Paul Brody, a Global Blockchain Leader at EY (formerly Ernst & Young), one of the top four global auditors, thinks private blockchains don’t stand if more protocols are built on public networks, especially Ethereum. Brody tweeted his opinion on the speeches at the Real World Summit.
Brody believes that big banks building or exploring private chains like R3 Corda will soon realize their approach is “ineffective in driving adoption.”
EY Blockchain Lead Endorses Public Networks
The Real World Asset Summit, sponsored by top crypto firms, including Coinbase—a crypto exchange—and Circle—the issuer of USDC—the second largest stablecoin after USDT–was an invite-only conference held on September 19. Brody and other attendees heard about tokenization, cryptocurrency, and credit from experts.
The event in New York invited 250 people, and there were 40 speakers, including leaders in decentralized finance (DeFi) like Robert Leshner of Compound and Jesse Pollak of Base, a layer-2 protocol for Ethereum. Given Brody’s comment, it is unclear which of the attendees the expert referred to.
Unlike private, closed chains, public networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum are rooted in decentralization and openness. Because of the freedom presented by public chains, anyone is free to interact with the base layer, provided they have a crypto wallet and internet connection.
Freely accessible hot wallets, including MetaMask or Coinbase Wallet, act as interfaces for users to interact with the underlying blockchain when sending transactions, trading, minting, and much more. In other networks like Bitcoin, users can only send transactions from one area to another.
The freedom to transact in a transparent, secure network can explain the success of some top ledgers, including Ethereum. As of September 20, Ethereum’s market capitalization was over $195 billion, and it had received support from major technology companies such as Visa and PayPal.
Technology Firms Choose Ethereum
Visa is working on an initiative allowing users to pay for gas fees on Ethereum using their cards. This change could lead to increased adoption of Ethereum by enabling users to interact with the network without purchasing ETH for gas fees. On the other hand, PayPal, through Paxos, released its stablecoin, PYUSD, on Ethereum.
Early this year, EY’s Blockchain Analyzer: reconciler added support for Dogecoin (DOGE), expanding the number of coins available for its customers—earlier versions supported among other blockchains, Ethereum and Bitcoin. The tool allows the auditor to reconcile client records to the public ledger.