Imagine being able to lend and earn interest without ever having to talk to a bank. That's the vision of Decentralized Finance (DeFi), a fast-growing area of finance that is built on blockchain and smart contracts. This paper discusses how lending sites like Aave, Compound, and MakerDAO work, and why clients from ordinary savers looking for high returns to institutions seeking clout are joining. We delve into the technology behind smart contracts, how they deal with risk using over-collateralization, and what motivates people to lend or borrow under this trustless system. But DeFi is not just a tech story-it's social too. It has the potential to disrupt traditional finance, open up access in underserved communities, and put a strain on global regulatory systems. But challenges of scalability, security, and restricting usage to crypto holders only also raise underlying questions. Drawing on a mix of on-chain data and user case studies, this paper further applies resilience theory to discover how DeFi responds to economic shocks compared to traditional banks. By doing so, it fills a key research gap in terms of the long-term economic contribution of DeFi. We offer policy proposals like undercollateralized lending programs and single point regulation, and argue that DeFi, if carefully constructed, can support goals like decent work and economic growth (UN SDG 8). There needs to be future work on what drives take-up and how DeFi could scale across blockchains and geographies to realize its potential.
Ăscar De los Reyes-MarĂn, Iria Paz Gil, JosĂŠ Torres-PruĂąonosa, RaĂşl GĂłmez-MartĂnez
Urban inequality and the financialization of housing call for a reconsideration of centralized municipal finance. This study introduces Decentralized Behavioral Finance (DBF), a framework integrating behavioral economics, blockchain infrastructures, and participatory governance to realign individual incentives with collective urban outcomes. Grounded in Sen's capability approach, Nash equilibrium theory, and libertarian paternalism, DBF links tokenization and behavioral design to accessibility, capital efficiency, and cooperative stability. Using longitudinal data for Spain (2000â2024) and evidence from tokenized housing initiatives, the analysis shows that citizen participation and technological adoption are positively associated with governance stability and social housing outcomes, while capital concentration exhibits a negative relationship with stability. The paper advances a formal Cooperative Stability Condition, expressed as a structural inequality, under which decentralized governance remains stable when participation amplified by technological enforcement outweighs concentration pressures. By introducing a testable equilibrium condition rather than a descriptive governance model, the study offers an internationally transferable framework for participatory urban finance focused on transparency, inclusion, and institutional resilience. ⢠Introduces a formal Cooperative Stability Condition for urban governance ⢠Integrates behavioral economics and blockchain in municipal finance ⢠Shows participation Ă technology offsets capital concentration ⢠Provides longitudinal evidence (Spain, 2000â2024) ⢠Proposes a transferable equilibrium framework for cities
Abstract Decentralized implementation of meansâtested social assistance programs requires significant organizational capacity among local governments. For other types of local public service, like refuse collection and utilities provision, interâmunicipal cooperation has proven capable of reducing the cost of subnational policy implementation, especially for smaller municipalities. But few impact evaluations test whether the same benefits can be achieved for less capitalâintensive and more coâproduced services, like social assistance. Moreover, most evaluations focus on production costs alone, despite the potential tradeâoff with service quality. We analyze panel data describing both the cost and quality of housing allowance administration for 314 local authorities in England between 2009 and 2019, during which time 80 switched from autonomous services to interâmunicipal cooperation. Using coarsened exact matching and stacked differenceâinâdifferences, we find no evidence of shortâterm savings after cooperation, and only weak indications thereafter. We also observe declining processing speeds, increased maladministration, and signs of reduced payment accuracy, though mostly these are temporary effects. Altogether, these results suggest that, in this setting, interâmunicipal cooperation may be unsuited to laborâintensive public services; that shortâ and longâterm effects can differ; and that, even in the absence of a profit motive, quality shading remains a risk in cooperation reforms.
Ethereum, as a representative of Web3, adopts a novel framework called Proposer Builder Separation (PBS) to prevent the centralization of block profits in the hands of institutional Ethereum stakers. Introducing builders to generate blocks based on public transactions, PBS aims to ensure that block profits are distributed among all stakers. Through the auction among builders, only one will win the block in each slot. Ideally, the equilibrium strategy of builders under public information would lead them to bid all block profits. However, builders are now capable of extracting profits from private order flows. In this paper, we explore the effect of PBS with private order flows. Specifically, we propose the asymmetry auction model of MEV-Boost auction. Moreover, we conduct empirical study on Ethereum blocks from January 2023 to May 2024. Our analysis indicates that private order flows contribute to 54.59% of the block value, indicating that different builders will build blocks with different valuations. Interestingly, we find that builders with more private order flows (i.e., higher block valuations) are more likely to win the block, while retain larger proportion of profits. In return, such builders will further attract more private order flows, resulting in a monopolistic market gradually. Our findings reveal that PBS in current stage is unable to balance the profit distribution, which just transits the centralization of block profits from institutional stakers to the monopolistic builder.
