"What is so interesting about the discovery of the blockchain by banking
and finance professionals however is that they envision it will bring new life
to old ways of making money—exciting ways, too. Fees are boring. Critical
theorists’ objections aside, finance professionals I spoke with just don’t
see them as particularly compelling from a business standpoint or from an
intellectual standpoint. These people did not get in the business to devise
new ways of generating fee income. They got into the business to trade in
risk, and to devise new ways of speculating on the future. They want to move
away from rents. Fees are “weird” and “dumb” and “being regulated away”,
anyway, they say. At least some of the people having these kinds of blockchain
dreams want to get back to the business of finance. They want to get back to
trading in risk. The blockchain is exciting precisely because it can permit a
new, re-risking of finance.
And a re-risking that is “safe” for the financial system. "
Bill Maurer Re-risking in Realtime: On Possible Futures for Finance after the Blockchain in BEHEMOTH A Journal on Civilisation (2016) Vol 9 Iss 2 And a re-risking that is “safe” for the financial system. "