Know Your Counterparty: Identity, Access Control, and Institutional Participation on Public Blockchains

Every address on a public blockchain looks the same to the protocol: a string of characters with a balance. There is no field for “verified investor” or “sanctioned entity” built into the base network. Financial institutions working with tokenized assets are building that layer themselves, using onchain identity and access control mechanisms, without undoing the openness that makes the network useful in the first place.