Dr Heena Dhingra -, Dr Anant Deshmukh -, Ashish V. Mundafale
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the critical goals for every country in the world. A stable global financial system is needed these days to satisfy its duty to boost private capital mobilization to achieve sustainable development and steady economic growth. However, several obstacles limiting such financial mobilization have been identified by scholars, practitioners, and standard setters. In recent times digital transformation and advancement, specifically in the finance sector, include a wide range of technological developments, and applications such as blockchain, the Internet of things, big data, and artificial intelligence are promised to enhance performance in the financial sector. The potential of digital applications in the finance sector to resolve critical obstacles in financing for inclusive and sustainable growth becomes evident. Financial inclusion is indisputably one of the most significant processes towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and FinTech is one of the best methods for these goals to be accomplished. The Fintech industry in India is rapidly expanding and the purpose of this paper is to discuss issues such as fintech drivers, shortcomings of traditional financial services, and the role of technological advancement. The paper also addresses issues relating to fintech investment and disturbance. Financial technology faces challenges such as investment management, customer management, and regulation. The paper examines the evolution of fintech in the banking sector over time. But as we are aware a country like India lacks proper infrastructure and management and the objectives of banking canât not be attained easily. All the issues and challenges faced by the government and financial institutions have been discussed in this paper along with the important and different strategies adopted by them. The study is based on secondary data and a literature review. India has surpassed the global fintech adoption rate to promote financial transactions with the help of technology. Demonetisation and implementation of the GST (goods and services tax) have also played a major role in the adoption of financial technologies among the masses. Also, the announcement made by the government in 2017 to decrease the amount of paper currency in circulation has elevated its awareness. Blockchain is another financial technology that is being used in the industry. Out of the total âfintechâ technologies, blockchain was developed for finance which is directly connected to financial institutions. The main aim of Blockchain in financial services is decentralization where we do not trust a third party to execute transactions. It includes services such as transferring funds between banks and companies. While trading in capital markets, innovative electronic trading platforms facilitate online trade and real-time transfers. Trading networks allow investors to observe the trading behavior of their peers and expert traders and to follow their investment strategies on currency exchange and capital markets. These platforms require either very little or no knowledge about financial markets. An automated financial advisor provides financial advice or online investment management with moderate minimal human intervention.
Submitted by Nadir Basilio (nadirsb@uninove.br) on 2024-12-19T16:56:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Carlos Eduardo Almeida Martins de Andrade.pdf: 3699194 bytes, checksum: fded002079294c9d01b391c3d89a4f4b (MD5)
Abstract The last century was marked by a remarkable improvement in the economic position of women, as reflected in higher labor force participation and wages. This paper extends the Hybrid Tiebout models of residential choice to allow for two-worker households. Our model incorporates both residential choice and labor market choices of households simultaneously and, thus, gives us a unique opportunity to study the impact of changes in the labor market conditions for workers on residential segregation. We develop a general equilibrium model of residential choice with decentralized workplaces in which households face a trade-off among accessibility, space and a public good (education). Education is financed through property taxes, which are determined by majority voting. The quality of education is determined by the spending and the peer group effects. The model is interesting in the sense that (i) households consider the work locations of both male and female working members of the household while making residential choice decisions; (ii) the presence of decentralized workplaces offers an alternative job location to workers; and (iii) the endogenous labor supply decisions for workers. We find that the increase in educational attainment for women and the changes in wages for men and women have had a substantial impact on the spatial distribution of households across metropolitan areas and hence, segregation by income.
The conventional process of credit document verification heavily relies on manual methods, making it tedious and time-consuming. The advent of self-sovereign identity (SSI) revolutionised the landscape of credit document verification. SSI empowers individuals with complete control over their identity, ensuring privacy, trust, and security. This paper presents an in-depth exploration of SSI's application in the credit processing domain. This paper highlights the implementation of SSI using the Trust over IP framework on Hyperledger Aries, empowering borrowers to own and control the sharing of their verifiable credentials. By integrating Hyperledger Aries and SSI, a robust and interoperable blockchain-based identity framework can be built. This allows individuals to store their verifiable credentials on a distributed ledger securely and selectively disclose them to lenders as needed. This model empowers borrowers to present accurate and tamper-proof credentials, enhancing data privacy, transparency, and trust, while promoting a borrower-centric approach to sharing credentials.
