In the last two years, interest in blockchain use cases such as cryptocurrency, Decentralised Finance (DeFi), and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) has risen significantly.
Bitcoin and Ethereum recording all-time highs, rising market caps for the crypto market, and NFTs selling for thousands of dollars have made blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) disruptors of traditional systems of transfer of value.
However, this has also rekindled the debate around security, governance, and compliance in the crypto and blockchain space. As crypto is decentralised and largely unregulated, it poses a challenge for incumbent governments and enterprises to protect users.
Pranav Sharma, Founding Partner, Woodstock Fund — a fund that invests in early stage blockchain startups — came onboard at YourStory’s TechSparks 2021 to explain how security and governance is shaping up in the crypto space.
“I see three upcoming trends: the convergence of traditional and emerging tech to create new apps, financialisation and blurring of boundaries across asset classes, and virtualisation and tokenisation. These trends pose a nightmare for entities like governments to regulate effectively and ensure all stakeholders can coexist,” he said.
In fact, Woodstock has been investing actively in blockchain startups that are part of these trends through their products across blockchain settlement layers, service and infra, privacy and apps. Pranav’s fund has invested in blockchain startups such as Elrond, Covalent, Biconomy, and others.
Pranav Sharma, Founding Partner, Woodstock Fund
Safety, governance and compliance
Speaking about safety in the crypto space, Pranav said:
“First, assets such as crypto need to be safe and secure, and holding them in hot and cold wallets is more advisable than holding them on an exchange. Next, safety of protocols comes in, where startups need to seek audit reports and ensure partners’ protocols are not vulnerable to leaks or hacks. The expertise of the tech…
