It is about building infrastructure that is trusted, connected and capable of creating value for businesses and the wider economy.
In recent years, digital assets, blockchain, stablecoins and asset tokenisation models have moved from experimental concepts to increasingly prominent parts of discussions about the future of the financial system. As these technologies enter real-world financial activities, the key question is whether financial institutions, regulators and businesses can operate the new system safely, reliably and at scale.
When digital finance enters the real economy
In the early stages, discussions around blockchain and digital assets often focused on transaction speed, scalability and the technical advantages of individual platforms. But as digital assets become linked to corporate balance sheets, real cash flows and actual financial obligations, the requirements for the system become more complex.
An infrastructure may be capable of processing transactions very quickly, but it cannot be considered ready if it lacks secure custody mechanisms, identity verification, legal compliance, reconciliation capabilities, safeguards for ownership rights, risk management and procedures for handling incidents.
This is also why some projects may succeed during the pilot stage but face difficulties when deployed in real-world operations. In a small-scale trial, participants can agree on operating procedures, data, technical standards and how errors should be handled. Once a system expands to the wider market, the number of participants increases, interests and legal responsibilities diverge, and risks become greater. The key questions are no longer simply whether the system works, but also who is responsible if a transaction fails, who has the authority to intervene when the system encounters an incident, who verifies the data and who bears the losses when information is incorrect.
Building an ecosystem that works together
For a financial technology to be adopted at scale, participating stakeholders also need to have aligned incentives. A bank may have to make significant investments in a new system, while the benefits may accrue mainly to customers or technology companies. If the distribution of benefits is not addressed, even good technology may fail to achieve widespread adoption. Interoperability, therefore, is not only a technological issue but also a matter of business models and incentives for participation.
Vietnam does not necessarily need every bank, payment platform or blockchain network to use the same technology. What matters more is that different systems can “understand” and work with one another. This requires common standards for asset identification, participant authentication, data exchange, transaction status and legal principles when transactions move across multiple systems. Otherwise, the economy could simply move from traditional “data silos” to new “digital silos”.
Compatibility between technical and legal rules is also becoming increasingly important. A transaction may be confirmed as completed by a technology system, but financial institutions still need to know whether it is legally recognised, who owns the asset, what happens if one party becomes insolvent and which authority is responsible if a dispute arises.
