In a new video, Dan Doney, Managing Director and Chief Technology Officer of DTCC Digital Assets, emphasized the vital role interoperability plays in the multi-chain future of finance.
“We know there’s not going to be one blockchain network; there can’t be one blockchain network, due to a physics problem,” he explained.
The blockchain trilemma, a concept attributed to Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, posits that any one chain can only optimize two of three core properties – decentralization, security, and scalability.
“No one blockchain network can handle all the world’s transactions, so there will be many,” said Doney. “Which means the movement of value and the movement of data between these networks is of paramount importance.”
DTCC is a leading financial market infrastructure driving institutional digital asset adoption via a suite of institutional-grade, blockchain-based solutions that manage the lifecycle of tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) including compliant, cross-chain, 24/7 settlement. Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) is integral to moving assets and data between networks with the highest degree of security and reliability.
A 2024 Smart NAV industry pilot leveraged DTCC’s digital asset capabilities and CCIP to demonstrate how traditional financial institutions can deliver key mutual fund data onchain. The collaboration marked a significant advancement in fund tokenization, which introduces lower costs and greater efficiencies.
In 2025, DTCC was among 24 of the world’s largest financial institutions to participate in Chainlink’s expanded industry initiative to standardize corporate actions processing using oracles and AI. A production-grade deployment aims to save the global financial industry an estimated $58 billion in annual processing costs with minimal disruption to existing processes.
Doney underscored Chainlink’s ability to connect blockchains to each other as well as traditional financial infrastructure on an episode of Chainlink’s industry spotlight series, The Future Is On.
“This ability to bridge between legacy systems and the new blockchain rails is a critical enabler,” he said.
“You shouldn’t have to make a choice to go to the digital world and then never come back or to stay where you are.”