David Palmer
Chief Product Officer, Pairpoint
David Palmer's work at Vodafone and then at its Pairpoint joint venture has been built on the premise that a vehicle, device or machine should be able to hold a verifiable identity and transact on its own account, without a person in the loop for every step.
Why the room needs them.
David Palmer is chief product officer of Pairpoint, the Vodafone and Sumitomo venture for the Economy of Things. He spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 on a panel on how regulated institutions deploy on Canton.
The full account.
David Palmer is chief product officer of Pairpoint, the Economy of Things venture jointly owned by Vodafone and Sumitomo Corporation. Vodafone announced the Pairpoint brand on 7 November 2023, when the two companies committed a shared 60 million euro investment to a standalone company owned 80 percent by Vodafone and 20 percent by Sumitomo, headquartered in London and with offices in Lisbon. The venture was previously known as the Digital Asset Broker and is built on Vodafone's Digital Asset Broker service, a blockchain network Vodafone launched in 2022 to link IoT devices so they could make financial transactions; partners have used it particularly for automotive applications and cargo tracking. Vodafone describes the platform as one that allows vehicles, devices and machines to interact and trade with each other autonomously while their owners retain control. Event organisers have consistently billed Palmer as a co-founder of the platform, though Vodafone's own launch announcement does not name him. Palmer has described the company as an intermediary rather than a counterparty, telling Ledger Insights in May 2024, when he held the title chief product officer, that Pairpoint acts “as a middleman for large enterprises that wish to write to a public blockchain”, with the transaction logged on Vodafone's blockchain and a smart contract using account abstraction allowing cross-chain interoperability. His commentary since has concentrated on device identity and machine autonomy: in February 2026 he tied trusted IoT device identity and authentication to zero-knowledge architecture, and in June 2026 he argued that machines now need to reason about what will happen rather than report what is happening. Palmer is the author of The Business of Metaverse: How Organizations Can Optimize the Opportunities of Web3 and AI, published by Kogan Page. At Proof of Talk Paris 2026 he spoke on the Taostats Stage on the second day, 3 June 2026, from 12:45 to 13:15, on a panel titled “How Regulated Institutions Deploy on Canton” that he shared with Heslin Kim and Luca Burlando and that was moderated by Yiannis Varelas.
What David believes about the next ten years.
Years of shipping.
Lines that keep proving correct.
“We act as a middleman for large enterprises that wish to write to a public blockchain.”
“Midnight's zero-knowledge architecture is key to providing the trusted IoT device digital identity and authentication required to scale across global networks as we move towards the IoT AI economy.”
“For years, IoT has been very good at telling us what is happening. But as systems become autonomous, that's no longer enough. Machines need to reason about what will happen when they arrive, transact, or commit resources.”
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- Digital Asset BrokerBlockchain network Vodafone launched in 2022 to link IoT devices so they could make financial transactions; used by partners particularly for automotive applications and cargo tracking, and the basis of Pairpoint.
- PairpointEconomy of Things company announced by Vodafone and Sumitomo Corporation on 7 November 2023, owned 80 percent by Vodafone and 20 percent by Sumitomo with a shared 60 million euro investment, headquartered in London with offices in Lisbon. Palmer is billed as a co-founder in event listings.
- The Business of MetaverseBook by Palmer, subtitled How Organizations Can Optimize the Opportunities of Web3 and AI, published by Kogan Page.
David at Proof of Talk Paris 2026
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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