The future of Crypto Financial Technology

Since their inception in 2008 and subsequent enthusiasm, media attention, delusion, reflection, and continuous innovation, digital currencies have become one of the most interesting and perhaps misunderstood phenomenon of the early 21st century.

In the aftermath of the financial crisis, the shortcomings of existing financial systems became widely criticised, leading to an unprecedented wave of interest in new ways of efficiently executing economic transactions while ensuring high levels of transparency and accountability. The popularity of cryptocurrencies and their potential for ‘disrupting’ and improving traditional financial systems have led to an ever-expanding list of media commentaries, research papers, and policy reports.

With over 2,000 in existence, cryptocurrencies have become progressively embraced by speculative investors and growing market caps, but have yet to be adopted by the wider public as a viable form of money due to practical technical challenges along with a lack of trust in issuing authorities and understanding of how to use them.

This research programme provides a more comprehensive overview of how cryptocurrency could be used for the betterment of society, how they currently function and how the general public use, understand and trust cryptocurrencies across Europe and the Americas.