Structuring a Blockchain Finance Project: Product, Technology and Compliance

A financial product built on blockchain is organized across three workstreams that advance together: product, technology, and compliance. When the base layer is an institutional on-chain real, part of each workstream is handled by the issuer rather than built in-house. The Crown issues BRLV, a real pegged 1:1 and fully backed by Brazilian federal government bonds, as that base layer. Where it fits the broader decision is covered in what a bank should evaluate before adopting an on-chain real settlement layer.

How should the three workstreams be split?

Product defines the use case and the user experience; technology defines how balances are issued, held, and moved; and compliance defines identity, monitoring, and regulatory reporting. On an on-chain finance project these are not sequential. The balance layer the product assumes, the custody the technology depends on, and the reporting compliance owns all reference the same on-chain real, so they are planned in parallel.

What does the product workstream decide first?

What the product does with reais on-chain: hold a balance, settle a tokenized asset, power a card or wallet, or move value cross-border. Banks and fintechs use BRLV as the base to launch digital wallets, programmable cards, and on-chain products without complex bank integrations, so the product decision is which of these to build, not how to issue the underlying real. One such use, real-time settlement for a corporate balance, is covered in real-time BRL settlement for ERPs.

What does the technology workstream integrate rather than build?

Issuance, custody, and the network. BRLV is an ERC-20 token issued on the Base, Ethereum, and Tempo networks, with custody on Fireblocks institutional infrastructure using multi-party computation and segregated per-client wallets. The team integrates through an API with sub-accounts, Pix deposits, conversion orders, and webhooks, documented at docs.crown-brlv.com, instead of building issuance and custody in-house.

What does the compliance workstream still own?

Identity on its own users and the project’s own regulatory posture. On the issuer side, Crown runs KYC and KYB with multiple providers and biometrics, sanctions and PEP screening, and real-time on-chain transaction monitoring, and performs the mandatory reporting to the Central Bank of Brazil for operations on the platform. The project team still owns its own onboarding and its own obligations.

How does regulatory status factor into the plan?

Crown operates under Brazil’s virtual-asset legal framework (Law 14,478/2022) as a virtual asset service provider, in the authorization process with the Central Bank of Brazil under the transition regime that currently applies to all such providers. The project plans around the Central Bank of Brazil as the competent authority, not the securities regulator, since a real stablecoin is a virtual asset rather than a security.

What verification can the project point to?

BRLV reserves are attested daily by an independent third party, Fact Finance, and published on a transparency page; the smart contracts are audited by OpenZeppelin; and the financial statements are audited by CLA (Clifton LarsonAllen Brasil). The API integration path for the technology workstream is detailed in integrating a BRL stablecoin by API.