Abundance chief Bruce Davis releases book on crowdfunding
Investors are facing a choice between cryptocurrency and crowdfunding when it comes to democratising finance, a new book suggests.
Bruce Davis (pictured), co-founder of crowd bonds platform Abundance, and Leeds University Associate Professor of Sociology Mark Davis, have written a book exploring how crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending can help people “reclaim the power of their money in pursuit of a fairer and greener society.”
The authors argue that there are two alternative futures for democratising finance, one shaped by blockchains and Bitcoins or by crowdfunding and peer-to-peer finance.
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It questions the end goal of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, which the book argues is just to buy more virtual currency and eventually cash out with fiat or standard money.
In contrast, P2P lending and crowdfunding can serve a social purpose, the book claims.
“Each presents a very different way out of the current interregnum,” said the book, titled Crowdfunding and the Democratization of Finance.
“One way forward is a rugged individualist strategy for a world seemingly in retreat and going back to old ideas about money based on the belief that trust has fully collapsed.
“The other is about reinforcing existing networks of trust and building new ones, looking forward to new ways of moving money to change what it does and increasing the participation of people in financial decision making in pursuit of netter outcomes for people and the planet.”
The book can be purchased from eBooks.com for £9.99.
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