In an extensive 1800 word opinion piece published in The Independent on October 13, Alexander Lebedev, the owner of U.K. newspapers Evening Standard and The Independent, predicted blockchain tech will disrupt what he described as a parasitic global banking oligopoly, asserting that "blockchain technologies and smart contracts will make it unnecessary to employ the vast majority of people in the financial sector." Although he thinks the current "explosive growth of DeFi platforms is driven by a rapid influx of liquidity" and "cannot continue indefinitely," he says that nevertheless: "The technologies embedded in this infrastructure open up tremendous opportunities for rebuilding the global financial system."