Old school cypherpunk believer. Director, Canton Network Ecosystem at Digital Asset. All views are my own.
Joined November 2025
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If you were absolutely committed to:
- Bringing the global financial system onchain, linking all existing institutions into an interoperable network accessible to anyone
- Adding a fully decentralized crypto ecosystem inside that network, with atomic composability among traditional and crypto assets
- Allowing anyone in the world to personally own a piece of that network, with self-custody of that ownership stake
- Preserving privacy for everyone
What would you build?
If your understanding of Canton doesn’t fit this picture, let’s dig deeper.
If you're interested in where Canton Network is going, and how we plan to get there, the Foundation has published the 2026-2026 technical vision and roadmap, including requests for grant proposals for the coming year.
github.com/canton-foundation…
This is just the technical side of the picture. Making it all real means moving lots of Capital Markets workflows, apps, and business relationships to Canton. It's an incredible experience to be able to pair a great technology with amazing firms who have decided to move to Canton. The next two years are going to be a thrilling ride!
Wayne Collier retweeted
Enjoy true digital ownership of your Canton Coin (CC) for the first time: available natively via the Ledger Wallet™ app.
Traditionally reserved for institutions and network validators, CC is now accessible to individuals. We are bridging the gap between regulated finance and retail ownership, while actively securing the @CantonNetwork as a Super Validator.
Wayne Collier retweeted
If you want a glimpse into where my head was at in 2019, here's a discussion between me and @skamille on @ACMQueue. We covered quite a lot there.
This is two years before Canton first went into production and five years before @CantonNetwork launch. Daml ran on our previous gen blockchain called Apollo and on multiple other private chains. We were already deep into working on Canton but we didn't talk about it publicly.
DAML: The Contract Language of Distributed Ledgers
A discussion between Shaul Kfir and Camille Fournier
The how and why of Digital Asset's own distributed-ledger technology, DAML (Digital Asset Modeling Language)
queue.acm.org/detail.cfm?id=…
#blockchain #bitcoin #finance
@skamille
Big step. Soon any Validator or app provider will be free to pick any synchronizer, with CC burn happening across all of them.
Every "subnet" on Canton will soon burn CC and earn rewards.
I kind of regret using the term subnet though - they're all part of one @CantonNetwork, with one economy and one coin. Just like we have one Internet.
CIP draft coming for comment in September. I believe we can roll this out in phases across H1 2027.
Wayne Collier retweeted
Fed research paper argues that digital money (stablecoins, MMFs, tokenized deposits) can be "fragile" even when perfectly backed, due to the properties of the chain. The core argument is that the rails can cause a "run on the bank."
@CantonNetwork prevents this risk
New #FEDSPaper: The Fragility of Perfectly Safe Digital Money: federalreserve.gov/econres/f… #EconTwitter
Great summary of Canton by @bc1pxxx at Five North.
Wayne Collier retweeted
We need to build a cultural movement.
This is how @CantonNetwork hits escape velocity. 👇
@CantonFdn $cc
Slowly realizing the original vision...
In 1994 Nick Szabo invented smart contracts.
We were told Ethereum delivered that vision.
I read the 1996 paper. They built the opposite.
@CantonNetwork made it a reality. Here's how. 👇
@CantonFdn $CC
Wayne Collier retweeted
My top 10 projects on @CantonNetwork.
The video ran long (12 min) but I wanted to give these projects the respect and time they deserved.
Also, if you're watching you should follow. Enjoy.
@CantonFdn $cc
Wayne Collier retweeted
If I permit myself one bearish EthCC review tweet, it’s that the EF and ethCC leadership are very misguided on Ethereum (the Computer)’s decentralisation. Behind closed doors they are again trying to rush through issuance caps, and think Eth’s Nakamoto coefficient is the wrong measure of decentralisation. They care more about “hard money” and their tax bills than Ethereum being incorruptible.
I think they misunderstand why Ethereum is valuable, as well as the purpose of stake and issuance:
You can make a blockchain with tiny issuance, but unless it’s decentralised no one will value it. You can change economic policy to favour the 0.4% of solo stakers, but they don’t control fork choice. You can claim $X billion dollars are enough economic security to prevent the manipulation of finality, but censoring what you attest to isn’t slashable so that doesn’t matter in practice despite mattering in theory.
Where I mostly agree with them is that any change of economics needs massive legitimacy, and I think lean Ethereum is a legitimate reason to rethink economics to ensure block building+proving is meaningfully decentralised. I think we agree that social slashing is not a realistic enough threat right now. I think we also (mostly) agree that a Nakamoto of 5 is far too low for the world computer (even if some dispute it being the most important measure). I think we also collectively believe that everyone with opinions on issuance are being genuine and mean the best for Ethereum, but are likely ‘feeling different parts of the elephant’.
