The Blockchain Wall Street Actually Chose | Yuval Rooz

Canton’s proposition is to combine a public, permissionless network with application-level privacy and permissioning. Smart contracts determine which nodes can see transaction data: a bilateral transaction may be visible only to the parties while remaining immutably recorded, while a permissionless asset can be configured so its data is visible to everyone. Yuval Rooz argues that institutions should be able to audit relevant data without requiring every participant to see every transaction.

Canton’s global sync is designed to let applications deploy permissionlessly while separate synchronizers enforce different rules, with transactions still able to compose through the global network. Rooz compares this arrangement to interconnected networks on the internet: institutions can set local rules without isolating their applications. Canton began with Daml because, in his account, existing public-chain contract languages lacked native privacy and often pushed activity off-chain.

The DTCC selected Canton as the first public chain it would work with after receiving SEC approval a year earlier to tokenize the top 1,000 U.S. equities and U.S. Treasuries. The DTCC trust holds roughly $110 trillion in assets, including U.S. equities and Treasuries. Rooz stressed that the relationship is not exclusive and does not mean the DTCC will necessarily migrate its operations to blockchain.

The DTCC-linked launch was expected very soon in October, but had not yet occurred at the time discussed. Rooz said eligible shares would be movable onto Canton and transferable in real time, 24/7, while token holders retain ownership rights including corporate actions and proxy voting. He cautioned that the launch would not immediately generate enormous fees for Canton.

Broadridge, Tradeweb, CME, Nasdaq, and Visa are among the organizations building applications on or using Canton, though not all are validators. Rooz also cited Korea’s largest bank becoming a validator and Japan’s JSCC agreeing to accept Canton assets for its clearinghouse in a project with MUFG and Mizuho. Nomura is expected to be an early user. These examples reflect different forms of participation, from application development and validation to accepting assets for clearing.

Participants burn tokens to pay network fees; Rooz said roughly 13–14% of the total-ever supply had been burned during Canton’s first two years. The token is not currently deflationary, although Rooz said that is a goal as fees are burned and transaction flows grow. He said there was no pre-mine and that the fixed mint is issued as transactions take place to reward applications bringing activity to the network.

Rooz expects large institutional applications to account for most Canton activity over time, citing their transaction volumes, although Temple, a decentralized exchange, is currently the network’s biggest fee generator. Canton is developing use cases in treasury management, private funds, securities lending, and total return swaps. Rooz said the network was days away from its first total return swap and described that market as roughly $130 trillion, with about $250 billion traded daily.