Episode 3: Enterprise-Grade Digital Finance and CBDCs

Cassie Hirsh:

Welcome to the XRPL Insights podcast series. Cassie Hirsh here, Director of Content at XRPL Commons in Paris. 

Joining us today in the studio are my colleagues Zsofi Borsi, Head of Community Engagement at XRPL Commons, and Odelia Torteman, director of Corporate Adoption. 

Zsofi will be interviewing Odelia today—so I’m passing the mic over to you, Zsofi.

‍

Zsofi Borsi:

Thank you, Cassie! 

I’m Zsofi Borsi, and as part of my role as Head of Community Engagement, I am also the editor of the XRPL Community Magazine which is released 3 times a year.  

Today, we have a new colleague who recently joined the Commons team—

Odelia Torteman, our new Director of Corporate Adoption. Welcome, Odelia!

‍

Odelia Torteman:

Thank you, Zsofi. 

‍

Zsofi:

You’ve had a fascinating career so far—can you share a bit about your professional background?

‍

Odelia:

Sure, so first of all, very excited to be joining XRPL Commons, and thank you for having me here today. I really had the pleasure to be working for the last 12 years across the intersection of enterprise innovation and financial services, focusing heavily on digital finance. Now, across those 12 years I've been focusing both across technology consulting, management consulting, and investments, really working globally across different regions, geographies, markets, players, and clients. Supporting different types, from one side digital transformation projects and processes, and from the other side designing and developing different sides of investment vehicles and venture investments. 

I really had the pleasure to be working for leading interesting global organizations. Most recently with the World Bank investment arm - IFC, where I was part of the digital finance global team. Defining, supporting, and working on our digital finance strategies, investments and projects. 

Beforehand, I was with Deloitte, where I have led, for five years, the FinTech and the Blockchain arm - under the technology consulting. 

Beforehand, at the EU Technology Directorate, focusing on basically integrating and financing different types of technology and R&D projects across Europe. 

So, all in all, I really had an amazing journey to be looking at this amazing industry develop and advance and to be seeing all these new solutions and products that are emerging.

‍

Zsofi:

What is it about Blockchain in particular that inspires you?

‍

Odelia: 

For me, blockchain and DLT and different types of digital finance technologies, really embody the promise, I would say, of what technology can do to financial services, to societies, and to the economy as a whole. And I think that Blockchain is almost at the forefront of what financial technologies can offer. Because, from one side, it enables us to accelerate, automate, and digitize existing processes. From the other side, it almost enables you to redefine, to reimagine, and also to re-create different new asset classes. And I think that this has a huge impact both from a consumer level, from what you can or cannot do, in which types of access you have to different services and products. Both from an enterprise perspective, in the sense of how much you can go to be more automated, more agile, more digital, and offer more integrated solutions, which will be both economic and efficient to use in organizations, but also serve your clients better.

And even from an economic perspective, it really enables you, from one side to digitize and securitize assets, that up until today you weren't able to. 

It enables you to do different plays and different flexibility and creativity with different types of asset definitions and asset classes.

And I think that above all, it also brings an amazing innovation to financial inclusion into the developing world, whereby by only having your phone, or by only having one access to a digital footprint, you are able now to do so much more. And for me, that is a huge impact, again like I said, both of us, as basically individuals, and also as communities, and as a society.

‍

Zsofi:

Okay, that’s extremely interesting, and I was just thinking how you are bringing so much knowledge to XRPL Commons from the digital finance world. And so, what is your mission going to be like as Corporate Adoption Director?

‍

Odelia:

So, under the adoption workstream, the goal is basically to enhance, develop and accelerate what we can offer now to Enterprises and Corporate clients. And what that means is two main things: First, is to make sure that we continuously develop different types of use cases and solutions for the ever-changing needs and demands of enterprises and corporates, mainly focusing on financial institutions being part of the XRPL network. And from the other side, working to constantly enhance the Ledger functionalities, and that means to be an integral part of the community of the XRPL wider network. To choose and look for relevant solutions that can enhance and straighten the value proposition, the different types of corporate and institutional players can have, while trying to be experimenting and implementing XRPL-based use cases and solutions.

‍

Zsofi:

So, you’re also a PhD candidate, where you’re focusing on International Economies, specifically, CBDCs and the Monetary System. In a nutshell, what are CBDC's?

‍

Odelia:

Well, CBDC’s are fascinating creatures, if I might say. Basically CBDCs are our Central Bank digital currency. And from a conceptual perspective, it's having Central Banks implementing and adopting some of the very innovative solutions and technologies that we have seen throughout the last 15 years across blockchain and digital finance

in order to create a new programmable money.

And I think that this is extremely exciting because, first of all, it's really utilizing a lot of the innovation, in order to standardize and use it as a tool to support monetary policy, to support basically, central banks’ goal, which is to maintain financial stability within the region, within their countries.

