The term “democratization” typically evokes the ideals of freedom and the process of a government transitioning from authoritarianism to democracy. Today, however, we also use democratization in finance to describe reducing barriers to enter certain markets or activities.
Although financial democratization appears to grant more people access to markets, it can also come at the cost of personal freedom, privacy, and property rights.
While democratization of markets may sound benevolent, it is the path toward owning nothing tangible in the real world.
A search for “democratization” on the World Economic Forum’s website reveals that everything — from tangible goods to intangible concepts — is being democratized through dematerialization. This process includes physical goods, precious metals, capital markets, cryptocurrencies, deepfake applications, media content, travel, computing, digital connectivity, access to technology, skills, growth — even the sky.
Let’s focus on the “tokenization” of assets.
Democratization of assets occurs through the process of tokenization. Essentially, tokenization dematerializes physical assets into digital assets (tokens) so they can be exchanged on a blockchain. Tokenized physical assets, such as real estate or art, are called real-world assets. Tokenized securities are called digital asset securities.
When a real-world asset like a painting is tokenized, it exists in two forms: its original physical form and a newly created digital “twin,” called a token, which resides on a blockchain. Each token is linked to a “smart contract,” which details the asset’s fair value, ownership, and other attributes. Smart contracts contain code that instructs the blockchain to perform specific functions, such as buying or selling under certain conditions. As a result, even though the painting never leaves its physical location, it can still be instantly bought or traded multiple times on the blockchain. […]
— Read More: www.theblaze.com
