How difficult is it to build traditional financial services? System development, institutional endorsement, compliance approval—the processes are so complex they are almost despair-inducing, and security vulnerabilities must be constantly guarded against. Decades of internet development have solved communication issues, but rules regarding asset ownership and contract execution remain a mystery. Economic activities have been fully digitized, yet rights records are still chaotic and disorganized.

The emergence of Ethereum has changed all of this. It embeds ownership and obligation logic directly into code, relying on global nodes for collective verification—no one can cheat. Previously, issuing a blockchain required top-tier technical teams and huge capital investment. Now, with Ethereum’s shared security model, it can be achieved with just a few lines of code. Capital-intensive infrastructure construction instantly transforms into a purely technical problem.

Even more impressively, Ethereum does not aim to dismantle the traditional financial institutions’ roles but instead automates tedious processes like bookkeeping, authorization, and dispute resolution through software. Institutions no longer need to maintain redundant complex systems, freeing up resources to focus on product innovation. Previously, cross-border payments required bank approval, high fees, and took three to five days to arrive; on Ethereum, settlement occurs in seconds, and costs are drastically reduced. Contract execution also shifts from disputes and delays to automatic code triggers, completely eliminating human lag.

Most importantly, there is the global shared ledger. Previously, each institution maintained its own database, often causing reconciliation failures and errors. Now, with a single, transparent, immutable ledger, all transaction records are clear at a glance, and efficiency has increased by more than ten times.