Bringing Back BOLI: Building an Alternative Asset Infrastructure with Canton Network

Built on Solid Foundations

BOLI’s journey began in 2021 in the Maldives, where our team explored sustainable financing mechanisms for vulnerable island nations through natural and sustainable asset tokenization. What started as work to support local communities evolved into a deeper understanding of the challenges they face. We focused on working with local communities to understand their challenges in accessing financing for development, and preservation of their economies and ecosystems, working with academic institutions and stakeholders to explore solutions.

By 2023, we recognized that the existing technology landscape had gaps that prevented us from building the kind of strong, compliant platform that institutional participants would require. Rather than rush to market, we took time to step back and work on the foundational technologies needed.

Today, we’re ready to bring BOLI back.

Building the Right Foundation

During our pause, BOLI’s co-founders pursued separate ventures that developed the foundational technologies we knew would be essential. While these remain independent projects, they now provide the infrastructure foundation that makes BOLI possible:

Tenzro: Decentralized AI Infrastructure

An independent project providing quantum-resistant encryption and distributed computing networks that effectively bridges the gap between AI and blockchain based systems, and enable environmental analysis in resource-constrained environments.

Praecise: Foundational Technology Suite

Independent infrastructure technologies that provide the foundation for secure and verifiable operations:

• TERE: Trusted execution environment with hardware-backed secure computation
• Pillars Foundation: Distributed settlement infrastructure with immutable audit trails
• Furcate: Edge computing networks for autonomous operation in remote environments
• Celere: Financial infrastructure enabling payment settlement across traditional and digital assets

Why Canton Network Integration Made Sense

The decision to build on Canton Network made sense after evaluating various blockchain platforms and considering our technical requirements. Canton’s architecture offered a perfect fit to integrate with Pillars Foundation settlement layer and TERE’s TEE-based automation systems, along with Tenzro’s AI and compute infrastructure.

Daml Smart Contracts

Canton’s use of Daml provides us with a functional programming language specifically designed for multi-party workflows. This is particularly important for alternative assets where multiple stakeholders — asset originators, verifiers, investors, and regulators — need to interact securely.

Built-in Compliance Framework

Rather than bolting on compliance as an afterthought, Canton’s architecture provides privacy and regulatory compliance at the protocol level. This includes:

• Sub-transaction Privacy
• Data Minimization
• Participant Control
• Application Sovereignty

Canton Network’s participants include established financial institutions like Goldman Sachs, BNP Paribas, and Deutsche Börse Group. This existing institutional presence provides potential integration pathways for alternative asset products.

Privacy-Preserving Architecture

Alternative assets often involve sensitive data — environmental measurements, community agreements, regulatory approvals. Canton’s architecture allows us to share necessary information with relevant parties while maintaining confidentiality where required.

Our Approach to Alternative Assets

Rather than trying to tokenize everything, we’re focusing on asset classes where verification and institutional participation can create meaningful value:

Marine & Environmental Assets

Building on our Maldives experience, we’re working with coral reef conservation, blue carbon sequestration, and marine biodiversity projects where satellite and sensor data can provide continuous verification.

Conservation Finance

Protected area financing and biodiversity credits where long-term conservation outcomes can be measured and verified through multiple data sources.

Renewable Energy Projects

Energy infrastructure where performance data is readily available and revenue streams are well-established, making them suitable for fractional ownership structures.

Heritage & Cultural Assets

Historic site conservation, traditional knowledge preservation, and community cultural projects where digital documentation and community engagement can support preservation efforts.

Carbon Credits

Forest conservation and restoration, soil carbon enhancement, and verified emission reductions where established measurement protocols enable institutional-grade verification.

Disaster Recovery Bonds

Catastrophe bonds and resilience financing where parametric triggers based on environmental data can provide rapid response funding for climate-related disasters and recovery efforts.

Maldives Pilot

We’re returning to our roots with a focused pilot in the Maldives. This isn’t about grand claims — it’s about proving our approach works in practice:

• Limited scope: Single reef site covering 500m x 500m
• 18 marine sensors with edge computing capabilities
• 3-month operational period to validate technical integration
• Focus on learning: Understanding what works and what needs improvement

Technical Architecture

Our platform integrates several technology layers:

1. Edge Intelligence

Furcate provides local processing and mesh communication, reducing dependency on high-bandwidth internet connections.

2. Environmental Verification

Integration with Microsoft Aurora’s climate intelligence model on Tenzro provides additional context for environmental data, helping validate sensor readings.

3. Secure Computation

TERE’s trusted execution environment processes sensitive data while maintaining privacy and providing cryptographic proof of execution.

4. Settlement Infrastructure

Pillars Foundation provides the underlying settlement layer, with transactions ultimately settled in parallel on Canton Network using Daml contracts.

5. Payment Processing

Celere enables seamless settlement across different payment methods, making it easier for diverse participants to engage with tokenized assets.

Continuing to Learn from Canton Network Participants

Building on Canton Network means we continue learning from other participants who are solving similar challenges in different domains. The network’s focus on multi-party workflows and institutional requirements aligns well with the complexity of alternative asset management.

Working within the shared compliance framework means that once an asset is properly onboarded to Canton Network, it can potentially be accessed by other network participants without requiring separate compliance processes for each integration. This collaborative approach continues to inform how we think about building infrastructure that works within existing institutional frameworks.

Focus on Impact and Compliance

Our goal isn’t to create the largest platform or capture the biggest market share. We’re focused on building infrastructure that:

• Provides real value to conservation projects and community stakeholders
• Meets institutional compliance requirements through Canton’s framework
• Creates verifiable impact that can be measured and reported
• Builds trust through transparent processes and established partnerships

Looking Ahead

The alternative asset space is complex, and we don’t claim to have all the answers. What we do have is a commitment to building thoughtfully, learning from our experiences, and working with established institutional frameworks rather than trying to reinvent everything.

Our integration with Canton Network provides us with a solid foundation for compliance and institutional participation. The Daml smart contract framework gives us the tools to model complex multi-party relationships. The existing network of participants provides credibility and potential collaboration opportunities.

Most importantly, we’re approaching this work with humility — recognizing that meaningful change in alternative asset markets will require collaboration, patience, and a willingness to adapt based on what we learn.