Applied Blockchain: Building Trust Through Code

At SIBOS Frankfurt 2025, Adi Ben-Ari, founder and CEO of Applied Blockchain, reflected on a decade of innovation rooted in a simple belief — that technology becomes transformative only when you build it yourself.

Ben-Ari’s journey began in 2014, when he was still working at Lloyds Bank in the UK. Fascinated by the potential of blockchain, he began experimenting with Ethereum’s smart contracts — long before decentralised applications became mainstream. “Bitcoin was about moving tokens,” he explained, “but Ethereum was a platform — a place to build.” That insight sparked the creation of a mortgage and property conveyancing platform using smart contracts — an early proof that blockchain could deliver not just transparency, but genuine efficiency and security.

What set Ben-Ari apart was his hands-on approach. Having spent 20 years in large organisations, he wanted to move beyond corporate inertia to create something agile and practical. His early coding experiments gave him a rare technical intuition: an understanding of what blockchain could — and couldn’t — do. “Once you’ve built something yourself, you know what’s real and what’s hype,” he said.

That grounded perspective continues to shape Applied Blockchain’s philosophy today. Rather than chasing buzzwords, the company builds systems that are secure, efficient, and verifiable by design — solutions that prove trust through code. For Ben-Ari, blockchain is not about disruption for its own sake; it’s about enabling organisations to transact with clarity and confidence in an increasingly digital world.