When financial services are offered based on blockchain technology, middlemen are often cut out. The financial world will be decentralised and the market power of financial giants risks being fragmented into atoms. This could be a big advantage for customers, Rune Christensen estimates. He is the founder and owner of Danish MakerDao, which developed the cryptocurrency Dai, which today has a market value of over 4 billion Euro.
“In reality, we have now succeeded in connecting decentralised finance, based on blochchain (Decentralized Finance or DeFi), with the real financial world. It will revolutionise the financial world and it is happening right now. The only question is how to move forward with the universe of opportunities that DeFi offers.”
The words come from Dane Rune Christensen, who is finding it hard to hide his excitement right now. It’s almost six years since he founded MakerDao, the company that developed the cryptocurrency Dai. It is a so-called stablecoin, where an advanced algorithm ensures that the value does not fluctuate, but constantly follows the dollar. It’s all based on familiar blockchain technology from Ethereum, and in MakerDao, an autonomous forum controls the development and regulation of Dai. The cryptocurrency is out of reach of both central banks and financial regulators.
AN IMPORTANT STEP
According to Rune Christensen, the breakthrough to the real and familiar world came quite recently: an American company (the name is known to the editorial staff) started raising capital for contractors and private individuals who want to renovate or extend their homes. The company started using the Dai currency.
So far they have only raised real capital in the form of a few million dollars. According to Rune Christensen, this small step proves that it is possible to use the system, which has almost no intermediary costs. In other words, loans are made directly from deposits, and both parties get an extremely good interest rate.
“From now on, it doesn’t matter who you are. Anyone can access DeFi and therefore also Dai currency. We expect to be able to offer risk-free interest rates of 2 percent on deposits and maybe 3.5 percent on loans, even in the current economic situation. Remember, the Maker protocol has no employees or offices around and there is no profit motive built in,” Rune Christensen says.
But with DeFi, the power will disappear from both the current central banks, the current banks and also from the supervisory authorities. This week, the Bank of England came out with a major new analysis on cryptocurrencies, in which the bank does not rule out issuing cryptocurrencies itself one day. No position has been taken on this yet, but there are clear signs of nervousness at the Bank of England.
“The Bank is working collectively with other UK and international authorities to understand the challenges and opportunities presented by systemic stablecoins,” the Bank of England writes.
REGULATION CAN CONTINUE
While central banks are still analysing the situation, Rune Christensen is confident about the future of stable cryptocurrencies in a decentralised financial market.
“Even the traditional financial institutions on Wall Street can win big in the future. There will be so many opportunities and it will all be so much more efficient,” Rune Christensen says. Even a decentralised financial world can be regulated by the authorities as we know them today, he believes.
“Financial regulators don’t actually need to change how they already regulate the whole market. They can keep their current toolbox. But they will get some new tools designed for a decentralised financial world. For example, a worldwide guarantee and, above all, full transparency, which they have not been used to. Transparency is simply at the heart of all products and the fundamental premise of how it all works. It results in better accountability and less systemic risk. And finally, compliance can be built into the protocols, something that financial institutions spend a lot of effort and money on today,” says Rune Christensen.
He mentions Buenos Aires, where inflation is destroying many people’s finances. But where some also discovered they could use Dai as currency. Today, there are signs on the streets with shops advertising the Dai.
Henrik Denta
