Many fine minds have attempted to nail down what we mean by culture, but for now let’s just say we’re looking at much more than financial services, business, investment or trading. It also goes beyond ‘high culture’ like art galleries and opera: there is much, much more – from comics and digital art to music, movies and stories in written form, just as a start. At Australian Blockchain Week Ronit Ghose, Global Head Banking, Fintech and Digital Assets at Citibank, summed it up when he said, “Culture is bigger than everything.”

In this blog, let’s assume that all forms of human activity can fall under the culture label, which means that if blockchains become carriers of culture, this could be how they permeate the fabric of our daily lives.

I believe a great many aspects of the way we live, work and express ourselves can be enhanced through interaction with blockchains. Essentially, this is a process of bringing together a whole lot of content, customs, entertainment and livelihoods – and the beauty of the technology is that it enables all these different dimensions to retain their identity and heritage, but also interact better with each other.

NFTs – unique digital assets that can’t be changed but can be sold, making them ideal for demonstrating and exchanging ownership of creative work – are firing up the imaginations of artists, collectors and traders alike.

In his Blockchain Week opening address at ASX’s Exchange Square, New South Wales Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg highlighted one use case for NFTs. “They’re very exciting: we commissioned one for a gallery opening in Bondi,” he said. “There are a whole lot of reasons to do this – for example, NFTs could solve issues of provenance for indigenous artists in remote areas.” And just this week, A NFT of Senator Bragg sold for almost 3 Eth! A great donation to charity.

During his fireside chat at Blockchain Week, Fred Schebesta, Co-Founder at Finder, pointed out that there’s a long way to go. “NFTs are at an early phase, but as the Bored Ape Yacht Club shows, they have the potential to generate hundreds of millions in revenue,” he said. With high-profile members like Madonna signing up[1], BAYC is bringing NFTs to mainstream attention – and pushing the collection’s valuation past US$3 billion[2].

Very meta

At the moment, a Bored Ape NFT is a status symbol, with Madonna and others demonstrating their ownership by using their Ape as their twitter profile picture. The Bored Apes’ value is that they are exclusive – but according to Schebesta, this will change. “A fancy watch in the world of atoms is ‘cool’ but in the metaverse, other things are cool,” he argued. “There will be a dip in NFTs until Amazons and eBays come in and make ownership widespread and affordable.”

The much-hyped metaverse is key to blockchain’s penetration into our culture. If a large proportion of human activity migrates to a virtual, interactive realm that combines activities like gaming, earning, shopping and socialising, then users will need to carry out a lot of value-transfer transactions.

And if anyone has doubts that the metaverse is coming, ponder a moment on the fact that mainstream multinationals like PwC[3], HSBC[4], and J.P. Morgan[5] have already placed bets on its eventual growth by purchasing virtual land from metaverse real estate providers like, and The Sandbox. And Samsung and others have gone a step further by creating a virtual flagship store[6] in Decentraland. It will be interesting to watch how others get into this space.

By definition, every virtual store will need ways to receive payments that happen in the metaverse: where digital assets are changing hands, digital currency must also be transferred. Users may also need to exchange value from fiat currencies into tokens. Ghose at Citibank says the bank is already speaking with clients about how to develop the plumbing that makes this possible: “People are coming to us for the financial infrastructure back end for their metaverse building projects,” he said at the Blockchain Week.

Michael Shaulov, CEO and Co-Founder of Fireblocks, focuses on the custody aspects of NFT ownership: “What is unique about an NFT is that it requires a unique address to register ownership and also be hot on the chain – for example, if you want it to appear on your Twitter profile,” he explained during a panel session. “On-chain custody is secure but the tech also allows real-time interaction with the underlying asset.” 

Inevitably, many potential NFT owners will approach this new world from a conventional starting- point, looking to purchase cryptoassets from their current financial services providers. At Blockchain Week, Cath Whitaker, CEO at Australian share trading platform SelfWealth, signalled that the company is alive to the possibilities. “For us, the addition of new asset types is the biggest thing coming up, including crypto and NFTs.”

Simultaneous and secure

Blockchain’s ability to automate processes and make them simultaneous rather than linear using smart contracts is key to enabling these complex requirements – and making them secure. I can see future users of ASX Synfini bringing these challenges to our sandbox where they can experiment and build applications using our DLT as a Service technology. Our open-source, Daml-based development environment is asset-agnostic: use cases involving stocks, Bored Apes or prog rock albums can be brought to life there with equal ease. 

For me, the most exciting implication of the coming infusion of blockchain into our culture is that it breaks down the barriers between what many regard as the stuffy domain of financial services and the creative world. Providing innovators with the technology they need to enable the future of finance in the metaverse – as well as in real life (or IRL, as people say these days) – is an exciting place to be.

[1] https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/madonna-joins-bored-ape-yacht-club-1235049375/

[2] https://qz.com/2145867/apecoin-has-padded-the-pockets-of-bored-ape-insiders/

[3] https://www.xrtoday.com/virtual-reality/pwc-enters-metaverse-race-with-digital-land-purchase/

[4] https://fortune.com/2022/03/16/hsbc-buys-land-in-metaverse-joins-jpmorgan-decentraland-sandbox/

[5] https://www.ledgerinsights.com/jp-morgan-buys-nft-land-in-decentraland-metaverse/

[6] https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/currencies/samsung-metaverse-decentraland-ethereum-337x-avatar-digital-asset-store-2022-1