Constructive next steps are publishing credible data on the cost to operate stake, Ethereum’s Nakamoto coefficient, the gini index of its withdrawal credentials, R&D on EIPs that mitigate centralisation pressures, analysis of Ethereum’s principal agent problem in staking, and how we might 10x+ Ethereum’s decentralisation in a post-quantum future.
A centralised Ethereum is the ultimate financial panopticon, is worse than the status quo, and is something I worry deeply about bringing into the world. I think the majority of Eth people agree and want to prevent that future. If so, we need to bring CROPS to the consensus layer, and not allow absolute power to corrupt absolutely; by no means an easy feat, but one I think we have rough consensus on vying for. Obol will remain steadfast on the front lines of this battle.
Wayne Collier retweeted
Canton's Polyglot Vision – From Whitepaper to Reality (and Why It Matters)
1/ Most blockchains lock you into one language and one virtual machine.
Canton is different. Last year, @DigitalAsset published the Polyglot Canton Whitepaper, a blueprint for a truly multi-language, multi-VM network that keeps Canton's superpowers: privacy, atomic composability, and institutional-grade controls.
Today, that vision is no longer theory. It's shipping with @ZenithFdn.
Let me break it down simply.
2/ What “Polyglot” Actually Means Here
Canton separates two things that are usually glued together on other chains:
1. The ledger model (extended UTXO + sub-transaction privacy)
2. The execution interpreter (the engine that actually runs your smart-contract code)
This clean split lets Canton support multiple languages and VMs at the same time, Daml, Rust (via SVM), Solidity (via EVM), and more, while everything still composes atomically in one transaction.
Quote from the paper: “The more cleanly the ledger model is separated from the language interpreter, the easier it is to support additional languages and virtual machines.”
That’s the entire unlock.
3/ Why This Matters (The Real-World Problem It Solves)
Solidity devs (90%+ of DeFi TVL) have never been able to bring their code to a privacy-first, regulated network.
Rust devs (Solana ecosystem, high-performance apps) had no clean path to Canton’s institutional rails.
Institutions want atomic DvP, collateral mobility, and not just tokenized RWAs, but mobilized RWAs, and, with all of that, they also need the confidentiality, control, and reliability that public chains have yet to provide at scale.
Polyglot Canton gives everyone the best of both worlds: familiar languages + Canton’s privacy and atomicity.
4/ How It’s Coming to Life with @ZenithFdn
We are the team turning the whitepaper into production code. We have built Canton’s canonical EVM and SVM execution layer, the exact polyglot extension the paper called for.
a. Full EVM compatibility → Solidity contracts run with zero changes.
b. SVM/Rust support is roadmapped → high-performance, memory-safe contracts.
c. Atomic cross-VM composability → a Solidity contract can call a Daml contract (or Rust contract) in a single private transaction.
d. Privacy preserved at every step via Canton’s sub-transaction views.
Zenith is already a Tier-1 Super Validator and the official EVM/SVM application layer. What the whitepaper described in theory, we are delivering in practice.
5/ What This Means for @CantonNetwork
(The Big Implications)
→ Developer explosion: Hundreds of thousands of existing Solidity and Rust devs can now build on Canton without learning Daml first.
→ DeFi meets real finance: Privacy-preserving versions of Aave, Uniswap-style logic, and distributed RWAs can run alongside institutional workflows.
→ Massive RWA and payments pipelines: Deals already in flight (tokenization stacks, stablecoin flows, collateral mobility) can now use battle-tested EVM code while gaining Canton’s regulatory superpowers.
→ Network effects on hyperdrive: One unified ledger where public innovation and private control coexist = no more “pick a side” between crypto and institutions.
The whitepaper said: “A future where Canton is polyglot, widely accessible, and compatible with EVM chains and DeFi.”
That future is arriving in 2026.
6/ Bottom line:
Canton was never meant to be “just another smart-contract chain.”
It was built to be the unified venue where every type of developer and every type of capital can meet privately and atomically. This is a true "network of networks," aka the global synchronizer.
@ZenithFdn is making that vision real, one VM at a time.
If you’re a Solidity dev, Rust dev, or institutional builder who thought “Canton is Daml-only,” it’s time to take another look.
The polyglot era of Canton is on its way.
What will you unlock?
(And yes, the full whitepaper is excellent reading: canton.network/hubfs/Canton%…)
Zth.