Now CBDCs have all kinds of design choices, and all kinds of operational frameworks, right, from a wholesale to a retail, many countries around the world, around more than 90% of central banks are currently exploring and experimenting with different types of CBDCs.

Some of them are multi-CBDCs focusing on a specific use case, such as cross-border. Some of them are focusing more on the retail level of things, which is mostly from a consumer perspective. How can we create a Central Bank digital money that will be almost disbursed directly to the end consumers?

I think that one of the interesting things about CBDCs is that it is not a one-man show. So, in order for them to work, central banks need to work very closely with the existing financial systems. And that means with commercial banks with PSPs - with payment service providers, with startups, obviously, with the regulators and with other players within the region, in order to make it work. And I think that it's a very interesting innovation, like I said, which also takes a lot of the characteristics of stable coins and brings them almost to the next level. 

Now, in many cases the follow up question is: Are CBDCs a form of stable coin?

I think that to some extent they are - in terms of the fact that they are backed and pegged to a specific value, obviously to a specific asset. But the biggest difference lies in the fact that CBDCs are basically a liability to the central bank, versus stable coins, which are in many cases issued by a private sector, whether that’s a commercial bank or whether that's a technology company, or another protocol. But that is a huge difference, I think, that people need to be aware of when discussing and addressing the issue of CBDCs.

‍

Zsofie:

That's amazing. 

And how many years do you have left of your PhD?

‍

Odelia:

Seventeen.

‍

Zsofie:

Haha. Good luck with that. 

‍

Odelia:

Thank you.

‍

Zsofie:

And..shifting the focus a little bit.. Talking about what you do when you are not thinking or writing about Digital Finance… What do you do for fun?

‍

Odelia:

I'm a big fan of the arts and I think that art represents an amazing medium, whereby it's in the eyes of the beholder. In different types of arts, whether it is photography, whether it's painting, whether it's other forms of art, always captures you in a different position, in a different place, relative to where you are in life. And I think I find it truly fascinating. So I really try to utilize, so to speak, all my world travels to experience different types of museums and exhibitions across the different countries that I visit and work in.

I also think that art in the form of digital art, is a very interesting angle when it comes to digital finance. Both from the sense of using digital as another new form of digital art, in the sense that you can now capture different types of data sets and generate them into new, I would say, art pieces, which is almost like having a new tool, a new medium to express yourself via digital tools and digital technologies, which I think is fascinating.

From the digital finance experience, obviously everything around digital assets and art as being an asset, which has been long known and acknowledged as an asset, can be transformed into having a digital version of it. 

Thirdly, obviously, everything around NFTs, which many people are aware of from previous years. And despite the huge you know, I would say buzz around NFTs, and the rise and fall of them, still NFTs, specifically in the world of digital art, remain a very essential pillar. Specifically, as a certificate when it comes to transferring and sharing digital versions and digital copies of digital art, and I think that there's much more that can be done there. 

And the fourth thing that I would mention, is basically now we have the ability, because we have digital art platforms and ledgers, we’re able to almost choose different types of art as an asset, to digitally collateralize all kinds of financial transactions.

And you see already that the biggest players from Sotheby's to other players around the world - to banks - are basically using those tools and using those technologies, to again redefine their value proposition, and redefine how they offer, what do they offer to their clients, and how to best engage with them. 

So, it's almost like I believe that, since Digital Finance and FinTech is almost like my art, in the sense of sitting in front of a client, with a corporate, and understanding where they want to go. This is my canvas, right? And designing for them, almost like an architect, the value proposition: from business to concept to product design, all the way to - how can we basically implement and disseminate it.

‍

Zsofi:

I feel like that's such a beautiful note to end our conversation on! Good luck Odelia with everything coming up with Commons. And to our listeners, if you would like to learn more about Odelia's background and work, stay tuned for our upcoming XRPL Community Magazines, where she will be writing more about digital finance and the XRP Ledger very soon. So, thank you so much for joining us today.

‍

Cassie

Thanks Zsofi. 

And, before we go, one last thing, Odelia, can you tell us anything that might surprise our listeners?

‍

Odelia

Yes. So, I'm actually half-French. Je parle aussi français - mon père est français. 

(I also speak French, my father is French.) And I'm a citizen of the world, so to speak,  so I had the pleasure to live in a few locations and countries throughout my life from Washington DC to Berlin to Paris.

Cassie et Zsofi, j'espère qu'on se voit bientôt! Alors à la prochaine!

(Cassie and Zsofie, I hope to see you both again soon - until the next time!)

‍

Cassie

C'est super Odelia, tu es une autre bilingue qui rejoint notre équipe internationale chez Commons. (That's great, Odelia, you are another bilingual person joining our international team at Commons.)

It was great to have you here Odelia.

‍

It's always interesting to hear how builders in the XRPL ecosystem are applying the protocol to solve real-world issues. Are you a developer using the XRPL in a novel way, for a new use case? Got a story for us? We'd love to hear it! Drop us a line on the discord or X. Thanks for tuning in.

‍

‍