Every year I visit the analytics engine to see which blogs got the most visits. This list is this year’s although, interestingly, the blog entry with the most clicks generally is the one I wrote about who invented WiFi. Regardless, the list this year is interesting as it is mainly about fintech firms like Klarna,…
I get regular emails with facts and stats, and one that I subscribe to regularly is from Fintech Global. Fintech Global provides research and, more importantly, connects senior decision-makers via industry-leading conferences. Enough of the advertising as what intrigues me more is facts and stats, and their research gives an interesting reflection of the world…
For many years, I’ve been among the fintech influencers arguing for a digital identity system. Most people reply that they don’t want one. Even an anonymous encrypted one. They fear that governments will find ways to track and trace them, and so it does not work. Their fears are slightly irrational as, if you use…
I spotted a quote this week: “All truth passes through three stages: first, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” — Arthur Schopenhauer My mind immediately moved to bitcoin and cryptocurrency and, specifically, Jamie Dimon. For years, Dimon has said that bitcoin is a scam and yet, now,…
Many years ago, I was presenting to a country suffering sanctions. No longer able to access the SWIFT network and pretty much excommunicated by most banks worldwide, they were suffering. Of course, they could do nested accounts, where you bury your bank in a pyramid of other banks, but that is pretty complicated, so I…
At Money2020 Amsterdam I met Airwallex, a company that has risen rapidly from nowhere to the top of the heap. I was a bit embarrassed not to know much about them but, in 2018, Stripe offered $1.2 billion to acquire Airwallex. At the time, their revenues were just $2 million. Stripe’s Patrick Collison negotiated directly and…
I just got an invite to invest in Spacecoin. What is that? SPACECOIN is a visionary cryptocurrency built for the space economy and designed to offer a decentralized, efficient, and secure platform for interplanetary trade investors and exploration. WTH? My initial reaction was the idea that this is launching a cryptocurrency for those who want…
Are we giving up on dating and instead putting all of our demands onto digital people who are programmed to behave and speak exactly how we want? A new survey of 2,000 British men and women between the ages of 18 and 45 produced by Equimundo, a US-based non-profit organisation, found that men have simply…
I really hate subscription services online. There are many that automatically renew without me knowing and, even worse, there are those that you sign up to without even knowing. A good example is one I discovered on my bank account the other day. Apparently I had signed up for a service that costs £3:00 a…
