Billionaire UK newspaper owner calls DeFi technology ‘revolutionary

CRYPTONAIRE LYWEEK CRYPTO investment journal

Alexander Lebedev, the owner of U.K. newspapers Evening Standard and The Independent, along with Russian publication Novaya Gazeta, has spoken glowingly of the potential for cryptocurrency and smart contracts to revolutionize finance.

In an extensive 1800 word opinion piece published in The Independent on October 13, the billionaire predicted blockchain tech will disrupt what he described as a parasitic global banking oligopoly, asserting that “blockchain technologies and smart contracts will make it unnecessary to employ the vast majority of people in the financial sector.”

Although he thinks the current “explosive growth of DeFi platforms is driven by a rapid influx of liquidity” and “cannot continue indefinitely” he says that nevertheless:

“The technologies embedded in this infrastructure open up tremendous opportunities for rebuilding the global financial system.”

Lebedev said that smart contracts allow customers to access financial services “without the participation of an intermediary in the form of the bank itself,” preventing “greedy bankers” from stealing clients’ funds.

Lebedev also revealed he has invested $100,000 into an Estonia-based yield farming protocol as “an experiment” and seemed surprised at the quick returns. He is now looking to establish an “Independent Decentralized Financial Ecosystem” of his own. Read more...