An increasingly lamented consequence of re-regulatory efforts following the 2007/2008 global financial crisis has been ‘de-risking’—the growing disengagement by banks and other financial institutions with markets perceived as posing greater risks than justified by potential profits. As banks based in the Global North have moved to withdraw financial services from many emerging economies, de-risking has attracted attention for undermining financial inclusion and developmental efforts. Novel technologies are being harnessed to address this problem, including applications of blockchain, the digital ledgers of transactions originally underpinning cryptocurrencies. Contributing to IR theorising of legitimacy and re-risking, this article illustrates how technology-based de-risking efforts that seek to attend to the perceptions of foreign financiers can undermine the legitimacy of financial inclusion projects. Contrasting unfolding blockchain-based financial inclusion initiatives in two regions of small states in the Eastern Caribbean and Eastern Europe, our analysis stresses the need for greater local participation and clearer distribution of benefits from finance and technology (fintech) centred forms of digital development.

中文翻译：

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技术、小国和数字发展的合法性：通过基于区块链的再风险来对抗去风险？

2007/2008 年全球金融危机后重新监管努力的一个日益令人遗憾的结果是“去风险化”——银行和其他金融机构越来越脱离市场，市场被认为风险大于潜在利润。随着位于全球北部的银行已开始从许多新兴经济体撤出金融服务，去风险化已引起人们的关注，因为它破坏了金融包容性和发展努力。正在利用新技术来解决这个问题，包括区块链的应用，即最初支持加密货币的交易数字分类账。为合法性和再风险的 IR 理论做出贡献，本文说明了寻求关注外国金融家看法的基于技术的去风险努力如何破坏普惠金融项目的合法性。对比东加勒比和东欧两个小国家地区正在展开的基于区块链的普惠金融举措，我们的分析强调需要更多的地方参与和更清晰的金融和技术（fintech）为中心的数字发展形式的利益分配。