ABSTRACT
This book has explored the emergence of a decentralised and disintermediated crypto-market and investigated the way in which it can transform the financial markets. The fundamental reasons for the existence of financial markets, which form the objectives of any new development, include providing access to finance, bringing about a shared economy, granting access to justice and enhancing sustainable development at both domestic and cross-border levels. If those aims are to be achieved through crypto-finance, they must be defined with clarity and precision and appropriate regulation needs to be in place to support the development of the new markets. Thinking about crypto-finance in this way shows that outcome-based law and regulation are a significant part of any future development, along with risk-based regulation, which has been the dominant philosophy in recent decades. The spirit of de-regulation has promoted innovation and a general liberalisation in the financial world, especially across national borders, but has also resulted in the concentration of capital in a small number of financial hubs, and that has allowed the development of financial products which distribute profits and risks in a non-equitable way.
