Graeme Moore, Head of Tokenization at Polymesh, on No-Starters for TradFi Investors and More | Ep. 368
Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab recently sat down for a chat with Graeme Moore, the Head of Tokenization at the Polymesh Association, a not-for-profit dedicated to the growth of the Polymesh blockchain ecosystem.
The two discussed building a blockchain specifically for highly regulated assets, as well as the five key pillars of Polymesh (governance, confidentiality, compliance, settlement, and identity).
Moore explained that TradFi is being crypto-ed and crypto is being TradFi-ed, and talked about tokenizing the Old Stone Church in the USA.
Banks Want Diversity, Not Complexity
Polymesh is a public permissioned blockchain built specifically for regulated assets.
According to Moore, the team has talked to many banks. These are the entities that largely control the flow of assets ā and they donāt want to be beholden to one specific technology, he stressed.
They will use different types of tech and different variants of each tech. For example, they use different blockchains for different needs.
This way, they can have āsome kind of diversity within their own tech stack,ā Moore said.
ā Polymesh(@PolymeshNetwork) September 9, 2024
That said, they do not want overly complex technology that will make any process more difficult and expensive rather than smoother and cost-effective.
Notably, Polymesh is API-based, not smart contract-based. The assets are built at the base layer, and users donāt have to build smart contracts on top of it.
Therefore, banks and custodians find this approach useful. āThat just brings them at ease,ā said Moore.
Five Pillars: No-Starters for TradFi Investors
Polymeshās talks with the regulated players in the securities market revealed a massive finding: a pattern.
The team encountered the same issues, which they boiled down to five main areas: governance, identity, confidentiality, compliance, and settlement.
These are what Polymesh focused on, aiming to provide solutions.
Strike gold with tokenization
ā Polymesh
Tokenizing commodities can increase liquidity and unlock new forms of investment in assets such as energy, oil, and precious metals. It also promotes liquidity, transparency, and traceability.#Tokenization #Commodities #RWAs pic.twitter.com/TsfI6v5Gsp
Governance
Letās say there is a chain split, said Moore. What is a bank to do? Stop trading hundreds of billions of dollars for a month until they select a chain based on some parameter?
āWhen you tell your investors, hey, at some point, this weird thing might happen thatās only applicable to blockchains, and you just have to stop trading, or you have to undergo some type of internal board meeting to decide which asset is the real asset. Thatās just a non-starter for them,ā said Moore.
Polymesh provides one canonical version of the chain. As it deals with financial securities, the chain is more centralized.
Identity
Polymesh always checks identity to verify that users are who they claim to be.
The reason is that regulated entities want to know whom they are working with and where the money comes from / goes. For example, does it finance sanctioned groups or countries?
Confidentiality
āJPMorgan doesnāt want Goldman Sachs to see when theyāre putting a trade into the mempool for an asset,ā said Moore.
No financial institution wants this, especially with the kind of money theyāre working with.
āTheir tiny 0.01% edge can lead to huge gains, huge losses for them,ā he added.
People cannot fathom the pissing contest thatās about to take place between billionaires.
āYou have HOW MUCH bitcoin? Hah, peasant!ā pic.twitter.com/gpHlROfA9Xā Graeme Moore
Compliance
For Polymesh, compliance and asset creation are baked into the base layer, Moore remarked. The blockchain understands what a token is.
Ethereum, for example, did not do this, he said. āWhat ends up happening on Ethereum is everything is smart contract. You have a smart contract talking to a smart contract, and it becomes really computationally expensive to do anything.ā
Settlement
If somebody knows a userās blockchain address, they can send them anything at any point, and it canāt be refused. āThatās not something that is very appetizing to us today,ā Moore commented.
This doesnāt fly with banks. Regulated entities donāt want to receive anything they havenāt previously vetted and agreed to.
On Polymesh, āsettlement works a lot more similar to how it works in the traditional market where all parties in the trade affirm settlement constructions and then settlement takes place,ā Moore explained.
