Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki

Exploring Concordium, The Future of Blockchain Identity

Community Blog

20 Dec 2025 • 10 min read

In this episode of the Crypto 101 Podcast, Concordium CEO Boris Bohrer-Bilowitzki joins the conversation for a wide-ranging discussion on where blockchain adoption has stalled, why identity and verification are now unavoidable, and how Concordium is deliberately positioning itself for real-world use.

The conversation cuts through market noise and price action to focus on fundamentals: why smart contracts failed as custodians, why most tokenized financial products remain unusable, and why privacy-preserving verification is emerging as the critical missing layer between regulation and adoption.

Below is a distilled, section-by-section summary of the discussion, capturing the key insights, concrete examples, and strategic signals shared during the session.

1. Introduction

1 Introduction
- Crypto 101 Podcast, sponsored by Concordium
  - Guest: Concordium CEO **Boris “Triple B”** Bohrer-Bilowitzki
Framing of the episode:
- Focus on builders shaping the next phase of crypto
- Direct insights from leadership, not speculation
Context set:
- End of 2025
- Year described as highly volatile but fundamentally positive
- Combination of:
  - Positive regulation
  - Major catalysts
  - Black swan events
Key message:
- Despite volatility, real progress has been made
- Sets expectation for a substantive, forward-looking discussion

2. Boris’ background and entry into crypto

Boris has spent nearly 20 years in finance and infrastructure
- Experience spans hedge funds, brokerage, M&A backend, and asset management
Entered crypto in 2017, describing himself as a latecomer
Sparked by the first line of the Bitcoin whitepaper:
- “Global electronic peer-to-peer cash”
Background in finance made him focus on:
- What money is
- How value is exchanged
- How broken real-world payment and settlement flows are
Observed that everyday transactions (e.g. buying coffee) hide:
- Enormous complexity
- Inefficient and fragmented infrastructure
Always infrastructure-driven rather than product or trading-focused
In 2018, became:
- Founding partner
- Chief Commercial Officer at Copper
At Copper:
- Built large-scale institutional crypto infrastructure
- Solved off-exchange settlement problems
- Launched ClearLoop as a flagship product
- Processed hundreds of billions in monthly trading volume
Through Copper, worked with many major foundations
- Concordium stood out as technically unique
Noted that Concordium’s code was highly regarded by engineers
- Built by top cryptographers
- Founded by Lars Seier Christensen, former CEO of Saxo Bank
Interest in Concordium persisted over time
Left Copper as it scaled:
- Prefers building early-stage systems over operating large organizations
Took over as Concordium CEO in September
Concludes by noting:
- A lot is happening in crypto
- Much appears chaotic on the surface
- Underneath, the direction is relatively clear if you look beyond noise

3. 2025 context and cycles: why this year mattered

2025 described as a wild but constructive year
- High volatility
- Ongoing flow of new catalysts
- Mix of positive developments and setbacks seen as normal for a young industry
Crypto and blockchain infrastructure evolve through cycles and friction
- Progress requires speed bumps and experimentation
Boris’ long-term perspective:
- Lived through 2008 financial crisis, recovery, and subsequent asset boom
- Experienced multiple crypto cycles without being phased by volatility
Cycle recap from an infrastructure lens:
- 2018: widespread belief crypto was “over” after the crash
- 2021: DeFi summer, rapid user growth, experimental innovation
- 2022: excessive leverage and systemic failures
  - Collapse of major players (e.g. FTX, Celsius)
  - Cascading effects across the ecosystem
Current cycle observations:
- Boris holds strong personal views on where the market stands
- Finds certain recent events “weird,” particularly October 10
  - Expected visible blow-ups that never materialized
  - Stablecoins trading at par for too long seen as structurally flawed
Core concern is adoption, not price:
- Industry performance on adoption has been poor
- Grassroots narratives repeat what was already said in 2021
- Monthly active dApp users have been flat for 3.5–4 years
Key takeaway:
- Stagnant user growth is not accidental
- There are structural reasons the industry has failed to onboard new users at scale

