"A World Without Banks" is a subversive financial concept proposed by Simon Dixon, a British financial reformer. Its core proposition is to deconstruct the traditional banking system through crowdfunding, digital currency and other technologies to establish a decentralized financial free economy. 12
Core Concept and Background
In "A World Without Banks" published in 2015, Simon Dixon compared traditional banks to "dinosaurs that are about to become extinct in the 21st century" and believed that the existing financial system has three major flaws:
Banks control user funds: depositors have no right to know or make decisions on the use of funds; 1
Debt trap cycle: banks expand debt by creating money, resulting in unsustainable economic fluctuations; 34
Inefficient intermediaries: Internet technology can replace the information intermediary function of banks, such as crowdfunding, P2P and other models can more efficiently match capital needs.
Alternatives: Crowdfunding and Free Economy
Dixon proposed "Crowdfunding" as the core solution, which has the following features:
Disintermediation: directly connect the supply and demand sides of funds to reduce the intermediary costs of banks; 1
Transparency: require the use of funds to be public and require depositors' permission to break the information asymmetry;
Technology-driven: rely on seven disruptive technologies such as the World Wide Web, digital currency, and social networks to reconstruct the financial ecology. 2
Controversy and Challenges
Although the book predicts that traditional banks will decline, the actual development shows:
Complementary rather than replacement: Although Internet finance (such as Yu'ebao and P2P) has diverted some banking business, banks still dominate large-scale credit and systemic financial stability;
Regulatory risks: Decentralized finance (DeFi) faces compliance challenges, such as China's rectification of the P2P industry after 2017; 5
Economic paradox: Complete liberalization may exacerbate financial volatility, such as the high speculation in the cryptocurrency market
