Fabian Schär | Podcast: Permissionless blockchains for financial services | April 2025
In a digital era marked by growing distrust in centralized authorities and increasing complexity in global finance, a debate over the foundational infrastructure of tomorrow’s financial markets is gaining new momentum. At the center of this conversation is a question once relegated to blockchain enthusiasts and DeFi pioneers: Can permissionless blockchains provide the base layer for the next generation of financial services? A recent podcast episode of Bitcoin, Fiat & Rock’n’Roll delved deeply into this topic with Professor Fabian Schär of the University of Basel, a leading academic in the field of distributed ledger technology (DLT). Joined by co-hosts Alexander Bechtel and Stefan Grasmann, the discussion was grounded in Schär’s latest report for the European Commission, Enhancing Financial Services with Permissionless Blockchains—a document that challenges traditional financial infrastructure models and makes a compelling, if cautious, case for radical change.