WEF panel discusses the coming tokenized economy

Published at: Jan. 17, 2023

In a wide-ranging discussion, a panel of blockchain industry personalities at the World Economic Forum (WEF) concluded that the economy will become increasingly tokenized in the future. Carbon credits, housing, electricity, government bonds, forex, and other real-world assets will be traded on the blockchain, according to the panel.

The event, titled Tokenized Economies, Coming Alive, featured Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, Bitkub Capital CEO Jirayut Srupsrisopa (also known as “Topp”), Finland Minister of Transport and Communications Timo Harraka, and Yield Guild Games Co-Founder Beryl Li.

According to Topp, the Thai central bank will be implementing a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for the Thai Baht wholesale market in the first quarter of 2023. The government is currently working with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to handle remittances between the two countries using the new currency.

He also said that the Thai government is working on an “investment token” license, separate from the current crypto license, that will allow entrepreneurs to “tokenize all kinds of values” including government bonds, carbon credit trading, FX, electricity units, and other assets. Topp explained that this means “tokenization will be the foundation of the digital economy going forward.”

Timo Harakka said that self-custody of data will be an important issue moving forward. According to him, an association in Finland was created in 2014 called “MyData.org” that intended to allow users to exercise ownership and control over their data. However, most of society is still currently focused on “privacy” instead of data ownership, so projects such as these have yet to gain as much traction as they otherwise could.

One questioner at the event asked what the participants thought was the most exciting thing they expect to be tokenized next. Jeremy Allaire responded by saying that he thought many brands desired to turn their proprietary loyalty points systems into blockchain applications, making them into an “open loop system” instead of a “closed loop system” that could be interoperable with systems used by other brands.

All of the participants were generally optimistic about the future of tokenized assets. But they also seemed to agree that clearer government regulations and better user interfaces will be needed to make the tokenized economy a reality.