Regulatory Clarity vs Permissionless Innovation

Traditional finance argues that regulation protects consumers from fraud and manipulation, while crypto advocates insist that permissionless innovation is how the unbanked get access to financial services and how monopolistic intermediaries get disrupted. This debate is sharpened by a 2023 World Bank study showing that 80% of unbanked individuals own a smartphone yet remain excluded, outperforming #1 on this list in terms of divisiveness among institutional investors surveyed by Fidelity.