Traditional Assets Getting a Crypto Wrapper
The Polymesh team has noticed a fascinating thing happening in the TradFi world. Regulated entities are taking Bitcoin and āputting the institutional TradFi wrapper around it so that people can invest in it.ā
Thatās not all. They also put the crypto wrapper around the TradFi institutional product of US Treasury Bills and money market funds.
āI think weāre going to see more and more of these ātraditional assetsā get the crypto wrapper [and] crypto assets get the traditional wrapper around it. It really just depends on the investor,ā said Moore.
BlackRock tokenized a fund
ā Graeme Moore
Franklin Templeton tokenized a fund
Goldman Sachs is launching three tokenization projects
And you're bearish on Real World Assets, RWA blockchains, and RWA protocolsā¦
Let me know how that works out for you https://t.co/S4QV6dg5yu
As the cost of tokenization decreases and its efficiency increases, regular people will be able to do āthis kind of money Legos thingā: create a structured product in a vehicle, click a button, put a wrapper around it, and place it on-chain.
That can be anything, such as buying pieces of multiple apartments with very narrow specifications.
Thatās the most exciting long-term thing, Moore said.
Tokenizing a Church and Crowdfunding $2.5 Million
In August this year, the Old Stone Church in Colorado, USA, was famously tokenized on the Polymesh blockchain through its partner REtokens.
The goal is to raise $2.5 million to buy the land from the owner, who has been renting it to the pastor.
āWe think this is such an exciting thing thatās going to spread throughout the country and maybe even throughout the world,ā said Moore.
One Hope of Colorado Becomes the First-Ever to Tokenize a Church
ā Polymesh
Creating Opportunities to Acquire Historic Landmark Church, Build Community and Support its Mission
Real World Asset Tokenization Completed on REtokens Platform via Polymesh@REtokensUSA, the company tokenizingā¦
Polymesh doesnāt do the tokenization. Instead, it provides the blockchain and the infrastructure to make it easy for others to tokenize things, he added.
Meanwhile, Polymesh has plenty in the pipeline.
REtokens decided to tokenize $30 million in real estate assets via Polymesh back in May this year. Subsequently, they announced an additional $60 million.
ā Polymesh
$30M+ real estate assets onchain is just the beginning.
Join industry pioneers like @REtokensUSA and @ABCtokens and grow with the emerging real estate tokenization industry on Polymesh.#RealEstate #RWAs #Tokenization pic.twitter.com/8v6EU0Q7Rt
Also, in late August, Polymesh partnered with AlphaPoint, a global provider of digital asset infrastructure for exchanges, brokerages, payment networks, and banking, to offer efficient tokenization solutions via an easy-to-use API.
AlphaPoint, among many other projects, worked with the CME Group and helped the El Salvador government set up the Chivo wallet
āIām sure some people have used an exchange where they had no idea AlphaPoint was the actual exchange under the hood thatās running the tech,ā Moore noted.
____
Thatās not all.
In this interview, Moore also discussed:
- the exciting experience of working as the creative director at Spartan Race;
- his first crypto job at Polymath in 2017, building tech for security tokens specifically;
- running into issues with Ethereum and deciding to ābuild a better blockchain,ā launching Polymesh in 2021;
- working with Token Tracks: music NFTs on Polymesh, with automatically enforced royalties;
- emerging RWA areas: real estate, titles, and carbon credits;
- writing āB is for Bitcoin,ā the first ever ABC book about Bitcoin;
- OpenSea receiving a Wells notice from the US SEC;
- The possible effects of the US presidential election.
You can watch the full podcast episode here.
__________
About Graeme Moore
Graeme Moore is the Head of Tokenization at the Polymesh Association, a not-for-profit dedicated to growing the Polymesh blockchain ecosystem.
He is also the author of āB is for Bitcoin,ā the first-ever ABC book about Bitcoin.
Before Polymesh, Graeme was the first employee at Polymath and the creative director at Spartan Race, among other roles.
The post Graeme Moore, Head of Tokenization at Polymesh, on No-Starters for TradFi Investors and More | Ep. 368 appeared first on Cryptonews.
