Redecentralisation: Building the Digital Financial Ecosystem

This book focuses on the evolving digitisation of the financial ecosystem and the associated impacts of digital technologies on the financial industry at large. Particular attention is given to the emergence of new technologies such as blockchain, smart contracts and AI, as well as the regulatory regime surrounding money, payments and data.

The book explores the future of the financial sector as a Digital Financial Ecosystem, a term that encompasses an interconnected data-driven digital and partially decentralised financial sector and that includes many aspects of an individual's or organisation's life, ranging from marketplaces and utilities to payments and identity. We begin by providing an overview of key concepts to then develop a high-level framework and approach to what we call Redecentralisation. As next step, we delve into key technology areas that practitioners need to be aware of and that are changing the landscape of the financial system. Following on from that backdrop we explore the areas of money and payments that are at a turning point with the replacement of key infrastructural components necessary for the future of the Digital Financial Ecosystem. We then discuss the topics of digital identity and data privacy that are being revamped in an increasingly digitising world. Bringing it all together, we look to the future to consider some of the latest trends and 'what if' scenarios for what the future may hold for a new Digital Financial Ecosystem through a more practical approach towards applying the analysis of the previous chapters. It showcases examples of decentralisation that we are observing in the emerging future Digital Financial Ecosystem and forms recommendations on where the journey ideally should be going for practitioners, regulators, students, and researchers, including the open question of a digital social contract to support our digital lives.