CFA Institute Analyst speaks on Blockchain and future of finance

Speaking to Exponential Magazine, Svi Rosov, a CFA Institute capital markets policy analyst, said that as a result of the continuing transition of markets from a human-based ecology to a machine-based one, more flash crashes are expected.

"I can see a world in which the blockchain is either assimilated into existing market structures or makes them redundant," Rosov said, adding, "As we are seeing with many other industries, the big changes happen when software starts to dominate hardware - you get a whole new set of players, and a whole different industrial economy as a result."

He said that with several trading venues in each region, modern markets have become fragmented and trading increasingly being done by algorithmic high frequency traders (HFT). Moreover, no one really knows what the hollowing out of market participants means for the future.

He added that the work that most excites him now is "the impact the blockchain will have on financial services. It is nice that some of the Silicon Valley magic is rubbing off on financial services for a change, rather than the taxi industry or watches!"