What Is a Digital Asset?

A digital asset, in the world of crypto and fintech, refers to the digital representation of something of value. Typically, this value is tokenized, and the resulting tokens can represent either full ownership or fractional ownership that is verified and recorded on a distributed ledger. 

A digital asset can include cryptocurrencies or crypto tokens, or can represent a real-world asset (RWA) that is stored on the blockchain in the form of a token that represents its value, identified with its unique ID.

RWA can come in the form of a commodity, a file, a record of a land registry, an accounting ledger, a 3D printing raw file, and much more. Asset values can be defined by monetary amount, kilograms, ounces or liters or a digital asset like the digital rights to a film, a non-fungible token (NFT), loyalty and reward points, or a file which can be quantified on the blockchain by the number of users or views granted to the holder for example.

Digital assets can be used as either a medium of exchange that can be used to acquire goods or services, or can simply refer to the physical representation of a real-world asset in its digital asset form with its unique identification code.

As blockchain and digital assets continue to mature, the use cases for digital assets will likely continue to grow, opening up the world to new opportunities.

Author:

Johannes Schweifer is the CEO of CoreLedger, a company empowering businesses of all sizes to access the benefits of blockchain technology. Schweifer co-founded several blockchain start-ups, including Bitcoin Suisse. He’s a passionate problem solver, holding a master’s degree in chemistry and a PhD in distributed computing and quantum chemistry.