Journey to the Future of Finance

The information age is upon us. Technology is transforming everything at such a rapid rate that any institution or industry that fails to adopt new inventions in their service delivery area risks being left behind to shamefully wipe tears and ‘technological speed dust’ off their failed remains. Many would joyfully laugh and point at them as backward running clowns who tripped. Indeed the world is moving and technology makes it go round.

One area that has witnessed serious focus in this technological revolution is the finance world. And why not? Financial transactions are at the height of human interactions, a feat they have attained standing on pillars like financial instruments (e.g. money, bonds, stocks, etc.) and financial institutions (e.g. banks, insurance agencies, exchange agencies, etc.).

One major technological transformation in the world of finance is the decentralization of finance. This means that financial activities which were previously governed by centralized national and international institutions are now being democratized in such a way that individuals become directly involved in financial governance. Cryptocurrencies, smart contracts, and the blockchain are the major drivers of this transformation.

Other technological breakthroughs in finance that are making waves include fintech applications, artificial intelligence for financial analysis and forecasting, monetized meta-verse, and virtual real estate.

With all of these innovations that are collectively transforming, something as important as, worldwide financial transactions, one can only wonder what the finance world will look like in a decade or two. People are aware of the rapid changes happening (vaguely at least) and this has led to an increasing loss of grip on the realities of the finance world and its imminent future. The “not-knowing what’s next and what to invest in” can expose the average individual to the risk of scams and other problematic financial decisions.

To remedy this situation, it is imperative that people are educated on what the day-to-day financial activities of the future will look like. This is my focus here. If you wonder how people will transact in 10 to 30 years from now, come with me on a trip to the future of finance.

A day in your life in the future

You wake up around the middle of the century. The newscasters’ voices on your transparent smart screen rouse you from a peaceful sleep on your electronic couch. You sit up, yawning widely and stretching yourself. Then, you focus your eyes on the TV as the news draws your attention.

It’s business news time. The android robot lady from the GloDExSys (Global Decentralized Exchange System) channel is giving a real-time report on worldwide financial transactions across the Finternet (Financial internet). The biggest winners and losers in financial trading for the last hour had just been announced. Wow! DNC had made it to the top 10 winners again. And they are at number 1 this time. Incredible!

This news was exceptional because, in the last couple of years, only blockchain corporations (i.e., blockchain banks, insurance, brokers, etc.) make it to the winners’ list as they consistently make the most profit hourly, daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. However, they are never on the list of biggest losers. On the screen now, as it has been in the last 3 years since the big merger, the losers’ list was made up entirely of individuals - any who still dared risk much DFAs (Digital Financial Assets) to compete with the blockchain corporations in trading.

“Crazy big chain!” you curse!

“Trying to tie us back to them. Get them DNC!” you conclude as you pick up your holophone (Holographic cell phone) to check out how people were reacting to this news on the intermedia (advanced social media apps that interconnect all aspects of the internet i.e., Finternet, Metaverse, web 3 and the former social network).

Big chain is what people have begun calling the blockchain corporations that joined the finternet to trade on GloDExSys after the big merger. Before the big merger, the finternet which is the global network of decentralized finance systems had been fully functional for 2 years and it truly democratized the finance world. People accessed this network using decentralized apps (Dapps) issued by open source DeFi groups who maintained the finternet. Individuals were the biggest winners and losers in GloDexSys trading and whenever one individual got too big, people promoted policies that limited their control of the finternet through DAOs (Decentralised Autonomous Organisations).

The DeFi dream had been achieved.

However, as more and more people moved their financial business to the finternet, centralized financial institutions around the world took advantage of the open-source nature of the finternet. They launched their own blockchains and Dapps which they connected to the finternet, in what was termed the big merger. People were suspicious at first, but with government backing, these institutions warmed their way in by introducing Digital Native Currencies (DiNaCs) which are digital versions of national currencies i.e., digital dollar, pounds, yen, etc. They promised that this would make the finternet more legit and valuable. So people embraced the big merger.

But, within a year these blockchain corporations began showing themselves for what they really were; instruments of government control over DeFi. The problem was that these blockchain corporations alone had government permission to issue and trade DiNaCs on the finternet. Because people had to convert their cryptocurrencies into DiNaCs for business transactions in their individual countries, big chain Dapps now ruled the market and they used their DiNaCs monopoly to dominate the finternet like financial institutions once did in the centralized finance era. They also formed an international DAO of corporations (DAOC) which they used to influence policies on the finternet. The government had basically taken control of DeFi through the big chain.