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Graeme Moore, Head of Tokenization at Polymesh, on No-Starters for TradFi Investors and More | Ep. 368
Cryptonews Podcast host Matt Zahab recently sat down for a chat with Graeme Moore, the Head of Tokenization at the Polymesh Association, a not-for-profit dedicated to the growth of the Polymesh blockchain ecosystem.
The two discussed building a blockchain specifically for highly regulated assets, as well as the five key pillars of Polymesh (governance, confidentiality, compliance, settlement, and identity).
Moore explained that TradFi is being crypto-ed and crypto is being TradFi-ed, and talked about tokenizing the Old Stone Church in the USA.
Banks Want Diversity, Not Complexity
Polymesh is a public permissioned blockchain built specifically for regulated assets.
According to Moore, the team has talked to many banks. These are the entities that largely control the flow of assets ā and they donāt want to be beholden to one specific technology, he stressed.
They will use different types of tech and different variants of each tech. For example, they use different blockchains for different needs.
This way, they can have āsome kind of diversity within their own tech stack,ā Moore said.
ā Polymesh
That said, they do not want overly complex technology that will make any process more difficult and expensive rather than smoother and cost-effective.
Notably, Polymesh is API-based, not smart contract-based. The assets are built at the base layer, and users donāt have to build smart contracts on top of it.
Therefore, banks and custodians find this approach useful. āThat just brings them at ease,ā said Moore.
Five Pillars: No-Starters for TradFi Investors
Polymeshās talks with the regulated players in the securities market revealed a massive finding: a pattern.
The team encountered the same issues, which they boiled down to five main areas: governance, identity, confidentiality, compliance, and settlement.
These are what Polymesh focused on, aiming to provide solutions.
Strike gold with tokenization
ā Polymesh
Tokenizing commodities can increase liquidity and unlock new forms of investment in assets such as energy, oil, and precious metals. It also promotes liquidity, transparency, and traceability.#Tokenization #Commodities #RWAs pic.twitter.com/TsfI6v5Gsp
Governance
Letās say there is a chain split, said Moore. What is a bank to do? Stop trading hundreds of billions of dollars for a month until they select a chain based on some parameter?
āWhen you tell your investors, hey, at some point, this weird thing might happen thatās only applicable to blockchains, and you just have to stop trading, or you have to undergo some type of internal board meeting to decide which asset is the real asset. Thatās just a non-starter for them,ā said Moore.
Polymesh provides one canonical version of the chain. As it deals with financial securities, the chain is more centralized.
Identity
Polymesh always checks identity to verify that users are who they claim to be.
The reason is that regulated entities want to know whom they are working with and where the money comes from / goes. For example, does it finance sanctioned groups or countries?
Confidentiality
āJPMorgan doesnāt want Goldman Sachs to see when theyāre putting a trade into the mempool for an asset,ā said Moore.
No financial institution wants this, especially with the kind of money theyāre working with.
āTheir tiny 0.01% edge can lead to huge gains, huge losses for them,ā he added.
People cannot fathom the pissing contest thatās about to take place between billionaires.
āYou have HOW MUCH bitcoin? Hah, peasant!ā pic.twitter.com/gpHlROfA9Xā Graeme Moore
Compliance
For Polymesh, compliance and asset creation are baked into the base layer, Moore remarked. The blockchain understands what a token is.
Ethereum, for example, did not do this, he said. āWhat ends up happening on Ethereum is everything is smart contract. You have a smart contract talking to a smart contract, and it becomes really computationally expensive to do anything.ā
Settlement
If somebody knows a userās blockchain address, they can send them anything at any point, and it canāt be refused. āThatās not something that is very appetizing to us today,ā Moore commented.
This doesnāt fly with banks. Regulated entities donāt want to receive anything they havenāt previously vetted and agreed to.
On Polymesh, āsettlement works a lot more similar to how it works in the traditional market where all parties in the trade affirm settlement constructions and then settlement takes place,ā Moore explained.
