Crypto Wednesday: Real Vision co-founder and CEO Raoul Pal hosts Mathias Imbach, co-founder of Sygnum, to discuss Imbach's background, Sygnum's services, European regulations, central banks, and the future of digital currencies. The notion of leveraging today's internet infrastructure to monetize data at the cost of users triggered a fear in Imbach concerning where the current financial structure could ultimately lead. It was in the discovery of the Ethereum white paper that Imbach realized that there could be a better way with smart contracts giving users more control over their data. With that in mind, Imbach co-founded Sygnum with the goal to build a system that was regulatory compliant to help bring real adoption to the space, building a bridge from today's financial world to where they believe future finance will be. Imbach explains that Sygnum's mission is to empower everyone with more access to ownership and value, and he explains that while one may view a bank as doing the opposite because it is a centralized entity, it’s the first step toward that ultimate goal. It requires taking regulators, governments, and national banks along with you from a legacy system to help found and scale a new one. Key Learnings: Imbach states that although Sygnum has a banking license, he identifies the firm as a technology company. According to Imbach, the ethos of Sygnum is that the future has heritage. While the current financial infrastructure is heading towards a smarter, more decentralized, and accessible direction, elements of today's world will not simply vanish—Sygnum aims to combine these elements. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices