Crypto

If you didn’t notice, there’s been an interesting thing going on State-side about crypto. It all started off with the 2022 Superbowl (well done the Rams and commiserations to the Bengals), where crypto ads were more present than any other ads. Despite the hype, none of the cryptocurrency commercials at the big game made any…

The Federal Reserve issued a paper about stablecoins at the end of January. There’s lots of good content there, but I particularly liked the way in which they opened the discussion which I have copied here (for full report click here). The basics of stablecoins Stablecoins are digital currencies recorded on distributed ledger technologies (DLTs),…

South Park recently did a great skit on NFTs, and one line really resonated with me: The reason the line works so well is that money and finance, markets and companies, countries and laws, are all about beliefs. That’s the basic underlying fundamental. If you believe this contract with this currency authorised by this government…

Based on this article from the Verge, I thought I’d give my explainer of NFTs. What does NFT stand for? NFT stands for Non-Fungible Token, an acronym and phrase that no mere mortal understands. The gist of it is the word Fungible. Fungible means it can be replaced by something else. I give you a…

Crypto is in its usual rollercoaster mode with bitcoin prices halving in January, but then it did the same in January 2021. Regardless of this and, building on yesterday’s blog, there’s an interesting trend I’ve spotted, and it is the reason why bitcoin is not going away. The trend is that if you live in…

Madhvi Mavadiya, Head of Content at Finextra, just posted a great list of developments in Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). She promises to keep it updated and the link is here. It covers every country from Antigua to Curaçao to Iran. 80 countries in all. As my main interests are in the leading financial centres,…

Building up to Christmas, I got a lot of FinTech predictions sent by PR firms and friends. Here are my top picks: One of the biggest US FinTech firms Lending Club sent me four big things they predict: Prediction #1: The fintech and bank consolidation arms race continues   2021 brought on more fintech M&A than ever…

Focusing just on the payments space, there are many folks making forecasts for 2022. Here are the highlights. The Financial Brand lists seven major trends for 2022: The ‘P2P’ Wars Will Continue Unabated Despite All the New Stuff, Cards (and Cash) Roll On BNPL: The Payments Wild Card It’s A Wallet! It’s a Platform! It’s Super…

There was an old game called Scruples that asked what would you do in a particular situation. What would you do if you discovered your best friend was cheating on their partner? Would you tell the partner? What would you do if you knew your colleague was stealing from the company? Would you tell the…

I’m worried that the older I get, the more cynical I get. I watch developments of governments, regulators, banks and business, and keep thinking: these guys are corrupt. But corruption is part of our DNA it seems. It’s purely a matter of transparency that will change this. Then I think about our world today, and…