Karen J. Wendel talks custody and the future of assets at CoinGeek London 2020

Karen J. Wendel from Kingdom Trust was among the keynote speakers who have joined the CoinGeek Conference London in February. The biggest gathering of its kind in the Bitcoin SV (BSV) world, Wendel took to the stage to discuss Custody and the Future of Assets.

Wendel said custody was incredibly important in a way that is often underappreciated in the Bitcoin community. She described custody as a key component to helping the BSV world become “real,” in reaching mass global adoption.

She set out three concepts, the first of which was “raison d’etre.” Wendel said assets are at the core of what BSV is all about, from traditional assets like stocks and bonds, through to digital currency assets.

The second concept is “Choice,” in the range of assets available to individual investors and users. It is choice that custodians provide their clients in allowing them to store, secure and tokenize different types of assets.

Wendel spoke of an upcoming war in the custody world, between custodians which aim to restrict the range of assets available, and those which take a more liberal view.

Finally, the third concept she addressed is how custody allows users to “Unlock Your Power.” According to Wendel, custody allows users to take their assets and store them in a way that is safe and secure. It allows more effective reporting for institutions and individuals.

When used in the context of the asset value chain, Wendel said custody allows one class of assets to be transformed into another class of assets, and allows layers of the assets to be stored, traded, used and leveraged through structured products on the blockchain—making assets fungible to “unlock your power.”

By making assets fungible, Wendel said custody allows asset owners to utilize the liquidity in their assets more effectively, in a way that is more accessible.