Experts from Amberdata, Custodia Bank, and United States for Kraken discuss the role digital assets are going to play in the future of finance

• Today's financial system is growing, transforming, and increasingly focused on the adoption of digital assets.
• Experts discuss their views on the future of finance in crypto, blockchain, and NFTs.
• The conversation was part of Insider's event "Finance Meets Its Future," which took place on Thursday, March 23, 2023.

The past decade has seen a cultural shift and adaptation to digital assets including cryptocurrency, nonfungible tokens (NFTs), and blockchain. From influencer and celebrity promotion to adoption at top auction houses these digital assets are setting a cultural standard and financial institutional shift.

Shawn Douglas, cofounder and CEO of Amberdata, said that, "Digital assets are the "financialization of the internet," citing blockchain to safeguard real-world assets and, in digital rights management (like NFTs) as examples.

"Or just making today's fairly opaque exclusive markets radically transparent and global and accessible to all. That's what I think the mission of digital assets is undertaking, and it's a massive transformation," Douglas said during Insider's virtual event, presented by Amberdata, "Finance Meets Its Future," which took place on Thursday, March 23rd.

During the session, Laila Maidan, investing correspondent for markets at Insider, spoke with Douglas and other financial experts about how cryptocurrency, digital payment platforms, and sustainable investing matter for digital transformation.

CEO of Custodia Bank, Caitlin Long, believes the role of digital assets exists in the payments world.

"You can right now download, say the Lightning Network code and move any fiat currency in the world using Lightning as an intermediary currency," Long said. "Nobody needs permission to run that code. And so the world's going to change pretty radically as adoption rates start to increase."

This permissionless system is a form of decentralized finance or "de-fi." Guy Hirsch, managing director for Kraken in the US, said he believes de-fi is the future of finance.

"We would have to work really diligently with state actors, with regulators to still allow this innovation to flourish, not to be afraid of it, but embrace it because it will better society," Hirsch said.

There are, of course, challenges to adopting digital assets including concerns about centralized banks and government agencies. Long said, "The US is on such a different cycle with the rest of the world, and those who are onshore in the US tend to be very American-centric. But we need to recognize this technology knows no borders, and that's one of the powerful features of it."

Throughout the conversation, Hirsch remained focused on the potential digital assets have to enable greater freedom globally. "If you are a creator in Africa and you suddenly realize that you can create digital art and gain access to the global economy and earn a living by selling your art in a way that wasn't accessible before and earn royalties as your art is being sold and sold again, that is amazing because you no longer need to migrate."

The experts agreed that digital asset adoption is imminent. Long said, "This is inevitable and eight billion people can download the code and run it. There is no stopping that. And most of those eight billion people have phones and the engineers are just making it easier and easier for users to interface."