Current Comptroller of the Currency and former Coinbase Chief Legal Officer Brian Brooks claims that decentralized finance (Defi) will soon replace the need for traditional banking services.
At DC Fintech Week on Oct 19th, Brooks stated that a financial future governed by permissionless, autonomous financial technology is not far away. At the rate that Defi is moving, Brooks claimed, “decentralization is very likely an unstoppable force out t here. Decentralized networks, by definition, are cheaper, faster, and more resilient than any kind of centralized structure.”
Brooks compared Defi’s momentum next to traditional banking with email’s disruption of the postal service, adding “with email, we don’t need aggregation anymore – we can do it directly with each other.” Just as email removed the need for third party mediation of communication, Defi allows individuals to perform financial services directly with each other through the algorithms within decentralized networks. Brooks stated, “It is possible for you to just go online and say, ‘Hey, listen, I’ve got $10,000 here and I’d like to earn five percent’… and the algorithm will find someone who does and all of a sudden there’s no longer a value in the bank aggregating all of that money together.”
As opinion-leading individuals like Brian Brooks of the OCC spread the word on what the future of finance will look like, this should not be Armageddon for banks. Rather, to stay afloat in an ever-changing world, Banks must adapt and adopt the momentum of fintech innovation, especially as it pertains to the promising future of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. If banks want to survive, they must take part in pioneering the future of blockchain technology.
By Liam McDonald
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