Smart Contracts in the Financial Sector: Fintech’s Prospects and Risks

The present study aims at analysing some aspects of “Smart contracts”, paying particular attention to their application perspectives in delicate sectors marked by the digital revolution, such as the financial sector. The financial sector is one of the first to take on board the opportunities which new technologies—in particular the use of predictive algorithms and automated bargaining codes—could bring in terms of efficiency, speed of operations, cost reduction and adaptability. Is clear that smart contracts can represent alternative instruments capable of simplifying the procedures of the financial system, taking advantage of the disintermediation typical of the registers through which they are processed. One of the main problems related to the regulation of “Fintech” concerns a widespread regulatory opacity, dictated by the difficulties of specifically identifying operators and activities or services carried out by them. The need appears urgent for a uniform regulatory framework that is able to legally synthesize the technological complexities of this innovative digital phenomenon. Solutions should not be sought beyond the boundaries of contract law, but internally, in the prism of the principles of the European private law of exchange, in order to include the new changed phenomenologies of modern bargaining models.