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It’s quite strange when you think about money as a lot of money has disappeared or been recreated over the years. 250 years ago, there was no US dollar as such; the Chinese currency called the renminbi (RMB) was introduced on December 1, 1948, by the newly founded People’s Bank of China; and the euro…

Five hundred years ago, merchants in England had silver coins to trade with but, as Byron Gilliam notes, the system was open to abuse. There were several tricks to try. One was “sweating” the coins: putting them in a bag and shaking them until friction caused silver dust to fall to the bottom of the…

I had a great chat the other day – the first in a series of three – with Quant’s Chief Product Officer Martin Hargreaves about programmable liquidity. What’s that? Read on … Programmable liquidity: five foundations reshaping modern treasury How is programmable money reshaping treasury operations and financial infrastructure? This conversation moved beyond theoretical frameworks…

I was recently watching Dragon’s Den (Shark Tank if you’re American), and spotted an interesting chap – Jinesh Vohra, founder of Sprive, a way of getting your mortgage paid down sooner through your spending. It’s an intriguing idea, so I reached out to him for a chat. Here’s what happened. Chris Skinner: Tell me a…

I was just having a chat with an AI engine asking about the most common questions people ask about cryptocurrencies. Really interesting answer so, I thought I would share it here (with my edits), as I’d be really interested in your views and answers. Equally, I’m tempted to say that this should be a test…

This week’s main discussions include … Is the future digital identity your heartbeat? I use a variety of sites like Coinbase and IG for investing but find them very cumbersome. Trying to find how to sell and get rid of assets is not easy, unless you do it often. Here’s my vision of the near-term…

I use a variety of sites like Coinbase and IG for investing but find them very cumbersome. Trying to find how to sell and get rid of assets is not easy, unless you do it often. Here’s my vision of the near-term future. Money, investing, saving, trading will be just like Siri and Alex. “Coinbase,…

I just saw an interview with Tim Roth who appears in the new Peaky Blinders movie as Beckett, an East London fascist. The movie launches tomorrow on Netflix and focuses upon the Nazi plan in the Second World War to flood Britain with fake currency to bring down the economy. Codenamed Operation Bernhard, the goal…

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…

I was reading a fascinating case study about Ikano Bank, which is the bank of IKEA. The bank is headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, serves customers across Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway, the UK, Poland, Germany and Austria, offering savings and loan products for consumers, sales support services for retailers, and leasing and factoring solutions for businesses….