Tokenize everything, but first — prove who you are: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is pushing for a blockchain-based financial system where all assets — from stocks and bonds to real estate — can be traded 24/7 via blockchain technology, he said in his annual letter to investors. Fink made the argument that tokenization “can democratize investing” by enabling partial ownership, lowering the barriers to entry for high-value assets like private equity and real estate.

Fink compares today’s financial infrastructure to outdated systems like the postal service, while tokenization is “email itself” — a faster, more direct, and more efficient method for moving value. With blockchain, tokenized assets could be traded instantly, clearing transactions in seconds and allowing bns of USD tied up in settlement delays to be reinvested immediately.

But none of this works without trust: The biggest obstacle, Fink argues, is the lack of a reliable, large-scale system for digital identity verification. The proliferation of AI-generated deepfakes and sophisticated cybercrime has made secured tokenization ever more difficult. “Championing tokenization alone won’t suffice. We must solve digital verification, too,” he wrote.

Tech experts and financial industry leaders agree: “You don’t trust anything until it’s verified,” said Christina Hulka of the Secure Technology Alliance, pointing to the growing need for a unified, easy-to-use digital ID system, CNBC writes. “The goal is to get to a point where there is one way to verify identity across multiple services,” she added.

Some countries are already moving in that direction: India’s Aadhaar, Estonia’s e-ID, and mobile ID systems in the UAE and Singapore show how governments can roll out digital identity at scale. “While these systems differ in how they handle issues like privacy, they all share a key trait: centralized government leadership that drove standardization and adoption,” Zulfikar Ramzan, Point Wild’s CTO said.

But centralizing that data bears its risks: “A lot of security experts do not advocate having a centralized security system because it’s kind of like the pot at the end of the rainbow that every fraudster is trying to get his hands on,” Datos Insights Strategic Advisor David Mattei said.

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