Crypto

I was talking with a friend the other day who asked me to explain some basic questions around cryptocurrencies, as he was confused. It started with why everyone is talking about layers of blockchain? I explained that there are four layers, starting with level 0 and then 1, 2 and 3, and it is all…

The next era of payments: when money moves at internet speed I just found an interesting report by KPMG about a new payment standard called x402. Have you heard of it? If you haven’t, it’s built to ensure open, free, frictionless payments, and could be revolutionary for embedded, invisible finance. Built by Coinbase, the x402 protocol…

Innovation vs Illicit Finance: Why the Future of Crypto Compliance is Intelligent The US Treasury just produced an interesting document about digital assets, innovation and criminal activity. It’s well worht a read, so download the report here … but, if you can’t be bothered, here is my view. There is a familiar pattern whenever a new…

I had a lovely deep-dive conversation with Martin Hargreaves, Chief Product Officer at Quant, during our webinar about how programmable money and liquidity are transforming corporate treasury and financial infrastructure. Martin gave me a great definition: “Programmable money is money that responds to external events and conditions while preserving its fundamental nature. The money itself…

When the Genius Act was signed off last year by President Trump, I said that it was positioned to keep the dollar as the reserve currency of the world. Now, a new debate arises after Jamie Dimon (Chair of JPMorgan) and Brian Armstrong (CEO, Coinbase) had a spat at Davos. Did you hear about it? Probably…

This is not a headline I am happy to share but, after being scammed, it is time to share it. After all, you would think that, working in finance, I would be savvy to all criminal scams. I’m not. Sure, the SMS that says a parcel couldn’t be delivered or the email saying that I’m…

My friend Lory Kehoe spotted a white paper by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) that was released in December discussing Project Leap, a deep technical experiment showing that core payment systems can migrate to post-quantum cryptography without breaking how money moves today. It’s a fascinating paper and an important one for us fintech nerds,…

I just got a summary of my new book from the publishers. It comes out in the summer but, for those interested, here are the key messages: Core Thesis The book argues that banking is entering its third great technological revolution: Mainframe era → automation and scale Digital era → connectivity, mobile, fintech, experience Intelligence…