  This paper debates the contribution of Econophysics to the economic or
financial domains. Since the traditional approach performed by Economics or
Finance has revealed to be insufficient in fully characterizing and explaining
the correspondingly phenomena, we discuss whether Econophysics can provide a
new insight onto these matters. Thus, an assessment is presented in order to
weight its potential opportunities and limitations. This is particularly
relevant as it is widely recognized that during its yet short existence
Econophysics has experienced a growing interest not only by physicists but also
by economists in searching for new approaches that could help explaining
existing questions. In fact, many papers have been submitted, some books have
been released, new journals have been published, several conferences have been
held, a site is maintained -- http://www.unifr.ch/econophysics where news,
events, book reviews, papers and a blog are exhibited; a 3-year licentiate
studies (University of Silesia [1]) and a B.Sc. course (University of Wroclaw
[2]) have been created and also some Ph.D. thesis have been written. Therefore,
a fundamental question arises: Is this just a fad or is it something much more
consistent that will prevail? This is what this paper addresses.
