Crypto

I can remember a few years ago that the UK pound was almost at the level of being valued at $2.  Two dollars to the pound.  Amazing.  I brought a lot of American stuff that year.  Yesterday, I bought something and it was $1.30 to the pound.  Shoot.  The dinner for $100 that a few…

I’ve published a few summaries of the best of blockchain research earlier this year (February and March).  There’s been a load more since, but Brave New Coin has curated a nice summary of all those that came out in the last quarter.  As they publish my content sometimes, here is their list (click on the titles to see the reports):…

I had an interesting conversation with one banker this week.  They work for a bank that is interested in blockchain use cases (aren’t we all) and have been tasked to create a proof of concept.  All well and good.  Then the challenge kicked in. Who wants to work on the proof of concept? The team…

I’ve written about Bitcoin and blockchain for half a decade, and now banks are all talking about it too. There is a belief that the blockchain technology that came from the Bitcoin structure could revolutionise banking. But there’s a problem, not with blockchain protocol, but with the hype and confusion that surrounds it. How will banks…

I’ve been presenting a summary of Digital Bank and ValueWeb for a few months now.  It is the story of the origins of moneykind and, as many have now heard the story, I thought it’s about time to share this on the blog. If you have half an hour free, then you can watch the presentation.  It’s been filmed…

We had an all-day meeting on Friday about Digital Identity at the United Nations. There are almost two billion people born with no identity.  There is no record of their birth.  There is no proof of their existence.  As a result, these people can disappear without a trace. There is no evidence of their disappearance…

There is a lot of talk about blockchain.  A lot.  Loads.  But when you get past all the talk, what is actually happening with blockchain?  Answer: not enough. I say this because there are some stand out firms out there – like R3, Digital Asset Holdings, Ripple – who have gained traction with the banks,…

I promise to shut up about African developments after this post, for a while anyway, but there’s a definite feeling that Africa may set the standards for a cheaper, easier financial system in the future, as blogged last week.  In fact, when I was asked about Africa as a continent in Kenya, I said that…

ValueWeb makes the contention that you cannot have an internet of things without a real-time and cheap internet of value.  A core part of this is focused upon building a cheap shared ledger structure for digital identity and digital currencies and guess what?  That cheap shared ledger is most likely going to be built in Africa. …