Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

Crypto

What will happen with crypto next?

I had a friend who bought a load of bitcoin for around $10 each and then sold them to buy a house. If he had kept them, he could have ten houses today. I have another friend who invested heavily in ETH, the coin of Ethereum. Today, they smile and sit pretty, whilst millions of…

How real-world use of blockchain is making a difference

I like the guys at Ant Group. I like what they are doing with tech. This was featured heavily in Digital Human, and the company have continued to innovate ever since, most recently with AntChain. AntChain promotes the use of blockchain and have found several sweet spots for this technology that I haven’t seen in Europe…

Twas the Night before Cryptmas

As it is almost Christmas, I felt it necessary to rewrite the classic poem Twas the Night before Christmas. My version is Twas the Night before Cryptmas. Twas the Night before Cryptmas Twas the night before Cryptmas, when all through the net Not a dollar was stirring, not even a cent. The money was hung…

The cost of trading crypto

I tweeted the other day that my bank received a refund from a retailer but, due to the account being in GBP (UK) and the retailer trading in zł (Poland), the refund lost a lot of value. Over £170 to be exact on a purchase that was for over £2,500. Sure, the £170 is a…

Take the Finverse more seriously

I’ve blogged a bit about the Finverse – where the metaverse and crypto come together – and was reading Jemima Kelly’s column on the FT about the Metaverse and crypto. She states: As far as I’m concerned, the hypocritical fantasy that underpins crypto also lies at the heart of the metaverse. This isn’t about building…

Financial people think digital will beat physical by 2030

I just picked up Deloitte’s report on blockchain where 76% of finance executives have voted that digital currencies may overtake fiat currencies in the next decade*. Most of us would just read that statement and go meh. Not me. That’s a phantasmagorical statement. People in finance think fiat currencies are dead? What? If true, we…

Why I bought a Watford FC shirt, when I’m a Spurs fan [bitcoin]

A while ago, I spotted that Watford was sponsored by Bitcoin. They must have made a mint out of that and will be buying up Harry Kane soon, if he’s not already gone somewhere else. Nevertheless, I wanted their shirt. In fifty years, who knows what a football team shirt, sponsored by Bitcoin, would fetch…

Blockchain-inspired risk management to create true trust in Fintech

The core of money is risk. When someone pays you, can you trust that payment is true? If you let them take away your car or computer, can you be certain that the money they offered is real? More than this, in banking, most of what takes place is the bank providing credit. Can they…

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…

FinTech4kids, Part 4, Remittances and Blockchain

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…