The opening of the traditional, closed, financial system, to one that is modular, interoperable, and programmable.
Published in Chapter:
Fintech and Blockchain: Maximizing Benefit and Minimizing Harm
Jane Thomason (Centre for Blockchain Technology, University College London , UK)
Copyright: © 2022
|Pages: 14
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-7998-8467-5.ch013
Abstract
The rapidly growing field of Blockchain and Decentralised Finance (DeFi) has the potential to transform many aspects of the financial world. It offers an abundance of opportunities to reduce costs, increase transparency and reduce the need for middlemen in financial services. While this promise of automation and decentralization is attractive, it is important to consider the potential for inadvertent or deliberate automation of unethical conduct at scale. Ethical questions involve the consideration of conflicting moral choices and dilemmas. Blockchain creates ethical dilemmas for developers, investors, consumers, and regulators at the technology, application, and societal levels. This chapter provides a perspective on the emerging field of DeFi and Blockchain in financial services, a reflection on the ethical questions that arise, how they are being addressed, the key issues, and further research needed in this growing field of Blockchain ethics. The objective of the chapter is for students, developers, CEO's and governments to appreciate the moral and ethical issues being uncovered in the course of the development and deployment of Blockchain technology. Blockchain, as with all technology, is a tool and is as beneficial and useful as the care that is taken to make it. There remains a need to ensure that Blockchains are built and deployed with due concern for ethics.