4. The adoption problem: what the market is missing

Adoption, not price, is the real issue
- Bitcoin succeeded as a store of value and should be treated separately
- Broader crypto technology adoption has stalled
Core problem: tooling
- Nothing has been built for genuine real-world users
- Industry talks about adoption but designs for insiders
Current onboarding model is fundamentally broken:
- Explaining seed phrases is a non-starter
- Telling users all funds are lost if keys are lost is unacceptable
- Expecting users to understand blockchain mechanics is unrealistic
Users do not understand legacy finance either
- They do not know how stock settlement works
- They do not know how payment rails function
- Yet those systems work because complexity is abstracted away
Crypto fails to abstract complexity
- Especially around issuance and usage
- Smart contracts increasingly act as custodians, creating systemic risk
Key principle:
- Blockchain is here to be used, not understood
Industry mistake:
- Designing for people who enjoy complexity
- Relying on concepts like DeFi Lego and yield farming
Mainstream users behave differently:
- Even Apple Pay took time to be adopted
- Average users will not manage seed phrases or operational risk
Result:
- Real-world users stay out
- Large chains struggle to pivot toward adoption
Root cause points back to:
- Poor abstraction
- Misuse of smart contracts
- Tooling built for crypto natives, not the real world

5. Concordium 101: what it is and how it addresses those issues

Many people are still unfamiliar with Concordium, but that is expected to change
Concordium is built around two core pillars
Pillar 1: Identity
- Shaped by extensive interaction with regulators
- Regulators’ primary role is protecting retail users
- Regulation is often heavy-handed, but directionally necessary
Core design choice:
- Users identify themselves once when entering the ecosystem
- All subsequent interactions are privacy-preserving
- Enabled through zero-knowledge proofs
Zero-knowledge identity was built early:
- Designed in 2016–2017
- Mainnet launch in 2021
- Market timing was early, which hurt perception at the time
Despite early timing, Concordium performed relatively well compared to the broader crypto market
Problem Concordium targets:
- Every digital service today requires repetitive onboarding
- Proving age or eligibility forces users to overshare personal data
- Passports and IDs expose far more information than necessary
User reality:
- People do not want to reveal full identities for simple access or payments
- This aligns with cypherpunk values
Regulatory reality:
- Identity enforcement is unavoidable
- Sometimes justified, sometimes excessive
Concordium’s approach:
- Zero-knowledge–based verification
- Proof of attributes, not disclosure of identity
- Works for both access and payments
Outcome:
- Privacy preserved
- Regulatory requirements satisfied
- Friction reduced for real-world users

6. Protocol-Level Tokens and why smart contracts failed

Concordium introduced Protocol-Level Tokens (PLTs) to address systemic failures in smart contracts
Root problem observed across the industry:
- Most major hacks and fund losses stem from smart contract vulnerabilities
- Smart contracts have been pushed into acting as custodians
- Funds routinely sit inside contracts for trading, escrow, or scheduled payments
This contradicts the original promise of crypto:
- “Programmable money” was meant to reduce trust and custody risk
- Instead, contracts became high-risk custodial containers
Concordium’s architectural shift:
- Issuance happens at the protocol level, not inside smart contracts
- Programmability is embedded directly into the token itself
- Smart contracts are used for conditional logic, not custody
Combining PLTs with identity enables:
- Travel rule compliance by default
- Age-verified payments
- Geofencing and jurisdictional controls
Practical outcome:
- Reduced attack surface
- Lower systemic risk
- Clear separation between money, logic, and custody
Adoption signal:
- Despite limited visibility, ~10 stablecoin issuers already operate on Concordium
- Focus on compliance-oriented stablecoins
Broader design philosophy:
- Privacy does not mean total transparency
- Financial transactions should not be publicly exposed by default
- Different use cases require different transparency levels
Strategic shift highlighted:
- Past cycles focused on onboarding retail users
- Next phase is intentional onboarding of businesses
- Concordium positions itself at the intersection of:
  - Privacy
  - Compliance
  - Real-world financial use cases