Aji Muhammad Fitra Firnanda, Bambang Satriya, Praptining Sukowati
Generally, the problem of housing and settlements is the incompatibility of the number of available housing when compared to the needs and the number of people who live there. The main issues are population, spatial planning and regional development, planning for housing and settlement development that is still not optimal, land and infrastructure, financing, building materials industry technology and construction services, institutions, community participation, and laws and regulations. The East Kutai Regency Government is committed to meeting the housing needs of MBR. However, due to the high number of backlogs where the dominance of the need for housing comes from low-income people at income levels below, a synchronization effort is needed that harmonizesbetween central regulations and local conditions. Therefore, research questions are formulated as follows: 1) How effective is the implementation of the housing grant policy for the MBR in the concept of reinventing the policy?; 2) What are the implementation factors and policy models that are in accordance with the conditions of East Kutai Province after the policy reinventing process? The purpose of this study is to measure the effectiveness of the implementation of the housing grant policy for the MBR in the concept of reinventing public policy, to analyze the driving and inhibiting factors for the implementation of housing finance, to formulate a housing grant policy model . The main theory in this research is public policy, while the supporting theory is the theory of social change, social behavior, functional structural. The concepts used include Reinventing Public Policy, Ecosoc Rights, Regional Autonomy, Synchronization, Residential Housing, Housing Financing for MBR, and Strategies for Acquisition and Acquisition of Houses for MBR. Mixed research methods (mix methods) combine quantitative and qualitative data. The research instruments were questionnaires and interview drafts using data collection techniques through surveys of 135 respondents and in-depth interviews with four informants. Data analysis performed synthesis of quantitative data and qualitative data. The results of this study are that the implementation of public policy on providing financial assistance through the FLPP program is effectively applied to MBR, taking into account the synchronization of the financing. The concept of reinventing describes the complexity of a public policy shifting into social policy in its implementation so as to form social protection originating from local initiatives. The result lies in the strength of MBR in putting forward local initiatives to establish social protection. The position of the MBR and the government are equal in implementing policies so that the concept of development is decentralized and easy to evaluate through synchronizing various things. The driving factor is related to the synergy, cooperation and transparency of stakeholders in interpreting social welfare.While the inhibiting factors underline the integrity and loyalty of stakeholders and MBR to utilize existing resources and adapt to the policy environment. So based on this influence a policy model emerges using the lens of reinventing policies that are based on guaranteeing social welfare and leading to local initiatives. Building a new concept regarding changing the position of public policy into social policy. This change in perspective highlights elements of social welfare guarantees and local initiatives for the implementation of a more autonomous and implementable policy for the MBR
Andrew Dryhurst, Daniel âZachâ Sloman, Yazid Zahda
The Morphogenetic RĂŠgulation approach (MR) contributes to the Morphogenetic Approach by explaining the material and ideational origins of change and stasis in agency, structure, and culture. In this paper, we focus on the expressive quality of ideas and systemic persistence in three research projects. The first demystifies inclusive governance and its adverse impacts. It shows how, contrary to institutions of governance, inclusiveness is not simply a norm but actually the explication of corporate agentsâ ideas about rational choice institutionalism which leads to adverse impacts on vulnerable groups and ecologies known as adverse inclusion. The second investigates the role of ideas as adequacy and self-explication in guiding Palestinian actorsâ actions towards the deepening of neoliberalization in Palestine. The third explains the relevance of the systemic persistence problematique for understanding how three juxtaposed themes â Web2, Web3, and Artificial Intelligence (AI) â are shaping the political economy and infrastructure of the Internet.
This article examines non-fungible token (NFT) applications and their users through a qualitative textual analysis of NFT-based video game Axie Infinityâs Discord server. It considers NFT applicationsâ dual purposes as entertainment media and financial instruments and posits that the interests of capital inform usersâ engagement. In an environment defined by distrust and uncertainty, predominantly Filipino digital laborersâ (âScholarsâ) experiences and interactions with the gameâs ownership class (âManagersâ) reflect pre-existing patterns of exploitation made inexpensive by differences in currency valuations, accessible by access to digital devices, available by global financial uncertainty, possible by a lack of user protection and governance, and permissible by light government regulation. To navigate an interplay of designed systems and human behavior, users share gameplay and marketplace knowledge. The blurring of gaming, gambling, and finance discussed here risks fostering an increasingly gamified approach to work and finance and facilitates exploitation of global, stratified labor.
