Chris Skinner's blog

Shaping the future of finance

The Finanser’s Week: 6th December 2021- 12th December 2021

This week’s blog discussions included … 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…

What’s worth more: Armycoin or Swiftiecoin?

We teach our children to read and write. It’s a priority. Why don’t we teach them to understand money? Surely financial literacy is as important as basic literacy? Some people get this, and some people don’t, but I woke up to this big time reading a few recent articles. For example, Claer Barrett writes in…

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…

The end of P2P finance?

I was really surprised to see the announcement by Zopa this week that they were pulling out of P2P (peer-to-peer) lending. As the company that started the FinTech P2P lending and FinTech buzz imho, how could they? I was angry and annoyed, and then remembered something: Following consultation, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is introducing…

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…

What should a car sound like?

Banking, like most industries, is being challenged by technology. I don’t say disrupted. Music, entertainment and other industries may have been disrupted. I think banking is challenged. But when I look out at the world, what does surprise and possibly amaze me is how some industries are adapting. We’ve seen banking adapt – who needs…

The Finanser’s Week: 29th November 2021- 5th December 2021

This week’s main blog discussions included … 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…

Time is money

I got a link to a bunch of Albert Einstein quotes the other day, one of which was: “Time does not exist. We invented it.” Some guy called Albert pic.twitter.com/JS9JMfEyJk — Chris Skinner (@Chris_Skinner) August 28, 2021 It made me think. Oh dear. Don’t make me think. Over the past year and a half, I…

Life? It’s complicated …

I grew up with a belief that life should be simple. You get an education; you play sport; you get a job for life; you get a partner; you get married; you buy a house; you have kids; you retire; and then you die. Or something like that. These were the key life events. It’s…