Asset Tokenization

The increasing adoption of blockchain technology by Singapore’s financial and healthcare sectors have gained public attention on the potential benefits of asset tokenization—the conversion of physical assets (e.g., properties, equities) into fractional digital tokens on a blockchain platform with legal ownership rights. To date, financial companies have tokenized assets such as properties or stocks where individuals could legally purchase or sell fractional shares of a properties/equities at affordable quantum. In healthcare, tokenizing health data (e.g., medical health records, physiological data from health apps/wearables) is gaining traction, where individuals decide how their data would be used (funnelling it for research or to make purchasing/investment decision with it). While there are potential benefits of asset tokenization such as democratizing access, ownership, and decision-making of health and financial assets traditionally available to the rich, the benefits may not be equally accrued by all populations, and potentially may amplify health and financial inequalities instead of closing them. This is a experimental survey where we examined factors and messaging conditions where individuals are motivated to exchange their health data for tokenized financial assets.