Bridging Worlds: Galileo Protocol and BlockSquare CEOs Unpack the RWA Revolution
In a compelling virtual session, Pierre, Founder and CEO of Galileo Protocol, hosted Denis, Co-founder and CEO of BlockSquare, for a highly insightful Ask Me Anything (AMA). This discussion offered a deep dive into the evolving landscape of Real World Asset (RWA) tokenization, highlighting the progress, challenges, and collaborative spirit driving innovation in this burgeoning sector. The dialogue, marking their first public conversation in approximately two years, provided a valuable snapshot of two leading companies shaping the future of how tangible assets interact with blockchain technology.
The Rise of BlockSquare: Tokenizing Real Estate for a Global Audience
Denis kicked off by reflecting on BlockSquare’s significant strides, particularly over the past two years. He detailed the launch of Ocean Point, their DeFi initiative introduced in 2022, aimed at bringing the economic rights of real estate on-chain. This venture has proven fruitful, with BlockSquare successfully tokenizing nearly $150 million in real estate assets spanning approximately 30 countries. Their infrastructure now supports 15 live marketplace operators, facilitating the connection between property owners and a global investor base. Denis candidly acknowledged the complexities, noting, “RWA is not something you can build in a day,” a sentiment that underscored the meticulous legal and technical groundwork involved, including a pilot notarization of a tokenized asset in Slovenia and establishing a presence in Luxembourg.
From Childhood Friends to RWA Pioneers
BlockSquare operates with a fully remote team of around 35–36 individuals, a model Denis believes enhances productivity across time zones, with a 40/60 split between technical and marketing/business development roles. The genesis of BlockSquare, Denis shared, was an organic fusion of a long-standing friendship with CTO Victor, a timely discovery of Ethereum in 2016, and Denis’s own foray into real estate investment, which illuminated the potential for blockchain application.
A Comprehensive Toolkit for Real Estate Tokenization
BlockSquare’s product suite is comprehensive, starting with Spring, their core AML-compliant tokenization protocol. This feeds into their white-label marketplace solutions (Delta, Tide, Wave), allowing businesses to create branded platforms for listing, distributing revenue, facilitating peer-to-peer trading, and managing token buybacks. Critically, Ocean Point acts as a sophisticated liquidity engine, aggregating value from diverse, often fragmented, tokenized real estate assets. This middleware solution aims to solve the inherent illiquidity and slippage issues that would arise from creating individual, small-cap asset pools on platforms like Uniswap. A V2 of Ocean Point is currently under development.
Empowering Owners and Investors Alike
This collaborative spirit extends to their operational model, which is B2B2C, primarily empowering entrepreneurs and established real estate businesses, like the Vera Group in Florida, to leverage tokenization for broader market access and streamlined international investment. For individual property owners, BlockSquare offers a “learn-to-earn” model, guiding them through tokenizing a portion of their property for staking, thereby fostering education and adoption. Investors, on the other hand, can access various marketplaces built on BlockSquare’s tech, purchasing fractionalized real estate tokens primarily with stablecoins, a practical solution while fiat on-ramps remain a hurdle.
Galileo : Securing Luxury and Beyond with Dynamic NFTs
Pierre, representing Galileo, then shared his compelling origin story, poignantly sparked by a personal encounter with counterfeit luxury goods. His girlfriend’s purchase of a fake Louis Vuitton bag, despite receiving seemingly legitimate documentation, highlighted a critical flaw in traditional verification.
The Spark: A Counterfeit Bag, A Revolutionary Idea
This experience fueled Galileo’s mission to leverage dynamic NFTs as secure “data containers” for luxury items, creating immutable digital product passports. This vision not only combats counterfeiting but also aligns seamlessly with upcoming EU regulations mandating Digital Product Passports from July 2024.
Expanding Horizons: Taking Flight with Kepler
Pierre also touched upon Galileo’s operational shift from a remote to an on-site team to enhance communication, and his diverse background spanning computer science to physiotherapy, which ultimately led to the creation of Galileo Protocol. Expanding their scope, Galileo has also launched Kepler, a sub-project with Pierre’s father, dedicated to tokenizing assets and certifications within the highly regulated aviation industry, utilizing an API-based approach to simplify adoption for clients unfamiliar with tools like MetaMask.
Navigating the RWA Frontier: Challenges and Compliance
Both CEOs acknowledged the shared challenges and immense opportunities within the RWA sector. Navigating the intricate regulatory landscape is paramount; Denis detailed BlockSquare’s meticulous approach to AML and MiCA compliance, and their recent selection for the European regulatory sandbox, which they anticipate will foster more tangible, experience-based discussions with regulators. Pierre emphasized simplifying the user experience for non-crypto natives as a core tenet for wider adoption. The conversation also touched upon the current market sentiment. While institutional adoption of direct RWA tokenization might not be immediate, with traditional finance finding comfort in vehicles like ETFs, the demand from the real estate sector itself to explore tokenization is growing robustly.
The Road Ahead: BlockSquare’s Vision for 2025
Looking ahead to 2025, Denis outlined BlockSquare’s ambitious roadmap. Key milestones include the recent release of their new marketplace platform, the establishment of their Luxembourg entity to further the notarized framework, the ongoing development of Ocean Point V2, and plans to open-source their corporate resolution and legal frameworks to foster broader industry standardization.
A Collaborative Future for RWAs
The AMA concluded on a note of strong mutual respect and a shared commitment to education and collaboration. Denis underscored the importance of RWA projects joining forces to demystify the technology for both Web2 and Web3 audiences. As Pierre aptly summarized, the journey in the crypto and RWA startup world is fundamentally “a game of patience.” This engaging discussion left listeners with a clear understanding of the dedication, innovation, and long-term vision required to truly revolutionize how real-world assets are owned, managed, and traded in the digital age.