7. Flipping the strategy: targeting Web2 and high-risk verticals

Boris states that Concordium is “flipping this on its head”
Criticizes ecosystem tribalism:
- ETH maxis, Solana maxis
- Little user movement between ecosystems
- Altcoins largely doing the same thing “in different colors”
Emphasizes that users are the core issue
- Competing on speed, memes, or narratives does not change adoption
Notes that Web3 users are also Web2 users
- But the Web2 user base is much larger
Concordium’s approach:
- Focus on onboarding users without mentioning crypto or blockchain
Gives concrete example:
- Recent work in the adult content industry
- Large industry that people use but rarely discuss openly
Highlights regulatory pressure:
- Regulators are now enforcing age restrictions
- Privacy is required for adoption
Makes a clear distinction:
- Privacy is necessary
- Anonymity is not acceptable to regulators
Repeated onboarding is identified as a major cost center
- Compliance and back-office work dominate traditional finance
Concordium’s positioning:
- Not trying to “revolutionize Wall Street”
- Focused on bringing users into an ecosystem first
Target use cases mentioned:
- Adult content
- Gaming
- Gambling
- Social platforms
Real-world regulatory examples:
- Social media age restrictions in Australia
User requirements:
- Users want access without revealing:
  - Name
  - Address
  - Exact birthdate
- Regulators require more than a simple “I’m over 18” button
Boris states:
- The solution was presented to Ofcom
- Feedback was strongly positive
User flow described:
- Download the Concord ID app
- Complete verification
- No crypto references
- No seed phrases
Result:
- Users create a personal identity
- Interact in a privacy-preserving way using zero-knowledge proofs
- Without explicit awareness of being in a Web3 ecosystem

8. The mechanics of zero-knowledge verification

Question focuses on how identity verification actually works
- Whether a third party verifies first
- And what happens afterward on the blockchain
Boris explains the flow:
- Third-party identity providers verify documents
- They confirm the document is valid and belongs to the user
What matters happens after verification:
- On the user’s device, an identity is cryptographically hashed
- The hash is bound only to the user’s wallet
- No passport or ID data is stored on-chain
Interaction model:
- Blockchain checks specific attributes, not full identity
- Example checks:
  - Is the user over 18? Yes or no
  - Is the document UK-issued? Yes or no
- Zero-knowledge proofs return answers without revealing details
Key principle:
- Identity is verified once
- No repeated sharing of documents across services
Host explores broader applications:
- Security clearance
- Verified credentials
- Email or agent verification
- Attribute confirmation without exposing underlying data
Emphasis on data minimization:
- Even in a data leak, sensitive personal details are not exposed
Examples discussed:
- Airports and fast-track security
- Approval-based access without revealing identity
Boris confirms this matches Concordium’s design:
- No face scans
- No biometric databases
- Pure attribute-based proof
Strategic clarification:
- Concordium is not trying to compete directly with Ethereum or Solana
- Focus is on bringing users into an ecosystem
Existing distribution mentioned:
- Partnerships with wallets such as Ledger and bitcoin.com
- Tens of millions of users already in scope
- Wallet-based verification is coming live in early 2026
Core user preference reiterated:
- Users want access without exposing full identity
- Privacy must coexist with regulatory requirements
Final position:
- Full anonymity is incompatible with real-world regulation
- Regulators will not abandon KYC and AML
- Zero-knowledge verification is presented as the practical compromise

9. Balancing privacy with regulation

Full anonymity is unrealistic due to bad actors
Regulation and traditional financial systems are not going away
Crypto adoption requires coexistence, not replacement
Privacy and integration must be balanced to achieve scale

10. Financial innovation: yield and smart contract safety

Yield-bearing and tokenized stablecoins exist but lack adoption
Core reason: they do not solve for the time value of money
Many tokenized products are securities:
- Subject to strict regulation
- Limited onboarding
- No secondary markets
Result:
- Institutions default to traditional money market funds
- Tokens cannot be actively used
Root cause identified:
- Smart contracts acting as custodians
- Funds locked without productive use
Concordium’s approach:
- Programmability at the protocol level
- Smart contracts used only for conditional enforcement
Key principle:
- Smart contracts should not custody funds
Time-based transactions matter:
- Deposits
- Deferred payments
- Conditional settlement
Protocol-level issuance enables:
- Safer programmable money
- Yield with real utility
Combined with identity:
- Regulatory onboarding
- Geofencing
- Institutional compliance
Focus is not competing on TVL:
- Goal is enabling usable, compliant financial products

