Explainers

Registries are re-emerging as a critical layer of digital financial infrastructure, providing authoritative records that verify ownership, enable interoperability, and support trust in modern financial markets.

As digital asset markets draw greater interest from banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and family offices, the question of custody has become central to institutional participation.

Europe’s eIDAS 2.0 framework marks a shift from national digital identity schemes to interoperable trust infrastructure at continental scale. This article examines the European Digital Identity Wallet and draws comparative lessons for India’s digital public infrastructure and global interoperability.

As registries proliferate across digital systems, authority has become the defining factor that separates reference infrastructure from simple data repositories. This article examines the institutional, legal, and governance conditions that make registries authoritative and explains why authority is essential for interoperability and programmable finance.

Financial systems are increasingly embedding rules directly into infrastructure rather than enforcing them after transactions occur. This article examines why programmability is emerging as a structural response to scale, complexity, and regulatory demands, and why trust registries are essential to making programmable finance reliable and accountable.

Every society relies on registries to establish trust. A land registry shows who owns a piece of property. A professional registry...

Registries have always been instruments of trust. Land deeds, professional licences, and company filings established ownership and...