#SundayInterview. Fourth generation of digital assets

The ICONOMI Digital Asset Management Platform makes participating in the crypto-economy easy. Instead of designing a portfolio and buying into individual coins, users are able to choose between a wide variety of Digital Asset Arrays – tailored selections of digital assets purchasable with just a few clicks, managed by experienced professionals – says Jani Valjavec, co-founder at ICONOMI, in Bithub.pl’s #SundayInterview.

Digital assets management platforms have been blooming in recent years. What makes ICONOMI unique, as you assert on your website?

Jani Valjavec: ICONOMI is one of the first projects in this space that has continually delivered on its promises. The idea behind ICONOMI is simple: to connect experienced asset management professionals with buyers (platform users), creating a unique sorted marketplace that allows anyone to enter the crypto-economy with a minimum of effort. Essentially, we are pioneers in building a bridge between the new and the old economy.

With twenty different DAAs on the platform run by a diverse group of DAA managers, our Digital Asset Management Platform also offers an array of diversification opportunities, making it easy for users to expose themselves to a variety of digital assets. We currently have well over 100,000 users depositing $1M a day.

What are the main challenges faced by the „regular folks” intending to invest in cryptos?

JV: As of right now, the process of investing in bitcoin or altcoins is complicated for an average user. Generally, investors have three different issues: 1.  deciding what to invest in, 2. knowing how to invest, and 3. securely storing those assets. This is a complicated process that can involve multiple exchanges. ICONOMI’s purpose is to make it better, easier, and safer for the average investor to invest in bitcoin, ether, or any other coin on the market right now.

What are Digital Assets Arrays which you call a fourth generation of digital assets and how to trade them?

JV: DAAs are a new asset class offering diversification. You can think of a DAA as a basket of underlying digital assets that can be freely bought and sold on the ICONOMI platform.  DAAs can also be tokenized, allowing them to be traded on external exchanges.

From a finance perspective, we’ve seen blockchain technology step through a series of generations. The first was well known: Bitcoin, the blockchain that started the movement; next came altcoins, such as Namecoin and Litecoin; the third generation was Ethereum, expanding blockchain to include not just digital currencies, but self-enforcing digital contracts; and the fourth generation is the Digital Asset Arrays (DAAs) we are building at ICONOMI. DAAs are easy to buy and are democratizing finance by allowing anyone to participate in a completely global economy.

Many people would like to invest in cryptos and other assets but they feel blocked in two ways. First, they think it’s too difficult and the crypto world is too complex. Second, they hear that it’s not safe to put money in digital assets because they get stolen, hacked or otherwise lost. How would you respond to such fears?

JV: The ICONOMI Digital Asset Management Platform makes participating in the crypto-economy easy. Instead of designing a portfolio and buying into individual coins, users are able to choose between a wide variety of Digital Asset Arrays—tailored selections of digital assets purchasable with just a few clicks—managed by experienced professionals. This removes the need to design and rebalance a portfolio, to store digital assets securely, and to use cryptocurrency exchanges to buy and sell coins.

We also have a robust system of hot and cold wallets to handle every aspect of the safekeeping of our users’ assets so our users don’t have to.

Let’s feel imaginative for a moment: do you think traditional stock exchange operations might be tokenized in the long run? For example, could big companies switch to offering tokens instead of stocks and bonds? Or maybe this is already starting to happen?

JV: It is certainly possible that tokenization will impact traditional stock exchange operations. The opening of bitcoin futures markets, for example, demonstrates the eagerness of traditional exchanges to get involved in the blockchain space.

Most assets will one day be tokenized. Assets that can be represented digitally are the clearest candidates, but even the tokenization of physical assets, despite the legal hurdles, is not far away, with companies already tokenizing gold and creating blockchain-supported licensing for music, video, and even real estate.

Interview by Przemyslaw Cwik
e-mail: p.cwik/at/bithub.pl