Digital Asset Revolution: How Blockchain Is Decentralizing Finance and Disrupting Wall Street (Hardcover)

ContentsPreface 7Chapter 1: Digital Asset Revolution 9Introduction: The building blocks of disruption 10The rise of digital assets and the future of financial services 10Web 3 and the new Internet of value 11The Golden Nine: Essential functions of the financial industry 12A taxonomy for digital assets 14Decentralized finance is eating Wall Street 16DeFi: A new architecture for the financial system 16The Golden Nine: How DeFi is reimagining Wall Street 16A taxonomy of digital assets 28Cryptocurrencies aka digital money 29Protocol tokens 30Central bank digital currencies 33Non-fungible tokens 35Stablecoins 37Securities tokens 40Governance tokens 43Exchange tokens 45Natural asset tokens 46Implementation challenges of DeFi 47The technology is not ready for prime time 47The energy use is unsustainable 48Governments will stifle or twist it 48Powerful incumbents of the old paradigm will usurp it 49The incentives are inadequate for adoption: The bootstrapping problem 49Blockchain is a job killer 49Governance is like herding cats 50Criminals will use it 50Conclusion: The coming conflagration 50Chapter 2: Cosmos and Polkadot for the Enterprise 51Interoperability in brief 51The challenge of interoperability 52Introducing Cosmos 53Cosmos’ origins and ethos 53The core technology components of Cosmos 54Metrics of Cosmos success 57Introducing Polkadot 58Polkadot’s origins and ethos 59The core technology components of Polkadot 60How enterprise can use Polkadot 63The Polkadot ecosystem and its impact 64What do decision makers need to know? 65Key similarities 65Key differences 66Conclusions on interoperability 69Chapter 3: The Promise of Community-Owned Prediction Markets 70Prediction markets in brief 70The promise of prediction markets 71Classic use case: Sports and political betting 71The problems of sportsbooks 72The perils of centralized betting exchanges 72The centralized governance problem 74The future is clear: Community-owned betting markets 74Introducing the crypto network 75Problems with decentralized governance 77Introducing prediction market-based governance 79Governance design for a simple prediction market 79Conclusion: The inevitability of crypto networks 82Chapter 4: Going Cashless with CBDCs 82Webinar in brief 82Introduction: A new paradigm for money 83Disruptive technology makes for new policy options 84Overview of the digital dollar 86How digital currencies differ from other financial assets 86Attributes of the digital dollar 87The need for infrastructure innovation 88Roadmap to a new banking system 88Attributes of a digital global reserve currency 89The goal of modernizing global economic architecture 91The need to modernize global financial regulation 92Conclusions: This is just the beginning 93Diversity makes for a healthy marketplace 93Blockchain will transform other financial assets 93Currency innovation will unleash economic innovation 95Chapter 5: Introduction to Stablecoins 96Stablecoins in brief 96The context for stablecoins 97The economics behind the protocols 99Governance of stablecoins 101Gold or bitcoin, a stable commodity? 103Types of stablecoins 104Asset-collateralized stablecoins 104Non-collateralized stablecoins 111Hybrid stablecoin models 113Top stablecoins 114Tether (USDt) 115USD Coin (USDC) 116Binance USD (BUSD) 118Dai (DAI) 119Frax (FRAX) 120TrueUSD (TUSD) 121Paxos Dollar (USDP) 122Gemini (GUSD) 123Using stablecoins: A few ideas 125Conclusion and review 127Chapter 6: Financial Derivatives with Blockchain and Smart Contracts 128Blockchain-based derivatives in brief 128Derivative contracts on blockchains 129Levels of applications 130Standardization, transparency, and interoperability 130Collateral, settlement, and automation 132Derivatives on public blockchains 133LuxDeco and the world’s first cryptobon