Traditional Assets Getting a Crypto Wrapper
The Polymesh team has noticed a fascinating thing happening in the TradFi world. Regulated entities are taking Bitcoin and āputting the institutional TradFi wrapper around it so that people can invest in it.ā
Thatās not all. They also put the crypto wrapper around the TradFi institutional product of US Treasury Bills and money market funds.
āI think weāre going to see more and more of these ātraditional assetsā get the crypto wrapper [and] crypto assets get the traditional wrapper around it. It really just depends on the investor,ā said Moore.
BlackRock tokenized a fund
ā Graeme Moore
Franklin Templeton tokenized a fund
Goldman Sachs is launching three tokenization projects
And you're bearish on Real World Assets, RWA blockchains, and RWA protocolsā¦
Let me know how that works out for you https://t.co/S4QV6dg5yu
As the cost of tokenization decreases and its efficiency increases, regular people will be able to do āthis kind of money Legos thingā: create a structured product in a vehicle, click a button, put a wrapper around it, and place it on-chain.
That can be anything, such as buying pieces of multiple apartments with very narrow specifications.
Thatās the most exciting long-term thing, Moore said.
Tokenizing a Church and Crowdfunding $2.5 Million
In August this year, the Old Stone Church in Colorado, USA, was famously tokenized on the Polymesh blockchain through its partner REtokens.
The goal is to raise $2.5 million to buy the land from the owner, who has been renting it to the pastor.
āWe think this is such an exciting thing thatās going to spread throughout the country and maybe even throughout the world,ā said Moore.
One Hope of Colorado Becomes the First-Ever to Tokenize a Church
ā Polymesh
Creating Opportunities to Acquire Historic Landmark Church, Build Community and Support its Mission
Real World Asset Tokenization Completed on REtokens Platform via Polymesh@REtokensUSA, the company tokenizingā¦
Polymesh doesnāt do the tokenization. Instead, it provides the blockchain and the infrastructure to make it easy for others to tokenize things, he added.
Meanwhile, Polymesh has plenty in the pipeline.
REtokens decided to tokenize $30 million in real estate assets via Polymesh back in May this year. Subsequently, they announced an additional $60 million.
ā Polymesh
Join industry pioneers like @REtokensUSA and @ABCtokens and grow with the emerging real estate tokenization industry on Polymesh.#RealEstate #RWAs #Tokenization pic.twitter.com/8v6EU0Q7Rt
Also, in late August, Polymesh partnered with AlphaPoint, a global provider of digital asset infrastructure for exchanges, brokerages, payment networks, and banking, to offer efficient tokenization solutions via an easy-to-use API.
AlphaPoint, among many other projects, worked with the CME Group and helped the El Salvador government set up the Chivo wallet
āIām sure some people have used an exchange where they had no idea AlphaPoint was the actual exchange under the hood thatās running the tech,ā Moore noted.
____
Thatās not all.
In this interview, Moore also discussed:
- the exciting experience of working as the creative director at Spartan Race;
- his first crypto job at Polymath in 2017, building tech for security tokens specifically;
- running into issues with Ethereum and deciding to ābuild a better blockchain,ā launching Polymesh in 2021;
- working with Token Tracks: music NFTs on Polymesh, with automatically enforced royalties;
- emerging RWA areas: real estate, titles, and carbon credits;
- writing āB is for Bitcoin,ā the first ever ABC book about Bitcoin;
- OpenSea receiving a Wells notice from the US SEC;
- The possible effects of the US presidential election.
You can watch the full podcast episode here.
__________
About Graeme Moore
Graeme Moore is the Head of Tokenization at the Polymesh Association, a not-for-profit dedicated to growing the Polymesh blockchain ecosystem.
He is also the author of āB is for Bitcoin,ā the first-ever ABC book about Bitcoin.
Before Polymesh, Graeme was the first employee at Polymath and the creative director at Spartan Race, among other roles.
The post Graeme Moore, Head of Tokenization at Polymesh, on No-Starters for TradFi Investors and More | Ep. 368 appeared first on Cryptonews.
Read More
OKX Relaunches in U.S. After $505M DOJ Settlement, Unveils Bold āSuper Appā Strategy