Money is money, securities are securities, and banking is banking. Their fundamentals are not changed by whether technology rails are centralized (classic) or pseudo-decentralized (virtual assets) â the song remains the same. As such, this paper does not reinvent the wheel on why we should regulate cryptoasset centralized exchanges (CEXs), as there is enough bibliography from today to the XVII century to go around on that. Instead, we focus on how to regulate the CEXs, which comes into play in a world where their distributed ledger technology (DLT) rails are off-the-grid and hinder regulators from: (i) collecting market data (information asymmetry); and (ii) practical enforcement (technology/operational asymmetry). After revising current regulatory practices from various countries, we identify grounds for a practical approach â we propose that regulators might enforce full trading/financial intermediation obligations on the CEXs by enacting an indirect regulation/gatekeeper scheme, as inspired by the U.S. Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). In this model, regulators would restrict traditional institutions (i.e., banks, broker-dealers, clearings, funds) from transacting with CEXs which do not provide adequate evidence of material compliance with their trading/financial intermediation obligations. On a final remark, we narrate a growing movement which aims to insulate non-compliant crypto from the financial systems altogether, avoiding risks of contagion.
Drawing on Marx's theory of history, this article argues that the competition and capital accumulation inherent in the production of Bitcoin (i.e. âminingâ) are at odds with the narrative discourses that position Bitcoin as a revolutionary technology capable of subverting traditional power structures. Through an analysis of the evolution of Bitcoin mining, the article demonstrates how the material conditions of its production have shifted over time, leading to the concentration of mining power among a few large corporate entities and a concomitant erosion of the decentralized ethos that underpinned the early Bitcoin community. The article also argues that this shift is not simply a result of the ânaturalâ evolution of the technology, but also the outcome of specific social and economic forces that encourage the accumulation of capital over Bitcoin's democratic and decentralized potentialities. Overall, the article suggests that the narrative discourses surrounding Bitcoin need to be understood in relation to the material forces that shape its production and circulation, and that a more nuanced analysis of the interplay between material and discursive factors is necessary to fully grasp the dynamics of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
This article will look at the financial geographies and legacies of neo-colonialism to critique the emergence of blockchain financialization in the developing world. Blockchain âfinancializationâ advances through the interplay of crypto imaginaries, new platform economies, and the trading infrastructure for highly leveraged financial products. The largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, has presented itself as a champion of the blockchain for development paradigm in Africa. Its success in the region relies on the use of community leaders, hackathons, and the lobbying of governments for regulatory concessions. Binance operates on two scales. Firstly, it is part of a fintech vanguard attempting to dismantle New Deal financial regulatory systems in the Global North (Omarova, Yale Journal on Regulation, 2019, 36, 735â793; Allen, H, DeFi: Shadow Banking 2.0?, 2022). Secondly, it as an agent of financialization in the developing world, promoting DeFi to map the speculative micro-financial practices of the Global South. Crypto and blockchain thus represent extensions of âsubprime empireâ (Schuster, Current Anthropology, 2021, 62, 389â411) in which marginal economic activities in fragile developing world contexts feed into the North-South extraction of value. This article will outline Binanceâs forays into Nigeria as an example of the micro and macro scales of neocolonial finance and the interplay of infrastructure, territory, and the social imaginary in blockchain.
Recently blockchain has become a tool for spatial coordination and appropriation. Globally, the tokenization of land and housing has led to new forms of datafication and increased financialization. In the case of land non-fungible tokens), security token offerings, and blockchain-based real estate investment trusts, blockchains act as exclusionary digital platforms, with new socio-technical assemblages emerging as complex predatory formations of speculation that are intentionally obfuscatory and difficult to regulate. With the security token offering, crowdfunding and venture capital are combined with cryptocurrency to create a âtokenized venture capital fundâ tied to tangible assets, such as ownership rights in housing, real estate, or land. Distributed ledgers are proposed to be used as the digital technology underlying new forms of land/property documentation, ownership, and inhabitation â from conducting and recording land surveys and title creation to transference of land/property rights. This paper addresses the question: how equitable is tokenized equity â does it prioritize the right to the city for all or to all but a very few? This paper looks toward the means of contestation against extractive crypto-settlements, speculation, and housing financialization, critically comparing a range of proposed distributed ledger technology projects that claim to inject equity in the system, pose alternative housing economies, or leverage distributed ledgers for land rights and data sovereignty. I question the utility and limits of datafication and explore how engaging with digital technology â with or without distributed ledgers â can raise awareness and enact alternative forms of housing and land stewardship, from cooperativism to Community Land Trusts and to counter-hegemonic commoning practices.
