Digital Assets Must Earn in Years the Trust Banks Built Over Generations

Raghda Ibraheem: Trust is the oldest technology in finance. Banks spent generations earning it, and now blockchain, stablecoins and AI are being asked to earn it much faster. So in the UAE, that test is playing out in everyday payments, from a QR code at checkout to what happens to a family’s digital assets for generations to come.

Joining me to unpack it all is Amira Soliman. She’s the founder and CEO of Time Guardian. Amira, welcome to the show. You spent years in traditional banking before building digital assets. So when we talk about trust, we talk about traditional finance, of course. Now, what does traditional finance, or traditional banking, teach us about trust?

Amira Soliman: First of all, thanks for having me on this show. Traditionally, when we talk about traditional finance, [unclear: “Traditional finance is the trust. It is the population. It is the customer availability. And they trusted so much. So they used in today’s day to day activities.”] They’ve built mainly a simple solution which will serve the customer needs. And this is when we talk about traditional finance. It’s mainly giving you a service which is usable, and the customer can benefit from it. And when he faces a problem, he will be going back to them in order to solve this issue. So it’s building trust in two ways between the customer and traditional finance.

Raghda Ibraheem: Yeah, and it’s legacy as well, and that takes time for sure. Now, how do those lessons and this process apply now to digital assets and blockchain? How does it work?

Amira Soliman: Now, as I mentioned, traditional finance had built a lot of trust between them and the consumer and the people. So they’ve built this trust already through having multiple solutions and multiple products which are easy to use. When we now talk about technology and AI and blockchain and digital assets, this is a very advanced stage of technology. So how we use it is a very important thing. When we build technology, we can build a lot of technologies which are very good, but is it usable? Is it easy or not? So normally both of them should collaborate together in order to give the customer the service.

Raghda Ibraheem: So the technology comes in.

Amira Soliman: It’s very, very important.

Raghda Ibraheem: Absolutely.

Amira Soliman: But it should be trusted and usable. And here comes the collaboration between both. So we cannot say that blockchain or digital assets will be competing with traditional finance. No, we will be collaborating together.

Raghda Ibraheem: Together.

Amira Soliman: Exactly, exactly. So we use the trust which they built through years and years, and at the same time we use this trust in order to give the best service to the customer, to give him the best product, which is easy to use. And here comes digital assets. Here comes digital wealth. All of this will come by using this technology.

Raghda Ibraheem: Now, with AI. AI is now making a lot of decisions on people’s money. How can we have that trust? How can they trust AI to make those decisions?

Amira Soliman: Of course. Look, AI has become mandatory for our day to day activities, so we use it in the proper way. How do we use it in the proper way? We deploy it to do all the primary work, but this work should be audited. It should be checked. We cannot let them go alone. The AI agent cannot do the full work. It should have controls in place. It should have policies in place. It should be reviewed by the human. And this is how we strengthen the AI use case in order to be trusted by the customer. Or it can do a lot of mistakes, and this is where we see, all over the world, the hacks.

Raghda Ibraheem: Monitor. Is it like approval steps, for example, from the human?

Amira Soliman: So the AI will be the maker and the checker will be the human, always. We built a matrix mainly, and this matrix has the AI agent at entry level doing all the entry-level work, and there will be a checker above it from the human in order to come with the best outcome. So data is the key. Having a policy in place is the second key, which is controls on how to use this AI. Then having the checker aspect. So it is a three-step process. It’s not a one-step process where we depend on AI and it will be able to do whatever I say. No, no, no, it’s not possible. Because look, there is a very important thing we need to learn. We need to train the models. This goes a long time back, when you had machine learning and we trained the models in order to get the best results. So we train the AI in order to get [unclear: “the best reviews”]. We put the controls in place so we ensure that there are no problems coming in. We put the proper metrics and delegations: what the AI will be doing, what the humans will be doing. So accordingly, like this, we will come up with the best use case for AI and blockchain and digital assets.

Raghda Ibraheem: Now let’s move to stablecoins. How can banks and payment providers bring stablecoin settlement into the equation, into everyday merchant payments?

Amira Soliman: What a great question. To be honest with you, we are facing problems in payments right now. It’s a very lengthy process, it’s very costly, and the settlement does not go to the merchants immediately. Imagine that you scan the QR, you see how much the amount is that you will be paying, and the settlement happens to the merchant instantly. And the cost is [unclear: “variable”]. So this is what stablecoins are doing. This is what digital assets are doing. This is the combination of [unclear: “the trade fee”] normally and the stablecoin, to give the customer the excellent experience, which is easy to use. The merchant will be settled instantly, and you will be able to have cash back and a lot of programs, which will not only include the customer in the financial environment, it will make them part of wealth inclusion. Now I’m saying it’s the era of wealth inclusion. It’s no longer about financial and normal inclusion. No, it is an era of wealth inclusion with digital assets.

Raghda Ibraheem: Time Guardian now lets families choose who can access the digital legacy, and when exactly they can do that. Why does digital legacy need its own solution?

Amira Soliman: Look, it’s very important. All our life has now become digital. It’s not anymore about [unclear: “It’s our photos, our documents, our passwords, our accounts.”] Everything has become digital. If we don’t save it in the proper way, it can be hacked, it can be disturbed. You can lose it. Imagine if your phone is gone, what will you be doing? Everything is gone. So we want to protect you. And this is what I’ve learned from my 28 years of experience in banking. It’s not only about giving a solution. Now, save what matters, then move what matters. Save your information. Save your data. Save your passwords. Your audio. Your videos. Save your life. It has become digital. Save it all in a proper place which nobody can hack. Then start using your finances in order to move what matters. In other words, in order to invest everywhere in the world. So this is how Time Guardian and Athar come in. Time Guardian saves what matters, and Athar moves what matters for you.

Raghda Ibraheem: It’s a great combination. And thank you so much for explaining that to us, Amira, and thank you for being with us on the show today.

Amira Soliman: I’m really very honored to join you on this show.

Raghda Ibraheem: Of course. Thank you.