IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/117711.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi)

Author

Listed:
  • Makarov, Igor
  • Schoar, Antoinette

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi). The discussion lays out potential benefits and challenges of the new system and presents a comparison to the traditional system of financial intermediation. Our analysis highlights that while the DeFi architecture might have the potential to reduce transaction costs, similar to the traditional financial system, there are several layers where rents can accumulate due to endogenous constraints to competition. We show that the permissionless and pseudonymous design of DeFi generates challenges for enforcing tax compliance and anti–money laundering laws and preventing financial malfeasance. We highlight ways to regulate the DeFi system which would preserve a majority of benefits of the underlying blockchain architecture but support accountability and regulatory compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Makarov, Igor & Schoar, Antoinette, 2022. "Cryptocurrencies and decentralized finance (DeFi)," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117711, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:117711
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/117711/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    AAM requested;

    JEL classification:

    • J1 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics
    • J50 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor-Management Relations, Trade Unions, and Collective Bargaining - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:117711. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.