SmartCon 2023 featured more than 100 blockchain experts and financial industry leaders including founders of influential protocols in the Chainlink ecosystem. To get a closer look at the future of web3, Nasdaq TradeTalks host Jill Malandrino filmed a two-day interview lineup with speakers at this year’s event in Barcelona, Spain.
Ernesto Boado is co-founder of BGD Labs, a web3 development company contributing to non-custodial DeFi liquidity protocol, Aave. In July, Aave was one of the first protocols to integrate Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to future-proof its multi-chain governance mechanism. Boado sat down with Malandrino to discuss Chainlink’s role in bringing the future of finance onchain.
Aave’s history with Chainlink began nearly four years ago when the protocol integrated Chainlink price oracles and has since expanded to include integrations with Chainlink Automation and Proof of Reserve. “Our relationship has been really, really strong and we evolved together over these years,” Boado said.
From his perspective, the blockchain industry has come a long way but is capable of advancing much further.
“It feels from the size of DeFi protocols or networks like Chainlink that everything is really mature, and certainly it is, but at the same time we know that the potential is not even close to what it can be in the future,” he said.
As a blockchain abstraction layer, CCIP is engineered to connect traditional multi-trillion-dollar capital markets to web3 applications onchain. In Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov’s long-term view, CCIP would permit the convergence of DeFi and TradFi into a superior alternative financial system based on cryptographic guarantees. Boado echoed this outlook.
“Capital markets are going to be really big,” he told Malandrino. “Because more and more you see that what we call the traditional world is seeing the potential of blockchain technology to maybe not completely change everything but to really optimize points that are really difficult with traditional software.”
Ultimately, Boado believes blockchain and finance will be intrinsically linked.
“I think how most everybody sees [blockchain] is not a replacement of everything in capital markets but more of a compliment here and there that will make everything way more optimal and will evolve the finance field.”
Watch Jill Malandrino’s full interview with Ernesto Boado.