Content area

Abstract

We examine which decentralized finance architectures enable meaningful regulation by combining financial and computational theory. We show via deduction that a decentralized and permissionless Turing-complete system cannot provably comply with regulations concerning anti-money laundering, know-your-client obligations, some securities restrictions and forms of exchange control. Any system that claims to follow regulations must choose either a form of permission or a less-than-Turing-complete update facility. Compliant decentralized systems can be constructed only by compromising on the richness of permissible changes. Regulatory authorities must accept new tradeoffs that limit their enforcement powers if they want to approve permissionless platforms formally. Our analysis demonstrates that the fundamental constraints of computation theory have direct implications for financial regulation. By mapping regulatory requirements onto computational models, we characterize which types of automated compliance are achievable and which are provably impossible. This framework allows us to move beyond traditional debates about regulatory effectiveness to establish concrete boundaries for automated enforcement.

Details

1009240
Title
Tradeoffs in automated financial regulation of decentralized finance due to limits on mutable turing machines
Volume
15
Issue
1
Pages
3016
Publication year
2025
Publication date
2025
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
Place of publication
London
Country of publication
United States
Publication subject
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
Document type
Journal Article
Publication history
 
 
Online publication date
2025-01-24
Milestone dates
2024-12-25 (Registration); 2024-07-19 (Received); 2024-12-24 (Accepted)
Publication history
 
 
   First posting date
24 Jan 2025
ProQuest document ID
3158989667
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/tradeoffs-automated-financial-regulation/docview/3158989667/se-2?accountid=208611
Copyright
Copyright Nature Publishing Group 2025
Last updated
2025-02-03
Database
2 databases
  • Coronavirus Research Database
  • ProQuest One Academic