The Future of Green FinTech Under Climate Change: The Relation of Cryptocurrencies and Sustainability
摘要
Green FinTech is based on green finance innovations. New technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, big data insights, the internet of the things, and blockchain technology are contributing to the rising trend in Green FinTech. FinTech developments have the potential to enhance the efficiency of financial activities and lower the costs of financial global transactions, which helps in the accomplishment of CO2 emissions reductions in light of climate change mitigation policies. Green FinTech in mobile banking and connected to shared transportation methods have been acknowledged to support the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Green FinTech also imposes question about sustainability of cryptocurrencies. For instance, Bitcoins are generated through mining, which is an activity that requires a significant amount of energy. While Green Fintech pursues noble goals of greening the financial world, the reality is that many green innovations are not energy efficient. The relationship of sustainability and the Sustainable Development Goals is therefore yet to be established. Theoretical and empirical research of the future should define Green FinTech and evaluate the different Green FinTech solutions and their implementation’s carbon footprint and greater sustainability. One of the most neglected areas of attention concerns the ethical imperatives of cryptocurrencies’ use for the private exploration of space. Space exploration has become attributed as public good in recent decades. Most recent years now have seen a rise in commercialized space travel. Both trends open critical legal questions, also from the international law perspective. Space travel as a fairly novel endeavor includes safety and security as well as environmental risks but also moral dilemmas, which were solved by governmental central planners in the past. The new trend of commercialized space travel outsourcing these risks to private sector entities and insurances will likely take care of risks. But overall one may point at the enormous costs and unknown risks alongside a legal and policy vacuum on the impact of space travel on the space, earth and human ecosystem. Documented are already health impairments after space travel, which could well be only one side of a larger biosphere homeostasis imbalance that could be triggered if space travel becomes the norm. Crowdsourcing funding for space travel and opening the gates for commercial activities in outer space therefore may hold long-term implications, such as human health risks, environmental harm and potential biological contamination of earth and space. All these trends should be examined by research and potential regulatory action be proposed.