We examined what happened in the policy structure in SeattleďźWA), USA, gazing at the institutional abolition by mayor's Executive Order (in 2016) of the Neighborhood Council ("District Council" in Seattle) system, an "inner-city decentralized" organization. We investigated the support-allocation for this system by the city (Neighborhood Service Centers, staffing of Neighborhood District Coordinators) over years, as well as as a basis for that the shift in the "policy attitude" of the mayor and uconventional city council members,who who emerged en masse in 2015. As a result, a new framework was required to respond to the overwhelmingly rapid and unprecedented changes in urban structure (population, inequality, and housing prices) that hit Seattle since around 2010. The energetic response was a radical-left coalition of radical mayor Ed Murray and a new phase of new city council members, many of whom had emerged as a result of the primary election reforms. A "policy structural shift" was underway that attempted to implement a policy mix of housing policy, finance, and taxation measures, with the concept of housing expansion in conjunction with affordable housing (ap-zoning). In the process, it turned out that in the eyes of these political leaders, the Neighborhood Council's system, the inner-city decentralized system was an old and useless structure to face the new challenges of urban policy and was to be discarded.
Norazmawati Md. Sani Abd. Rahim, Muhammad Shafiq Kamaruddin
Affordable housing has become the main issue of concern among Malaysians, especially those from low-income background in Klang Valley. Limited housing supply in key areas within Klang Valley due to no interest from private developers has forced low-income people to live far from their workplaces. It is considered unprofitable by many private developers because of heavily regulated policies sanctioned by the government, decentralization of affordable housing agencies, and requiring specific design, which can drive the cost of development. Furthermore, access to home financing for low-income people is limited due to their current economic situation and financial constraints. The research focuses on the factors to facilitate private developers in financing and the possibility for the private developers to venture into a home financing structure and analyze other possibilities and solutions that can be implemented with the collaboration between the developers and government.
Aim: This study investigates the use of bitcoin by nonviolent resistance campaigns to counter state financial censorship, a topic underrepresented in academic literature. Method: This study is designed as descriptive basic research with its methodological approach as case studies. The study presents a global dataset of 93 financial censorship events by government authorities from 1981 to 2023, encompassing the first global dataset of nonviolent campaigns that have employed bitcoin. Two nonviolent campaigns that utilised bitcoin are examined in detail: the Feminist Coalitionâs EndSARS protest and the Freedom Convoyâs Covid-19 mandate protest. Additionally, the study explores the Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justiceâs use of bitcoin despite not facing financial censorship. Results: Both the Feminist Coalition and the Freedom Convoy adopted bitcoin immediately following financial censorship events, allowing them to add significant contributions to their funds. Sri Lanka Campaign for Peace and Justice experienced limited impact from using bitcoin. The results suggest that bitcoin has supported nonviolent campaigns, particularly in response to financial censorship. Conclusion: This study shows how (a) nonviolent campaigns have used bitcoin against financial censorship, for private donations, and for alternative means for funding; (b) bitcoin is a nonviolent tool with many features and functions similar to previous nonviolent tools and tactics involving money; (c) bitcoin can be of great interest for human rights activists and NGOs, illustrating how misconceptions regarding its association with illegal activities should be reconsidered. On the contrary, this study illustrates how bitcoin enhances personal autonomy and serves as a form of resistance against financial censorship by enabling borderless, censorship-resistant, and permissionless transactions.
<p>The suburbs of Tokyo Metropolis are experiencing path-dependent, multifaceted shrinkage in socio-demographic, economic, and political and administrative (including fiscal) dimensions. The following two contradictory processes taking place in the opposite direction are at work, namely: the political and administrative decentralization of authority and responsibility (although without much fiscal devolution), and the socio-demographic, economic, and fiscal recentralization of workplaces, residences, and municipal finance. As Tokyoâs suburbs confront these contradictory processes of decentralization and recentralization, they fall into the gap between, on the one hand, policies that prioritize the internationally competitive metropolitan center by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and, on the other hand, policies that address the growing problems of lagging provinces by the Government of Japan. These phenomena are affecting radical, but barely visible, changes in public affairs of municipal governments on the lowest tier. We thus examine the emerging modalities of intra- and inter-municipal affairs in Tokyoâs shrinking post-suburbs. First, we explore the intra-municipal upheavals, incorporating instabilities and disarrays, of ideas and practices inside a municipal government. Next, we investigate the inter-municipal upheavals that involve oscillations between unification and fragmentation among municipal governments. These interrelated intra- and inter-municipal upheavals hinder the consistency and timeliness of planning and decision-making in the local arena. In conclusion, we emphasize the importance of taming these upheavals and creating integrated governance systems by exploiting the emerging sense of the increasingly intertwined future among municipal governments. This is vital to strengthen local solidarity and promote inter-municipal collaborations at scales that can ensure metropolitan and suburban sustainability.</p>