Next Generation Blockchain-Based Financial Services

Abstract

This paper explores the transition towards a paradigm in which centralization and decentralization systems coexist in the provision of financial services. The blockchain technology application to the financial industry is giving birth to Decentralized Finance (DeFi). The transition is studied through a cross-chain analysis that allows to compare different blockchain ecosystems characterized by diverse evolution courses. The results show a path dependency linked to the first-mover advantage of the Ethereum blockchain. The analysis also highlights the emergence of new players that propose higher scalability opportunities (e.g., Eos, Tezos) and different design choices in terms of governance. This exploratory study also emphasizes the potential complementarity between the standard financial system and DeFi, discussing the main differences among the financial services provided on-chain and off-chain.

Wrapping Trust for Interoperability: A Preliminary Study of Wrapped Tokens

“…Inspecting the occurrences of the keywords with a word processor, it was immediately clear that most of the papers were inserted in the sample either for referring to other wrapping concepts (e.g., wrapped contracts or wrapped passwords) or for having articles concerning wrapped tokens in the references. Only two articles retrieved from Scopus discussed wrapped bitcoins and wrapped token mechanisms [26,27]. The only article found in WoS was discarded for being off topic.…”

“…Therefore, they are not suitable for a constant large volume of transactions or microtransactions [54]. Lastly, crypto belonging to different ecosystems (e.g., Solana, Ethereum, Tron) does not adhere to the same standards [27]. Therefore, they are not suitable for management by the same smart contract.…”

Blockchain for finance: A survey

“…Presently, numerous financial services have transitioned into the DeFi ecosystem. Through a comprehensive summary and analysis of existing works [125][126][127][128][129][130][131][132][133][134], we categorize the applications of DeFi into six categories.…”

“…Presently, numerous financial services have transitioned into the DeFi ecosystem. Through a comprehensive summary and analysis of existing works [125–134], we categorize the applications of DeFi into six categories. 1) Lending and borrowing : Assets in a DeFi application are lent and borrowed using protocols designed for fund loans, commonly known as DeFi lending protocols [128, 134].…”