The Roaring Twenties, Digital Assets & Escaping the Dominant Logic of the 20th Century
Tim Grant, Head of SIX Digital Exchange
Originally published in the GDF Annual Report 2020
I remember saying at the end of 2019 that I was excited that we were now entering into the roaring twenties and that I could see a world of promise and significant advances that have the opportunity to change the way we do things for decades to come. Well, COVID kind of took the edge off that one. But coming into 2021, I hold form on my assertion from one year ago.
Our motto at SIX Digital Exchange is “Grand Ambition. Big Impact. Small Steps.” The Grand Ambition and strategic intent is to build a global liquidity network for institutional digital assets. The Big Impact that we can generate if we get this right has the potential to make a difference to how corporations, governments and individuals engage with institutional capital markets, to democratize access to new products and services, and to redefine how capital and liquidity are formed. We also know that in order to achieve this, we need to deliver value to the industry in Small Steps rather than try to boil the ocean.
So far, so good. After 2020 I am delighted to confirm that we are well on track. Having been in the institutional blockchain/DLT and digital asset space now for over 5 years, I would rate the industry as a whole reasonably highly for driving towards change. Technology maturity, regulation, investment, commitment, commercial models, standards, and stated strategic intent have all progressed to the point where the pieces of the puzzle are coming together, which bodes well for a decade that really should be roaring.
There is one key ingredient that, in my opinion, needs to be addressed in order for us to progress further. And that ingredient is mindset. In crude terms, we need to “get out of our own way.” The major impediment to progress is being in the right frame of mind as an industry to allow progress to happen. The dominant logic that came from the latter part of the 20th century was driven by the social, political, economic, regulatory and, crucially, technology choices that we collectively made and that were available at the time. As we approach the second quarter of the 21st century, many of these 20th century dominant views are no longer relevant and often simply fly in the face of progress.
Every one of us has to understand what it means to move into a 21st century mindset and leave our 20th century mental models where they belong as relics of the past. This is our greatest challenge and if we can conquer it then it will lead to truly roaring twenties and the achievement of our Grand Ambitions.
Read more from industry leaders, regulators, and policy makers in the GDF Annual Report here.
Press date : 16.02.2020
