What does finance democracy look like?: thinking beyond fintech and regtech

Abstract

The paper addresses the purported ‘democratisation’ of finance as it has been heralded among many proponents of decentralized finance (‘DeFi’). It places the emergence of decentralised platform financing in the context of a continuing neo-liberalization of public services to interrogate the democratisation claim. Following a brief presentation of the guiding principles for both Canadian and U.S. securities regulation law, the paper explains the fast evolution of DeFi and argues that its driving impetus is the inclusion of individuals into a financial system that features little centralisation and even less regulatory oversight. While access to online investment forms is broadened, it remains questionable to which degree such a system can be an instrument in the pursuit of long-term oriented public goods goals.