People used to wonder whether blockchain technology would survive. Then the question transitioned to “It’s not a matter of if, but when it will take hold?”
Now the key question being asked is “who is using it and how?”
To answer that question, you must understand that Web2 and Web3 are not competitors. They are parallel technologies that when used properly can increase each other’s capabilities. Just as Web2 did not replace the internet, and the internet did not replace brick and mortar business, Web3 will not replace Web2. Each new technology merely enables and enhances what preceded it. This is true for traditional financial products as well, new vehicles for financial products simply enhance and improve the current ones. In the case of blockchain most people question its compliance. Blockchain is the perfect vehicle for compliant assets, with the ability to carry information on rules and regulations and even enforce transaction rule sets when built to do so. Blockchain is a technology, much like excel spreadsheets and how we utilize them to do innumerable functions.
Some changes happen slower than others, and change frequently occurs out of the sight of the masses. Before you know it much of what you use today will in some way be powered by a Web3 technology. Your banking app does not tell you when they change backend tech and they do frequently to enhance features and save money. Currently Blockchain is actively being applied and used across the breadth of the financial industry by individual businesses, funds, transaction providers, licensed agents… all the way up to institutions. Franklin Templeton, JP Morgan, State Street, Goldman Sachs, Wisdom Tree, and nearly every major financial organization has active applications and investments in the space.
The universal constant is change.
IT’S NOT ABOUT SURVIVAL BUT WHO HAS THE POWER OVER IT
Today the industry is engaged in turf wars at two major levels. The first territory grab is for the right to define where this technology fits in the domestic and international regulatory regimes and which agencies will have the right to enforce? Second, is which financial giants and general purpose companies will take market share and retain their dominance in their fields? These territory wars have a negative impact on developers, founders, companies and consumers across the entire landscape of Web3, however, this history provides undeniable legitimization and consumer confidence. This war also provides the insight we need to mitigate the collateral damage, because this “land grab” is a mirror image of multiple historic events, of which all were triggered by a fundamental improvement in a core technology.
The invention of electricity led to mass behavioral change and innovation stemming from it. Manufacturing lead to product availability and cost efficiencies and in turn a wide vocation and societal change. The movie, tv, and music industries were stuck in their physical distribution and business models for decades, until the internet disrupted and improved distribution, operations, and income models, ultimately the internet changed the face of consumer behavior forever. All of these examples became land grabs and fights for regulatory authority, with some still going on to this day, this is no different than what is occurring now with Web 3 blockchain technologies.
Each of these events and many more were led by a widespread expansion of knowledge across the general masses. We all know the saying “Where the water flows the easiest, the masses follow” today that is blockchain and the benefits it brings to its applications. Blockchain faced the same challenges and hurdles that these previous innovations did in their early adoption cycles. But the cycle has reached critical mass, and the biggest remaining hurdle is legitimization, institutional adoption, led by regulation, and hopefully thoughtful regulation.
The blockchain industry needs better regulation and clearer rules. Even if many of the rules that already exist do not change, they still need to be clarified, what fits where, and when. Today the fight for turf is exposing this industry’s weaknesses, showing which experiments and applications are flawed and which are prime for success; but this is no different than what occurred during the birth of the internet and the change of music and media distribution and consumption, or when the lights literally turned on. Each grew quickly on all fronts and exposed flaws that needed fixing, and that led to changes in the law and ultimately legitimization, and mass adoption.
This is the natural cycle of fundamentally world changing inventions and technologies and these cycle elements should be expected not feared. We sit in the adoption cycle, at that critical mass where territory is being taken and this can be an opportunity and it should be leveraged now.
At ACQUIRE, we are positioned for this opportunity and leveraging the impending bridge of traditional financial products, and web 2 with web 3 blockchain application for a key sector of assets!
ACQUIRE
At acquireinvest.com we embrace the evolving regulatory environment, both in the US and globally. We provide technology layers to the blockchain, and a seamless, user-centric venue of access for traditional private and alternative investments. Powered by our permission’ed tokens called “smart-shares,” our solution helps traditional funds, asset managers, and investment issuers comply with regulatory requirements, speed up investor onboarding and capital closing, with near instant settlement times. Our platform also saves fund managers and fund administrators significant time and money on middle and back office functions and reporting. Our vision is to bring the robin hood of private investments to market for both retail and accredited investors.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Harstine has been a blockchain strategist of almost a decade, Brian has successfully built, grown and exited companies across three separate industries; media & entertainment, insurance, and infrastructure. After years spent managing the private investments of high net worth individuals, conducting due diligence, building our finance and business strategies and helping their investments into private businesses succeed, Brian was exposed to blockchain while working with investors venturing into blockchain opportunities around 2015. He quickly realized the need for codified regulation and compliance what is now known as securities tokenization and he has been passionately working in the space ever since.
“The change to our financial technology systems is inevitable, it is happening now at the institutional level. During times of change, there is massive opportunity. I want this power in the hands of every level of investor… anywhere there is change like this, there is massive opportunity.”
– BRIAN HARSTINE
