Gain insights from Violet Abtahi, Platonic’s visionary Founder & CEO, on bridging traditional finance with blockchain, solving key financial challenges, and driving a secure, global digital economy.
Violet, you have an impressive background in finance and blockchain technology. Can you share what initially inspired you to venture into the blockchain space and ultimately found Platonic?
As an entrepreneur and agent of change, my journey has been driven by a vision of creating more inclusive and abundant global ecosystems. Entering the blockchain space was a natural evolution of my work, as I saw the potential for blockchain to transcend the limitations of traditional systems. Blockchain enables borderless finance, which aligns with my passion for creating opportunities for individuals and institutions worldwide.
Founding Platonic was the culmination of my desire to solve critical challenges such as data privacy, scalability, and trust while building a future where capital flows freely and securely across borders. We aim to build a foundation where traditional and digital assets coexist seamlessly, moving from automation to autonomy, powered by intelligent, programmable assets. This future excites us because it promises a more inclusive, efficient, and borderless global economy.
As the founder and CEO of Platonic, what core challenges are you aiming to address with your enterprise-grade L1 blockchain solutions, particularly in the financial services sector?
The financial services industry is evolving, but many processes remain inefficient and fragmented across multiple systems. If you consider the lifecycle of a trade or an asset, there are as many as a dozen firms or more that touch that data. Our goal is to break down these silos and provide a unified, integrated smart contract that represents an asset on-chain across all parties, improving efficiency and security.
Our Layer 1 solution is designed to enhance automation, improve data sharing, and deliver real-time settlement while maintaining the privacy and security required by financial institutions. We enable financial institutions to access all of the benefits that blockchain technology provides without sacrificing regulatory compliance or disrupting current operations.
Platonic focuses on bridging the public and private blockchain worlds. What do you see as the key benefits and potential hurdles in achieving this integration?
At Platonic, we create the infrastructure that securely connects these systems, allowing institutions to confidently integrate blockchain into their existing frameworks.
Bridging public and private blockchains will enable institutions to harness the global reach and transparency of public chains while ensuring the privacy and control provided by private blockchains. Public chains enable interoperability and access to broader markets, while private chains offer secure management of sensitive data and transaction efficiency.
The challenge is in developing interoperability standards that ensure seamless communication between these ecosystems without compromising regulatory compliance or data protection.
Blockchain technology is often associated with scalability and security challenges. How is Platonic approaching these issues to create a robust infrastructure for financial markets?
Platonic’s proprietary L1 blockchain provides the scalability and security that financial institutions require. We combine AI-linked smart contracts, bank-grade encryption, and transaction-level privacy to create an environment where financial markets can operate at scale, safely, and efficiently. Our solution supports real-time settlement and high transaction volumes by only sharing the necessary data. By integrating tokenized assets into our ecosystem, we allow institutions to benefit from faster capital flow and improved liquidity while still adhering to the highest standards of privacy and compliance.
Your work spans multiple ventures, including Enya Labs and Boba Network. How do these initiatives complement your vision for Platonic and the broader blockchain ecosystem?
After launching Boba and running Enya Labs, I saw firsthand the difficulty financial institutions had in adopting blockchain technology. If we want digital assets to reach their full potential, then ensuring that existing financial markets adopt and access their benefits is crucial.
Launching Platonic enables me to directly address the barriers preventing the existing financial system from adopting blockchain technology.
Moreover, the experience gained through Boba and Enya Labs has equipped us with a deep understanding of public blockchain protocols and the ability to run high-scale production networks, which is invaluable for building interoperable solutions. This knowledge gives us the tools to bridge public and private blockchains seamlessly, allowing us to combine the transparency and decentralization of public chains with the security and privacy requirements of financial institutions.
Our core strength is delivering enterprise-grade privacy and security solutions that meet the compliance needs of financial institutions, while also facilitating interoperability between public and private blockchain ecosystems.
The issuance and distribution of real-world and native assets on-chain are central to Platonic’s mission. Could you explain the significance of this focus and its potential impact on the financial industry?
Our team at Platonic focuses on building the infrastructure that allows digital assets to be issued, traded, and settled securely in a way that meets the regulatory and privacy requirements of institutions.
We believe the on-chain asset revolution will be the biggest transformation for investors interacting with markets since the Internet. The activation of financial assets as smart contracts deployed on-chain will dramatically increase the speed of capital formation and transfer. You can think of the “on-chain” environment as a new “operating system” for finance. Tokenization unlocks new opportunities for ownership, liquidity, and market access by digitizing real-world assets and making them tradable on-chain.
With your extensive experience as both an entrepreneur and investor, what trends do you foresee shaping the future of blockchain technology and its adoption in financial services?
Blockchain technology will improve the efficiency of legacy financial systems and, more importantly, enable the creation of entirely new financial primitives. The tokenization of assets will continue to expand, bringing real-world assets on-chain and allowing institutions to offer more dynamic financial products.
The integration of AI-driven automation with smart contracts will make transactions faster, more secure, and more autonomous. We’ll also see deeper collaboration between DeFi and traditional finance, creating hybrid financial systems that leverage the strengths of both. Finally, as compliance frameworks mature, more institutional capital will move on-chain, supported by scalable infrastructure that ensures security and privacy.
Platonic emphasizes innovation as a key driver of its solutions. How do you foster a culture of innovation within your team, and what role does it play in maintaining a competitive edge?
We foster a culture of collaboration and ownership where every team member is empowered to contribute to our shared vision of building an autonomous global economy. Our approach is to reverse-engineer solutions that address the real-world needs of financial institutions, ensuring that we’re not just following trends but actively shaping the future of finance.
Our goal is not only to build products. We envision a future that is better than the one today. Therefore, we are committed to innovate technologies and build products that will enable this future. Creativity and problem-solving are at the heart of our process, allowing us to adapt quickly and innovate continuously.
As someone deeply involved in advancing the blockchain industry, what advice would you offer to new entrepreneurs looking to make their mark in this rapidly evolving space?
The key to success in the blockchain space or any other area of life is passion and resilience. You need to be committed to your vision and willing to push through obstacles. As Steve Jobs once said, “The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.”
Stay focused on solving real-world problems and surround yourself with people who challenge and inspire you. Collaboration and learning are essential; in a fast-evolving world, we need to consistently iterate, revise, and grow. Keep building, even when it’s hard—because that’s when the breakthroughs happen.
Finally, looking ahead, what are your aspirations for Platonic in the coming years, and how do you see it contributing to the next generation of financial infrastructure?
My vision is to build the infrastructure that powers the next generation of autonomous and programmable assets. More inclusive and accessible financial ecosystems accelerate humanity’s growth and autonomy. I see a future where real-world assets are not just tokenized but operate independently, governed by smart contracts and AI, enabling seamless capital flow and economic participation on a global scale.
Platonic aims to be a key player in creating the financial highways that enable seamless interaction between traditional and decentralized systems, ensuring that capital flows freely across borders and financial ecosystems. Ultimately, we are seeking to be the connective tissue that links together financial institutions to realize a fully on-chain future. Our goal is to lead this transition toward a more inclusive, efficient, and digitally empowered global economy where autonomous financial systems drive innovation and economic abundance.
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