Space has always been more or less present in economic theories. Although not generalizable, members of BAS tend to be newcomers challenging the incumbent business actors. The association is ideologically indebted to libertarianism (they count Hayek Club Zürich amongst their partner organizations), and they are in favor of a liberal regulation of the finance-and cryptospace (L. Besides the institutional members, there are over 100 private members. They count 38 institutional members, which are mostly comprised of startups, law firms, consultants and two big enterprises: EY and Swisscom Blockchain AG. It does not have direct economic purposes (L. Founded in 2013, the primary objective of this association is to promote digital currencies. Bitcoin Association Switzerland (BAS) is, according to their self-description, a community of (Bitcoin) enthusiasts with regular events that tries to resolve open legal questions and educate the public by providing a contact point for media inquiries. Source: elaborated on the base of Meisser (2017). Schematic representation of the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
These are located in traditional banking centers (Zurich, Zug, Lake Geneva region, Chiasso) that are seeking to strengthen their international visibility and improve their competitiveness. However, a tacit compromise allows them to co- exist (3) four “crypto-clusters” are emerging. We have found that (1) the Swiss Confederation has swiftly adapted its institutional framework to the new reality in order to foster competition and innovation (2) there are some raucous controversies between challengers and incumbent businesses. We have applied this framework to the case of Switzerland: a country with an influential financial services industry that has seen better days. The technology, actors and their discourses, as well as the regulatory environment and affected territories, need to be considered all at once. This paper aimed to examine ongoing technology-induced reconfigurations in the financial services industry through a four lenses framework. However, technological evolution also affects the State and other governmental bodies: institutional frameworks or territorial arrangements can become obsolete or detrimental to business activity and may need to be amended. Incumbent businesses have to react if they do not wish to perish. The financial services industry is particularly "ripe for disintermediation" since blockchain-technology has with Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies its first real-world use case. It threatens to disintermediate many well-established sectors of the economy, and incumbent businesses might be overtaken by ambitious newcomers. Blockchain-technology promises to have far-reaching economic and social implications, which are not yet foreseeable in its extent.
0 kommentar(er)
