New Books Network Hilary Allen, "Fintech Dystopia: A Summer Beach Read about Silicon Valley Ruining Things" (2025)
Nov 11, 2025
Hilary Allen, a law professor at American University and author of *FinTech Dystopia*, critiques the financial system's transformation by tech elites. She reveals how fintech and crypto often fail to deliver promised benefits, leading to greater inequality. Allen discusses the repetitive tech hype cycle and how venture capital influences regulations to favor quick exits. She argues that instead of democratizing finance, these innovations often create predatory outcomes, calling for reforms to protect consumers and ensure financial stability.
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Skepticism As A Research Driver
- Hilary Allen found crypto research led her to question hype and dig into what technology can actually do.
- She wrote FinTech Dystopia to give nonexperts vocabulary to call out unrealistic tech promises.
The Lather-Rinse-Repeat Tech Cycle
- Tech companies repeatedly hype solutions without understanding domain expertise or history.
- Regulators often relax enforcement, letting firms entrench before harms surface and become hard to fix.
Fintech Isn’t Democratizing Finance
- Fintech often repackages services traditional finance already offered but with less regulation.
- That regulatory lightness makes many fintech offerings predatory rather than truly democratic.
