I’m increasingly convinced that Validium-style systems will be key to institutional adoption. It offers:

1) Regulation-friendly privacy at extremely low cost

2) Trustless, permissionless interoperability with other systems

ZK enables systems to "talk" to each other in a verifiable and privacy-preserving way.

Imagine untrusted banks or fintechs needing to clear and settle — the choice is either a closed, permissioned system (like Hyperledger), or a verifiable, privacy-preserving alternative. Even SWIFT is a system with closed membership.

Validiums are the only practical path to the latter. They're the only way to let systems interact securely without needing to trust each other. (Public chain destroys privacy or efficiency, or will have tons of issues with the regulatory side)