Vardan Khachatryan - DeFi & Law: What Regulation Should and Shouldn’t - TOKEN2049 Dubai 2025
Explore the intricate relationship between decentralized finance (DeFi) and regulation in a compelling presentation by Vardan Khachatryan at TOKEN2049 Dubai 2025. This insightful talk dissects the current state of DeFi, highlighting how its foundational promises of immutability, permissionless access, decentralized governance, and unstoppable infrastructure often clash with real-world implementations, where upgradable contracts and centralized control prevail.
Khachatryan advocates for a regulatory framework that distinguishes genuinely decentralized protocols from those merely using DeFi as a marketing term. He emphasizes the importance of regulating according to functional control rather than labels, suggesting that fully permissionless protocols should remain free from traditional regulatory constraints. Conversely, systems with centralized authority warrant greater regulatory oversight.
The presentation underscores the critical need for regulations that foster the growth of genuine DeFi, encouraging permissionless innovation and treating open infrastructure as a public good similar to the internet. Khachatryan warns against subjecting truly decentralized ecosystems to bank-like licensing regimes or enforcing KYC where it's unnecessary, which could stifle innovation and lead to the dominance of existing financial intermediaries.
As the DeFi landscape evolves, the choice to support true decentralization or revert to centralized control rests with us. Learn about the path forward for DeFi over the next decade and the strategies needed to ensure its potential as a transformative financial force.
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