An emerging technology entrepreneur sees stablecoins and digital tokenisation changing the way money moves. Tokenisation turns assets such as fine art, shares, property — and even harvests — into tradeable digital tokens on blockchain platforms. Stablecoins are a digital currency also managed on a blockchain with its value pegged to a real world asset. BlockchainNZ executive director Trevor Topfer walked through the new tech in a digital future session at the NZ Horticulture conference attended by 800 growers and rural professionals. He said stablecoins were like a digital dollar and for every one issued there was a physical dollar held in a bank account or in trust somewhere. “So that token can move around these digital networks very easily and anytime somebody wants to extract that out of the system there is a dollar waiting.’’ [Missing Credit]BlockchainNZ executive director Trevor Topfer spoke about the digital future at the NZ Horticulture conference. Photo: Supplied People worried about cryptocurrency because of its volatility between the time it was sold and payment received, he said. Stablecoin solved that because it was a dollar for dollar transaction, transferred by machines in seconds and cost cents to move rather than 6% to 10%. “At my company I have people all over the world working for me and about half of them we pay stablecoin every month because they live in economies where the fluctuation of their local currency impacts the amount they get paid.’’ Stablecoin issuance was in the “trillions’’, with blockchain-enabled platform Tether growing to about US$186 billion in assets. NZ has four stablecoin issuers, set up in the past year. Mr Topfer said tokenisation was likely to change the way capital moved around the world. “Think of it like this — you are tokenising the yield. You get your money up front, not at the end.’’ Aquarium coral was mostly supplied by an Australian firm selling shares ahead of time, while a South American grower could buy a new ute based on a soya bean crop as banks recognised the harvest token’s value. “In fact NZ has its first tokenised real-world asset. A friend of mine has tokenised property development. So typically a property developer makes about 20% or more on any development project and they have tokenised that 20% yield and anyone can become a property developer in NZ for $500.’’ Investors could one day buy an upfront share of a kiwifruit harvest, he said. While there were no set rules if a crop failed, the view was investors took the risk of a tokenised harvest. “So you get the wins and you get the fails, just like any other investment.’’ Mr Topfer is the chief executive of Avatars Global, building new digital avatars — AI-generated digital characters — for international brands. He said the world was moving into autonomous AI systems designed to make complex, multi-step goals with limited human supervision. This had an upside for the authenticity and verification of today’s premium brands such as Zespri. “Today’s premium gets negotiated by humans. Tomorrow it will be negotiated by AI agents.’’ NZ food and its residue, carbon and other claims could be tracked from source to table by machines, he said. Blockchain technology provided the checking of verified digital identity, money and rules that AI needed to operate. “Blockchain is heavily encrypted and almost impossible to change. Once something is printed on to the Blockchain it can’t be undone; it’s a source of verifiable truth and that immutability is what makes it so important.’’ Kiwi companies moving into the technology are Oritain for forensic chemical fingerprinting and Toha Network for a platform to verify environmental action and charitable donations. Globally, about $5b in transactions a day are carried out without a human, and US retailer Walmart has plugged in a shopping assistant which can talk to shoppers’ AI agents. They would become a buyer, payer and decision-maker for supermarkets, importer compliance and freight booking, Mr Topfer said. Machines could read signatures and other data in milliseconds, but a spray diary in a ute or certificate in a PDF scan was invisible to them. “This is not just a case of using technology to verify something, it’s becoming more or less essential in order for you to be seen.’’ Emerging technology, including supply chain passports and digital identity, is expected to help solve food fraud, such as counterfeit Zespri-branded kiwifruit. Qubit Cyber co-founder Bhojraj Parmar said technology had become a necessity, but this came with risks and cybersecurity focus had to be about protecting humans. At present, 75% of Google’s code was being generated by AI agents, and the world was grappling with who would be held accountable if someone was harmed if AI was eventually writing, running and making all code decisions, he said.
