Blockchain

There’s been a large number of white papers produced recently about Fintech and Blockchain, so I decided to collate the most notable ones here.  All links are to file downloads and if I’ve missed any, please let me know. Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System (9 pages, October 2008) The origins …

There are a few friends in my network whose opinions I respect and Professor Michael Mainelli, Chairman of Z/Yen Group is one of those.  He has kindly given me a really insightful paper into blockchain technologies and terminologies.  For the uninitiated, it will enlighten and for the initiated, it will offer …

There’s lots of discussions about financial markets and their different structures.  Retail and commercial banking are likened to farms, whilst investment banking is a jungle.  Retail and commercial banking have dull products likened to chickens.  Look after them and they produce regular and predictable results.  Investment banking is just full …

I don’t normally blog about a particular start-up or specific company, but today’s an exception as there’s a company that’s caught my eye because it’s appearing everywhere.  Literally every tech show I’m attending, they’re there and winning awards.  This company won €30,000 in the BBVA Open Talent Competition last September, …

I just discovered Thomson Reuters predictions for 2016 with two related to Fintech that stand out: There is no Uber of Finance Most Fintech start-ups will partner with or be acquired by banks Interesting.  I have blogged before that the Uber of Finance is the blockchain, so maybe don’t agree …

I’ve been wondering how this year would start and so far the answer seems badly.  What with David Bowie’s death on the same day as I catch man-flu, could it get any worse?  Well yes.  I wake up to the headline: Sell everything ahead of stock market crash, say RBS …

It puts things in perspective when you realise that bitcoin, right now, is the size of a bacteria sitting on a microbe of a flea’s skin, with the flea sitting on the back of the dog that’s walking with the man who is driving a car along a highway, where …

The world is still very confused about bitcoin.  For example, some press are still writing the old stories about the phenomena as an investment: Man buys $27 of bitcoin, forgets about them, finds they’re now worth $886k.  It makes for a good headline, but reinforces the view that bitcoin is …

I’m often asked how quickly the changes I outline will take place, and my answer is between 10 and 20 years.  The building of the real-time, almost free financial network on the internet using blockchain and mobile will take about a decade at least before it becomes mainstream.  Oh, some …

Things we’re reading today include … Spanish lender BBVA ‘buys 30pc stake in UK bank Atom’ HSBC To Cut 2,000 Jobs In Commercial Bank Unit Bankers are still paid too much – Deutsche Bank’s Cryan Samsung Pay now works with Chase Bank UK ‘failing to stop corrupt money’ UK still …

At the start of 2015, I was honoured to be invited to join a new group called the Whitechapel Think Tank. The group was initiated by Jeremy Wilson, Vice Chairman of Barclays Corporate Banking and John Edge, Managing Partner, RRVIG. The first meeting called together UK Government, Treasury and the …

I had a really interesting conversation with Chris Barker, Head of Digital and Engineering for Royal Bank of Scotland.  As usual, the conversation moved around data analytics, deep learning, artificial intelligence, building enterprise data systems, separating content from processing, re-platforming the back-end infrastructure and core systems and more.  I’ll write …

I don’t know about you, but I’m completely confused about blockchains, sidechains and such like.  I admit it.  It’s beyond me and, if it’s beyond me, gawd knows how normal folk will make it out. 

Having attended Sibos since way back when, I was sad to miss it this year.  I got double-booked to be in Vegas at the Venetian to keynote with BAI RD2015.  Surprisingly, I’ve been back in Vegas (why is it always Vegas, and not Las Vegas?) to speak at Money2020 just …

I’ve been asked the same question twice this week in two separate conferences (one in Vienna, the other in San Francisco): “how will we deal with the corruptive forces when we are all on the net?” The second questioner clarified what she meant by referencing the film Enemy of the …