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Teach children things machines cannot learn

I am involved in a number of activities, one of which is a not-for-profit called The Portrait Foundation. This is a bit of a pivot, but it’s all about encouraging creativity in children, as it is the human and emotional skills that children should learn today. Children should not be taught all the things machines…

Venezuela replaces national currency with bitcoin

In a fascinating move Venezuela, which has been a basket-case economy ever since Hugo Chavez died in 2013, has dropped their national currency (the bolivar) and any ties to the US dollar, and decided to link their national currency to bitcoin instead. This follows years of hyperinflation where the bolivar – both the old and…

The view from 2050

After discussing 2030 and beyond yesterday, I got into an interesting discussion about 2050 and beyond the other day. It started with looking back 25 years and looking forward 25. Looking back 25 years, I realised that discussions of modular, object-oriented, service-based banking is now really old. I was having those discussions back in the…

The view from 2030

I was recently asked to deliver a presentation set in the year 2030. It was challenging, but interesting. The session was recorded, you can watch it here … … or, if you don’t want or cannot watch it, then here’s the transcript. A 2030 retrospective [transcript] Hi, I’m Chris Skinner and I have known BAI…

Digital is not “a generational thing”

I was told that living purely digitally was a “generational thing” and this was followed more recently by another person saying that my view about video is also a “generational thing”. Getting more and more irritated with the peer pressure to switch video on #Zoom, when I'd rather just talk like a normal conference call…

What’s blocking blockchain?

Three years ago, I blogged about Ant Group’s strategy for AI, Blockchain, Cybersecurity and more. At the time, I noted: Ant Financial have more blockchain patents than any other company in the world and they have the most live blockchain-based production systems. That was in 2018. By the end of 2020, the situation is even…

China’s breaking the superapp

I’ve been amazed at the rise of superapps in China. Alibaba and WeChat allow you to socialise, ship and buy anywhere, anytime. It came home to me when I was shopping in a Chinese store and my Chinese friend said: let me just check the price of this on Taobao. She found it was a…

What is normal?

I’m watching the news. We’re all locked down. Britain just introduced £5,000 fines for unnecessary travel whilst the TV correspondents interview their counterparts in Dubai who say that they get massive fines for not wearing face masks. What is going on? It’s a really weird world where you are punished for going outside. In some…

How China’s FinTech is changing everything

I joined a Clubhouse discussion the other day – Clubhouse? What? – and discussed Chinese FinTech and its impact on the rest of the world. I really enjoyed the conversation and it was nice that my friend Sophie Guibaud summarised it afterwards. I asked her if she would let me share it here on the…

Intelligent Money - Chris Skinner Keynote @ Pay 360 conference 2024

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Chris Skinner
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