Predictions for The Future of Finance

Many advances have been made over the past decade regarding finance and technology. There has been progress in so many ways, not least of which are nonfungible tokens. So many innovations happened since Bitcoin popped up back in 2008. Since then, so much has happened and so much is here to stay. Some extremely interesting predictions worth sharing were made by J.P. Koning for CoinDesk. Here are some of the predictions that the commentator shared:

Decentralized Finance with Merge with Centralized Finance

Decentralized finance (DeFi) offers many advantages. The future will incorporate both traditional financing and decentralized finance. Centralized finance will end up incorporating some of the benefits that DeFi offers. Centralized finance will take onboard the conveniences that DeFi offers including how automatic and programmable it is. This will likely be done without including the blockchain technology aspect of it.

DeFi is likely to adopt some of the best components of regular finance. These components that are likely to be incorporated include regulations that make things safer for all parties. This means DeFi will likely look at establishing regulations and compliance in regards to anti-money laundering / know your customer rules. It will likely mean firms will become securities and exchange commission-registered or licensed with the office of OCC (Office of the Comptroller of the Currency).

These firms in DeFi will take on these regulations out of their own volition and not because of coercion by regulators. “Making” truly decentralized organizations do anything is difficult. Entities will have to choose to follow whatever regulations exist. Since most of the world’s funds are lawfully made, DeFi will have to jump on board to get a piece of this action. In the long term, both regular finance and decentralized will function in such a way that most people won’t know or care as long as they are getting safe, legal, and valuable financial services. However, again, in the long term, some will stay in a purely DeFi ecosystem. Those will likely be over-represented by outliers, activists, hobbyists, and even criminals. They will be in the minority, still benefiting from a lack of regulations.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin Legalization will be seen as a reality check for Finance

By 2030, the globe will have fully embraced bitcoin. From now and to then, the world will see other Central American countries follow suit, followed by South America and then the United States of America. These countries that will state that bitcoin is their legal tender are likely to do it as a marketing gimmick whilst they watch and wait to see how this development goes for El Salvador. If it does not pan out for El Salvador, they will likely halt their plans.

Cash and CBDS will Disappear in Finance

Central Bank Digital Currency was the banking sector’s approach to offer something as trendy as crypto. Western banks will attempt to use CBDS but most customers will not use the service. This is because the risks are still associated with such an instrument. Banks that are early adopters will likely experience this. More traditional banks, will likely see the slow or poor adoption and stop CBDS eventually.

MasterCard and Visa will drive KYC and not Governments

The future will see that online content will be linked to a verifiable owner. Card owners like Mastercard and Visa are more likely to make this possible beyond any actual government. In October 2021, Mastercard introduced some new rules. The rules stated that platforms that host user-generated pornography start using identity verification rules. Non-compliance will lead to those sites being barred from the service provider’s network. If sites do not comply, then that means the end for such businesses. For that reason, platforms have complied.