OPPORTUNITIES AND RISKS FOR FINANCIAL SERVICES
A surge of interest in decentralised finance is leading the market to question whether this is a bubble ready to burst, or whether it can overcome its growing pains to become a sustainable alternative to services offered by traditional centralised finance.
The proponents of decentralised finance will argue that it casts the net wide to individuals and institutions who can access financial applications, that perhaps couldn’t before. And without the need for a trusted intermediary inside a permissionless ecosystem.
The detractors will claim that the financial services sector has already invested $1.7bn in blockchain (according to Greenwich Associates). And yet beyond the volatile world of bitcoin, it has had very little impact. Furthermore, regulation is desperately required and there are low levels of liquidity resulting in low uti-lisation amongst established enterprises.