Yasin Sebastian Qureshi | Benjamin Bilski
How digital networking, blockchain and connectivity are creating billions of new customers and a fresh financial market
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliographie; detailed bibliographic information is available online at http://d-nb.de.
Reprint 2019
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Introductory remarks
1. Status quo: An antiquated financial system
Banks as discontinued models—at least as we know them today
FinTechs—and their relationship with banks
Interim conclusion
Money and unsecured fiat money
Expensive, restrictive and impractical means of payment
Cash and other traditional means of payment
Alternatives
Money transfer services
Google Pay and Apple Pay
Gold
M-Pesa
Local currencies and free money
Interim conclusion
Policy framework, regulation and the role of central banks
Monetary policy
Inflation
Regulation for FinTechs
Interim conclusion
Customer needs
Consequences and disadvantages—an interim assessment
2. Solutions: Drivers, forces, inclusion—and the power of disruption
Digitalisation
Data
Blockchain, cryptocurrencies and smart contracts
Tokens—cryptocurrencies of companies
Smart contracts
Interim conclusion
Financial inclusion: All financial applications under one roof
Social trading
Virtual goods
Utopicash
3. Conclusion: Blockchain and high tech—What does this mean for the society of the future?
Monetary, fiscal and economic levels
Tobin Tax and crypto-gas
Political level and public domain
Social and socio-political level “the people”
Concluding thoughts and forecast
Annotations
Literature
Excessive costs, cumbersome processes, false incentives and above all: more isolated solutions for specific lines of business. An old-school financial system with methods and processes from yesteryear still shapes banking, transaction and investment today. Indeed, our entire life and society in almost all areas, especially administrative, state and public sector areas, is based on such archaic processes. However, the financial sector is a particularly blatant example: billions of people aren’t even represented there. Almost one third of the global adult population has no bank account and is thus excluded from payments, insurance, loans or investment products, however small they may be. Banks, our currencies (the infamous fiat money) and common payment methods do not seem to be sustainable. They do not respond to the needs of many customers, nor to the challenges of the times in all areas, such as social affairs, education, healthcare, general interest services or development aid. The historical balance of traditional currencies and systems is also devastating.
Politically and socially, in these essential areas of life and politics, we are therefore drifting aimlessly, uncontrolledly and inefficiently into the future. But the groundbreaking solutions have long been there: digitalisation with its core elements Internet, mobile and blockchain characterise the developments that find their apparently most important expression in cryptocurrencies. In contrast to what has been presented so far, the revolutionary thing about cryptocurrencies is not the pure payment process, but the technology behind it, the more efficient processes, the elimination of paid middlemen, and above all the decentralized character and interconnectedness. In general, the secret to the success of future financial technologies and applications is precisely this interconnectedness: the linking of devices, data, completely different products, services and platforms, currencies and payment options. In particular, however, the billion-dollar population groups that have so far been excluded can be integrated into a global financial system. Although they are already resorting to alternatives today, they lack convergence.
The world is therefore waiting for a transparent financial platform for global exchange. We call it Utopicash. This fundamental inclusion means nothing less than the democratisation of the financial system, indeed of the entire social system, with breathtaking prospects: namely, the potential for the just integration of all people. It is a utopia, but many rules and procedures are based on principles that we describe in this book—and it provides solutions that are bitterly needed by the changing economy and society.
This financial revolution with completely new currency and money mechanisms will have drastic effects on the entire society of the future—banking and finance are only partial areas. Therefore, the thread running through this book is far more a heavy, braided rope: namely, what these changes have for social, economic and political consequences. What happens when suddenly everything, really everything, is organized in blockchains—for example through “global, decentralized and self-determined management systems” and open applications? All this and the possible driving forces and actors of the coming financial revolution will be presented in this book, which we explicitly understand as a positive outlook.
At the same time, the completely new, blockchain-based foundations of our coexistence and operations are unleashing forces that have so far been useless, inefficient, and fruitlessly tied up in often technocratic working environments. The bottom line is that there will be differentiated ways of management and taxation—with reduced administrative effort. And incidentally: earlier excesses in the financial markets could also be a thing of the past with these new rules.