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Penny Crossman (00:11):
Hi, I'm Penny Crossman, tech editor at American Banker, and I am here with Kara Kennedy, who is global co-head of Connexus, which is JP Morgan Chase's blockchain business unit. Welcome, Kara.
Kara Kennedy (00:25):
Thank you.
Penny Crossman (00:26):
So when you think about everything that's going on in on - chain finance, what are you most bullish about today?
Kara Kennedy (00:34):
I think what really excites me about this space is that it is an opportunity to look at how we operate as an industry and completely transform the mechanics of how we move money, move assets. And I think about this as an opportunity to look at re-platforming financial services. We today have assets which are typically housed and recorded within centralized siloed institutions and the advent of tokenization and digital assets looks at how we can unlock those assets and allow them to move more efficiently through the twenty four seven cycle and with an unlock of greater utility for those assets as well.
Penny Crossman (01:20):
For traditional banks, what do you think are the biggest challenges or obstacles to participating?
Kara Kennedy (01:28):
I think that it is now I think you're seeing the institutions come into this space and starting to explore this technology. I think understanding what the opportunities are and where the value is for each discrete organization is key. Fundamentally, this is a technology around record keeping and we do that in multiple different places within the industry today. And so identifying those commercial benefits and really understanding what adopting those means for transforming the operating model in a particular part of the industry is key.
Penny Crossman (02:03):
And if you had to make one prediction about the future of on - chain finance and the digital asset ecosystem, what would it be?
Kara Kennedy (02:12):
I think this is going to be a journey. So it's not going to happen overnight. It is going to take time. Change is difficult within regulated organizations, but what we're seeing is the pace of change is accelerating. And with the introduction of more institutional players into this space, that will just continue. And so I think we will have a period of transition, but we will continue to see growth and adoption over the years to come.
Penny Crossman (02:44):
All right. Kara Kennedy, thank you very much.
Kara Kennedy (02:46):
Thank you.
Penny Crossman (02:47):
Thanks for watching.