The seminar was delivered by Leigh Sagar (New Square Chambers, Lincoln's Inn, London).

The seminar discussed investment-related issues and examined how traditional investments have resulted in crises, giving examples of Black Monday in 1987 and the 2008 sub-prime crisis. Cryptoasset crises were also pointed out, highlighting the Mt Gox cryptoasset exchange crisis in 2014, the post-ICO bubble crash in 2017 and the Terra-Luna death spiral in 2022. In each of the above mentioned cases, one of the factors that contributed to the failures was opacity in the operations of the systems. A recent example of concealment in the administration of investments resulted in the sudden failure of the FTX-Alameda companies.

In comparison, smart contracts running on blockchains and operating decentralised finance (DeFi) protocols are transparent and open to inspection and analysis, preventing the occurrence of clandestine activities. The issues that affect such systems were also outlined.

More details are available here.