Participants attend the annual Chaos Communication Congress on December 28, 2013 in Hamburg, Germany.

Editor’s Note: Brett Scott is a journalist, former broker and author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money. Read his blog www.suitpossum.blogspot.com and follow him on Twitter @suitpossum The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Brett Scott.

Story highlights

Author Brett Scott is a fellow at the Finance Innovation Lab, exploring economic systems

True hackers take mischievous pleasure exploring complex systems, writes Scott

Democracies rely on society to keep watch on institutions and challenge them

Finance doesn't have to be a complex world of elites, he argues