Question focuses on which sectors adopt first
Boris states adoption starts with high-risk verticals
- Gambling
- Gaming
- Adult
- Social platforms
These sectors:
- Are global
- Have massive user bases
- Move faster under regulatory pressure
Gaming highlighted:
- Enormous global reach
- Historically lacked suitable infrastructure
- Now becoming viable again
Live traction:
- Ongoing discussions with gaming companies
- In-game purchases moving to Concordium
- Age gating is a key requirement
Shift from abstract to practical:
- Money is used inside ecosystems
- Not as a speculative asset
Social and adult platforms face:
- Increasing age-verification enforcement
- Large fines for non-compliance
- Examples include Australia and US state-level restrictions
Regulation applies to:
- Users
- Content creators
- Entire payment flows
Concordium enables:
- End-to-end compliant payment flows
- Verification baked in at the base layer
Infrastructure emphasis:
- Fixed transaction fees
- Predictable costs
- No congestion-driven fee spikes
Business case:
- Reducing regulatory risk has direct economic value
- Compliance costs outweigh transaction costs
Go-to-market model:
- Open-source integration
- Low friction for businesses
- Revenue driven by:
  - Users
  - Partnerships
  - Revenue sharing
Strategic positioning:
- Focus on real economic activity
- Not transaction spam or yield farming
Closing tone:
- Long-term, ground-up adoption
- Built with businesses, regulators, and real users

12. Recent milestones and strategic partnerships

Boris says the first major milestone was a full restructuring of the organization
- New management team
- Reset of priorities
Core technical milestone:
- Protocol-Level Tokens (PLTs) were built
- Protocol-level issuance did not exist before
After PLTs:
- Focus shifted to building an ecosystem around them
Primary ecosystem focus:
- Payment Service Providers (PSPs)
- PSPs sit in front of thousands of merchants
Real-world pressure point identified:
- PSPs are seeing revenue drops due to age gating
Boris describes the three age-verification options merchants face:
1. Upload passport
2. Selfie with AI age estimation
3. Anonymous verification
Clear insight:
- Users overwhelmingly choose anonymous verification
- This is where users are actually captured
Important distinction:
- No crypto, wallets, or swapping mentioned at onboarding
- User enters first, crypto stays invisible
Timeline:
- First three quarters of the year were mostly quiet building
- Most announcements happened in Q4
Wallet integrations highlighted:
- bitcoin.com
- Ledger
- Safle
- Coin98
- ~110 million users in aggregate
Broader vision for identity:
- One-time KYC
- Reusable across services
- Example: instant bank account opening via QR scan
Exchanges and other ecosystem players:
- Also came together mostly in Q4
Forward-looking signal:
- Boris is most excited about Q1 and Q2
- January to March expected to be significant for adoption
Closing note:
- Many developments still upcoming
- More to be revealed publicly over time

13. What Concordium aims to be known for

Boris’ core ambition:
- Concordium as the privacy-preserving verification layer
- For both the traditional world and crypto
Verification is not chain-exclusive:
- Concordium identity can be used across other chains
- Verified address = verified transaction
Explicitly not competing with Ethereum or Solana
- No interest in fighting L1s on their own terms
Regulator-facing role:
- If verification is required for a use case
- Concordium provides it
New development highlighted:
- Work with the ERC-402 / x402 Foundation
- Focused on agent payments
- Verifying that agents are human-approved
Positioning crystallised:
- Verification layer
- Smart money layer
- Built for real-world use
Privacy momentum noted:
- Privacy is coming back into focus
- Strong renewed attention in the sector
Key distinction stressed:
- Privacy ≠ anonymity
- Fully shielded systems are not regulator-compatible
Requirement for adoption:
- Balance privacy with compliance
Concordium’s differentiation:
- Identity on the base layer
- Protocol-level issuance
- Reduced reliance on smart-contract custody
Implication:
- Enables new forms of DeFi without custodial smart contracts
Final conviction:
- Zero-knowledge was the original promise of crypto
- The industry is reverting back to it
- Privacy with compliance is the only viable path forward