Wayne Collier retweeted
The first time I met @wesarn_real, he told me, "We're going to Trojan horse the banks onto crypto." A week later, I was on a plane to NYC to start DA.
Never loved "Trojan horse" because we're helping TradFi, not harming them. But we've definitely been Mr. Miyagiing TradFi into adopting crypto-native properties, one wax-on at a time. We'll get there eventually.
Wayne Collier retweeted
No, aggregate properties of private assets, such as total supply cap, cannot be verified by every user on Canton yet. If this is the main criticism of Canton, I wholeheartedly accept it!
All of the claims people are throwing on X about Canton not being decentralized, not being cryptographically verifiable, and requiring complete trust in institutions are red herrings. Your observation is the only correct critique of Canton I've seen yet.
I agree that publicly proving aggregate amounts is a desired property and that all transparent chains have it. zkSync Prividiums also have it, under the assumption that the entire ZKP stack works as advertised. Canton does not (yet) have this property.
Now that we've distilled it to the core property that Canton lacks, we can talk about why the importance of it is completely overblown, and why this hasn't been a concern in practice for any users:
(1) Many privacy assets on Canton have decentralized BFT issuers. You're not trusting any single institution; you're trusting a BFT consensus. A single honest Validator can report and cryptographically prove dishonest behavior.
(2) For asset-backed tokens, Canton has the same trust model as transparent public chains. You ALREADY rely completely on an independent auditor to review that the aggregate amount on-chain equals the off-chain amount. Those same auditors cryptographically and independently audit the on-chain amount in Canton. We're already trusting stablecoin providers + their auditors to maintain the on- vs off- chain reserves, so the trust model on Canton is exactly the same! But Canton makes it much better - we're moving to a world where tokenized US Treasuries are on-chain, so the auditor gets cryptographic independent verification of the peg. If anything, Canton is the ONLY blockchain bringing on-chain cryptographic verifiability of RWA reserves! Repo transactions on Canton are the only repo transactions in the world where there's distributed cryptographic verification that your asset is fully backed!
(3) For fully dematerialized assets, the registrar is legally allowed to change the aggregate amount. The important thing is that it's auditable by the issuer, not that it's publicly auditable. If DTCC tells you that Tesla has 3.3b shares outstanding, even if you could verify that aggregate number on-chain, can you independently verify that that's the correct amount? Only Tesla can say whether that number is correct so they're the only voice that matters from a trust-model perspective.
All that said, I agree that publicly proving aggregate properties is a nice-to-have. But it's never been desirable enough to justify the trade-off of adding significant complexity to the software stack. Running a Canton Validator in a TEE would be dead simple and give you that property (with different trust assumptions), yet in practice, no one seems to think it's important enough to justify even that modest investment. This is actually one area where retrofitting ZKPs on top of Canton would not be very hard!
By relaxing this single requirement, Canton has been able to add many other security properties.
teapawt.net/DejaRu22/status/192990…
For anyone who wants to master the facts on decentralization in Canton, here's a good place to start. Canton allows decentralized, untrusted operators, and the Canton ecosystem has already applied all these methods in various applications and subnets:
docs.digitalasset.com/operat…
Canton’s “Trusted Operators” Are the Real Single Point of Failure
“Canton is not a blockchain, and it's NOT a semantic difference.
This materially limits their ability to protect transacting parties, which is the entire reason the blockchain technology exists.”
- Alex Gluchowski (@gluk64)
Canton warns that complex systems like ZK carry inevitable bugs that could spread undetected. Yet their own network rests on a handful of trusted synchronization domain operators and participant nodes whose keys and behavior control data segregation and state ordering.
If those operators are compromised, by insider action, credential theft, or sophisticated attacks, manipulated transactions and opaque UTXO chains can propagate silently across domains with no independent mathematical check to detect or halt them.
There is no external verifier, no redundancy layer, and no structural containment when a domain fails. Regulators and institutions are asked to accept this as “enterprise-grade” while Canton lectures others on systemic risk.
The irony is sharp: the very complexity they fear in cryptography is replaced by human and operational trust assumptions that history has shown fail far more often and with less warning.
In the end, zero-knowledge proofs offer what Canton cannot: cryptographic finality that stands independent of any operator’s honesty. ZK turns verification into mathematics, provably correct computations that anyone can check without seeing the private data. Bugs become detectable and containable through redundancy and open scrutiny, not hidden behind promises of “trusted” parties. This is why ZK infrastructure redefines safety in tokenized finance: it replaces fragile human trust with unforgeable truth.
