The potential for digital technologies to disrupt entire industries appears to be limitless. We all live in the shadow of mechanisms such as Joseph Schumpeter's creative destruction and Charles Darwin's natural selection. A whole new league of online competitors has upended industries including journalism, music and movies.
Now technology is setting its sights on finance. This seems quite natural, as financial institutions are essentially information intermediaries. As early as 1984, Walter Wriston, then the chief executive of Citibank, said, "Information about money has become almost as important as money itself."
