you get many different points of view and a lot of diversity in what is developed. So I think there’s something to be said for keeping that diversity. We shouldn’t all be on a single file line. The other is, how are we going to get there? I think we follow the user’s path. I think when people realize that using these products makes a difference in their lives and they start using them and we see where the adoption is, that’s where we’re going.

Lau: Where is 2023 headed for you as you lead these global conversations?

Ring: I see some very interesting work in sustainability and the environment. We’ve already been focused on it, but I’ve made connections this week that make me even more excited about it. I think food security is very much connected. Some really interesting ideas coming out of it and proof of concepts and a lot of people interested in trying out some really interesting business cases. So I think this is going to be a year of real action, development, study and research.