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People who fear being tracked and traced … it’s too late

For years now there has been a discussion of having chips inside humans. I was presenting this idea twenty years ago, and often used the example of the Baja Beach Club. The idea made sense: get a club chip inserted under the skin and you need no wallet or phone … just dance. It particularly…

Crypto: tax it, regulate it, subsidize it

I was reminded the other day of a quote by Ronald Reagan: “If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.” He said this in the 1980s about the government’s view of the economy, but let’s apply it to cryptocurrencies. Initially irrelevant but now mainstream, many…

How Facebook failed at finance

I haven’t written much about Facebook’s digital currency Diem, as there’s not much to write about. A dead duck from day one, it would never succeed. I said so back when it launched in 2019: The bottom-line is that Facebook may have developed a stablecoin using blockchain to enable global payments within Messenger, Instagram and…

11 episodes to decode banking … #mustwatch

I don’t normally post on a Saturday, but felt compelled to do so today as 11FS has just released the result of months of work. A new video series on YouTube called Decoding: Banks. There are 11 episodes in the series starring many industry luminaries and protagonists, including yours truly and the likes of Dave…

What is this Web3?

Lots of folks are talking Web3, but what is Web3 and why isn’t it Web 3.0? I guess, like with all things, we abbreviate and so Web3 is the next wave network that will revolutionize everything. So what is it? Web3, as envisioned by the Web3 Foundation, will be a public internet where data and content…

Technology in 2022: intelligence is the key

In the final part of my welcome to 2022 series, here are the big trends in technology in general (not just FinTech). According to the World Economic Forum, there are ten key technologies to watch including 3D printing houses, tracking humans through the network and getting drugs through apps. That’s only ten things, so Forbes goes…

The pick ‘n’ mix, Lego bank can work

CB Insights just released their FinTech 250 for 2021: These are the top FinTech firms in the world, in their view. The companies were selected by CB Insights’ Intelligence Unit from a pool of over 17,000 companies and, at last look, I’m tracking over 25,000 FinTech start-ups worldwide who garnered just under $100 billion of…

It’s all just science ‘fiction’?

I watch too much online these days. Streaming from Amazon, Netflix, Apple TV and more, means you can spend the whole day just binge-watching rubbish. I’ve found myself reverting to watching some older movies, like those made in the 2000s. Fifteen years. 15 years. 15yrs. It’s a long time passing. I put on something the…

FinTech4kids, Part 5, Biometrics and Identity

When I wrote the Captain Cake series and pivoted to be a children’s author as well as a FinTech guy, a friend said that I should write a children’s book about FinTech, which I did. It’s not something aimed at publication as a book, but thought I would share with you what I came up…

If you think the future is purely digital, are you nuts?

Arriving at the venue, I spot a good friend. We shake hands and hug. Then I see another friend I’ve missed. We hug and kiss. 1999? 2019? 2022? The conference network disappeared in 2020, and it’s now trying to come back. How I miss those networked days. Some say we don’t need them. Some say…

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