Dear Editor,
This letter may be considered biased in perspective toward the industries of FinTech (financial services and banking), PropTech (real estate), and Tokenization of Real-World Assets (RWA), industries in which I am deeply vested.
The future of the Bahamian economy will not be written in ink; it will be written in code. In a world where value is increasingly defined by information, algorithms, and digital ownership, the foundation of wealth is shifting from what we can touch to what we can track, tokenize, and trust.
During the debate on the ‘Data Protection Bill 2025,’ Opposition Leader Michael C. Pintard elevated the conversation beyond legal housekeeping.
He transformed a compliance exercise into a vision for Constitutional Sovereignty in the Digital Age. His core message is simple and urgent: Data is the new oil, gold, and frontier of global competition, and nations that secure, regulate, and monetize data—not merely collect it—will define the next wave of prosperity.
A Turning Point for Bahamian Banking and Finance
The Bahamas’ financial services model has long relied on deposits, loans, and offshore asset management. But the financial system itself is being rewritten. As captured in global tokenization narratives, instruments of value—from cash and shares to art, energy, and real estate—are being reimagined as programmable, fractional, borderless digital assets.
Tokenization is the digitization, digitalization, datamation, and datafication of ownership. Each token is a cryptographically secure data entry that represents rights and obligations on a global ledger.
“In other words, every future economy is, at its root, a data economy.”
If we fail to pivot banking and financial services toward this tokenized, data-driven model, we will be relegated to consuming other nations’ digital products. If we act now, if we heed Pintard’s call for constitutional data sovereignty, we can be first movers in a transformation measured in the trillions.
From Compliance to Constitutional Protection
Pintard did more than critique gaps in the bill. He called for constitutional privacy, constitutional data protection, and constitutional data sovereignty—a recognition that economic independence today requires digital independence.
Countries that fail to secure their citizens’ data risk becoming digital colonies; platforms will harvest value while residents lose both economic agency and privacy.
By embedding these rights into the Constitution, the Bahamas could become a “global safe haven for digital citizens and institutions” seeking security, transparency, and ethical governance.
Such a framework protects Bahamians and invites billions of potential users to domicile their digital assets, identities, and intellectual property under Bahamian law—a powerful engine for growth.
Tokenization as Financial Infrastructure
Tokenization enables fractional ownership, near-instant settlement, global access, and automated compliance.
Imagine every Bahamian, from a fisherman in Abaco to a student in Bimini, holding tokens representing a share in a hotel, a solar farm, or a data center. Mortgages, bonds, insurance, and public infrastructure could be issued as blockchain-based assets, paying dividends directly to digital wallets.
This is already happening. Global institutions such as BlackRock, JP Morgan, and HSBC are tokenizing funds, bonds, and equities. The EU’s MiCA framework and evolving U.S. rules are paving the way for a unified token economy.
If the Bahamas updates its DARE Act to include the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), as well as digital securities and non-cryptocurrency digital assets—such as documents, audio, video, images, graphics, logos, slides, presentations, spreadsheets, files, and websites—we can unlock opportunities for local and international investment.
Tokenization authenticates, trades, and monetizes these assets globally with transparent ownership and programmable royalties.
Protecting Intellectual Property as Economic Infrastructure
For decades, we exported natural beauty and tourism. Now we must export intellectual property (ideas, innovation, and data).
Pintard’s call for constitutional protection of digital rights aligns with this imperative. Every file, photograph, code snippet, or creative design produced by a Bahamian should be treated as an asset capable of generating wealth.
Tokenization gives IP holders traceable ownership and automated royalty collection through smart contracts. That empowers artists, educators, technologists, and entrepreneurs to participate fully in the global creative and knowledge economies.
Embedding IP protection into digital policy moves us beyond extractive models and toward a creator-owned economy—the true “opportunity and ownership” framework Pintard champions.
A $100 Billion GDP Vision Anchored in Data Sovereignty
Under a reformed DARE regime, the Bahamas can unlock billions annually by tokenizing financial assets, physical infrastructure, creative works, and digital services. Properly structured tokens attract global investors seeking transparency, liquidity, and trust.
Pillars that blockchain delivers. If the Bahamas becomes the preferred jurisdiction for data privacy and tokenized finance, we can work toward a $100 billion GDP model—not through extraction or speculation, but through innovation and inclusion.
Each tokenized project—social housing, tourism, renewable energy, and digital identity—becomes both an investment and a revenue stream. Paired with sovereign digital infrastructure and a transparent legal framework, these initiatives multiply national income while ensuring ownership remains in Bahamian hands.
From Data to Destiny
“The challenge is not technological; it is strategic.” ~ MCP. Do we remain consumers in someone else’s data economy, or do we build a sovereign digital nation that produces, governs, and profits from its own information ecosystem?
Pintard’s intervention was more than a speech; it could be considered a manifesto for the future of the Bahamian economy, fusing governance with innovation, sovereignty with opportunity, and law with technology. By embracing data as capital and tokenization as infrastructure, we can transform the Bahamas into a global exemplar of digital trust and broad-based prosperity.
Our forefathers secured political independence. Our generation must now secure digital independence. With a revised DARE regime, constitutional data rights, and a tokenized financial system that empowers citizens, the Bahamas will not only keep pace with the world—we will help shape it.
As someone engaged at the “foundational and frontier edges of blockchain and tokenization,” I am convinced a properly modernized DARE framework can channel billions annually into Bahamian hands, directly advancing Pintard’s vision for an opportunity and ownership economy.
The pathway to a $100 billion GDP begins with how we manage data and tokenize value—not tomorrow, but today.
Excited about Our Potential,
Eden Merry Johnson