But people were now fighting back. People were calling for DeFi programmers around the world to take down these corporations from the finternet. More radical ones were calling for the finternet to be shut down completely and be relaunched in such a way that the corporations would never be able to join in again.

They called this the great reset.

No one ever said how their goal would be achieved though because, with the decentralized nature of the finternet, there was no assurance that it could possibly be shut down by any person or group. It was actually designed to be like that to avoid government control but big tech was taking advantage of that feature now. Also, shutting down the finternet would hurt people more than these corporations as they still maintained some physical infrastructure for handling the greatly reduced, but still present, hard currency transactions available. In fact, shutting down the finternet would just make them expand this physical centralised infrastructure to CeFi era size. It was beginning to seem like DeFi was finally doomed.

DNC is the new face of resistance. Short for DeFi Not CeFi, it is an unknown person or group that popped up a month ago on the finternet. DNC’s page on all intermedia apps only showed the quote “Take GloDExSys, take back our finternet!”. And this is what they were doing, or at least trying to do. Inspiring people to take on the big chain at GloDExSys. No one could explain how they were managing to challenge big chain.

It was the last week of the month. Every day in the first two weeks of the month, DNC maintained its position among the top 10 traders on GloDExSys, appearing first on the 9th, then 8th, 5th, 6th, and so on. They had made it to 3rd place before suddenly disappearing entirely from GloDExSys early in the third week. No one knew what happened but everyone suspected the big chain had something to do with it. Because, if DNC maintained its presence among the top 10 GloDExSys traders, it would break the record of big chain companies exclusively dominating the GloDExSys monthly giants list, since the big merger. Even top individual traders like DeFy, BigBlucks, and CryptMojo who dominated GloDExSys before the big merger had not been able to achieve this feat, only popping up one day or two among the daily top 10 within that period.

But now DNC is back and topping the chart!

You say a silent prayer for them as you sweep through your holophone. First, you check your big chain Dapp. Yield farming on bank Dapps wasn’t impressing you at all. It was more stable but the rates were much lower than they used to be when it was just DeFi Dapps available. You were an expert at it. Decentralized exchange, crypto loaning, self-paying loans, metaverse trading, etc., you mastered them all. You were thriving. The big merger messed things up. Not much profit here you conclude as you exit the bank Dapp display with a wave and expand your DeFi Dapp.

You check to see if your crypto profits are still there. Still impressive as it used to be but the issue is that big chain agencies have fixed the value of DiNaCs on average to be 3 to 5 times higher than that of the highest crypto. This was basically a tax on DeFi. It seemed like big chain was trying to entirely replace cryptos with DiNaCs. Some crypto coins have actually gone out of use but people have managed to keep cryptocurrencies around by doing more business on the metaverse. This wasn’t enough though as everyone eventually had to convert their crypto to DiNaCs to purchase physical goods in their countries. God help DNC you pray as you wave your crypto Dapp away.

You then expand your intermedia app. DNC news is everywhere. People are rallying on their status and forums. You read one update after another.

“DNC forever!”

“Take back our finternet!”

“Break the chain!”

Looks like a revolution. One particular update draws your attention.

“DeFi is lost to government and big chain control. Let’s build a free new financial system for the people. I call it distributed finance (DisFi).”

It already has over ten million reposts. You smile to yourself. Seems like the world has come back full circle.

What is the future of finance?

In conclusion, we can make the following predictions on the future of finance based on the trends currently being observed in the finance world.

1. Decentralized Finance (DeFi) is here to stay but it will not escape regulation.
2. Digital commodities like NFTs, in-game items, virtual real estate, and decentralized exchange (DEX) will constitute a booming new market.
3. Cross-chain technology is the future of the blockchain.
4. Decentralized Applications (Dapps) are major game changers in the finance world.
5. Self-service will become the new way of dealing with financial services.
6. Paper money will become less and less common.
7. Financial information will become more readily available in real-time as Artificial Intelligence is applied in the field.
8. New financial services will emerge and humans working in finance will have new jobs to do.
9. CeDeFi (Centralized Decentralized Finance) is the future of finance as traditional financial institutions integrate DeFi into their operations.