This fortnight's blogging musings include ...
Arguments for and against CeFi [Part One]
Russell Brand had a big rant against Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs) the other day, claiming that digital, programmable money combined with a digital identity is a fantastic way for governments to place you in a digital straitjacket.
Are fiat currencies dead? [CeFi or DeFi, Part Two]
I said yesterday that, for the moment, I’ll stick with fiat currencies as cryptocurrencies are generally quite messy when used for retail purchases. And no, I’m not speaking as an observer but as a user. To buy my Watford football shirt, I had to open an account with a crypto app – which I’ve never used since – then work out how to add an amount of bitcoin to that app, and then how to send that bitcoin to Watford. It wasn’t easy.
What the world will look like in a hundred years (Part One)
Written in 1922 Walter Lionel George, an English writer, wrote a piece for The New York Herald predicting the world a century ahead. Here is his piece – with a little bit lost in translation – and, tomorrow, I will post my view of the world in 2122. There is a good old rule which bids…
What the world will look like in a hundred years [Part Two]
The year is 2122. The world has changed. The world is still here, just, but the frozen North and South is no longer frozen. The Earth is boiling. In terms of economics, China rules; India has surpassed America; Africa is still rising; whilst Europe is a mess. The Royal Family has disappeared and over a…
Fintech Uncut, or FU for short!
A couple of weeks ago, we started a quiz show on Fintech with a few friends. It’s weekly and unleashed, uncensored and uncut. You might like it! Here’s this week’s show: THE QUIZMASTER RIK COECKELBERGS Rik is “the sensible one” in the show and he will try his best to keep things on track (good…
Dreaming of winning the lottery? … maybe not
Most of us dream of being millionaires or, these days, billionaires. Unlimited wealth = unlimited fun! However, the reality is that this is not the case. Seven our of ten lottery winners end up broke and a third go on to declare bankruptcy, according to the National Endowment for Financial Education. Runaway spending, toxic investments…
Digital is a mindset, not a project
FedNow is a new faster payments service for America. It’s been developing for years, and will go live in 2023 and yet, in conversation with an American friend, only 1 in 10 banks are ready for this. Why?
Money and bartering is not how trade began
When I wrote Digital Human, I got hauled up for saying that money replaced barter. It is a commonly held belief that humans evolved from nomads to farmers to cities and that, as they became civilised, they bartered bread for meat. However, that proved difficult if the butcher didn’t want meat, so how would that work? That’s why we invented money thousands of years ago. The oldest form of money was found in Mesopotamia. Now, we all have it.
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
