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I just received this endorsement from Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It’s the Terminator saying I’m a good guy. Amazing and, awww, thanks Arnie. Thing is, it’s fake. It’s not Arnold Schwarzenegger at all. It’s a deep fake. What amazes me is how real it looks – and yes, I will use it in my future presentations…

I saw this tweet the other day Finally set up @IFTTT and every time I like your tweet 25p goes into my ‘treat yourself’ Monzo pot and yes that means I just monetised us *both* but dammit let me live!!!! — Liz Ward 🇰🇳🇮🇪🌹 (@LizMaryWard) January 4, 2021 And it made me realise a number…

A year ago, I invested $1,000 in bitcoin. Today, that’s worth $10,000. OK, I made those figures up. I actually invested and have invested and keep investing in bitcoin and, more importantly, ether – the currency of Ethereum – in which I have more confidence for the future. I don’t sell them – HODL guys,…

With Jack Ma disappeared and Alibaba and Ant Group possibly nationalised, China’s government is dictating its future. A bit like my What’s happening in Hong Kong blog – the most read one of 2020 – I now have a Where’s Jack Ma blog. I’m tracking and reading lots online about his disappearance, with many saying he…

The main blog discussions this week include … Happy New Year 2021! Here’s what’s going to happen … After a year where every day felt like Groundhog day – same shit, different day (SSDD) – I’m hoping that 2021 will be different – different shit, every day (DSED). I’m not complaining, but 2020 was pretty…

Andreesson Horowitz’s Chris Dixon shared a presentation about crypto and blockchain during the holiday break.  Interesting, but is it good? Not sure, but I’m not going to make big predictions about tokenisation, regulation and the price of bitcoin in January 2022. Instead, I asked Janis Legler  to do this. Janis is Chief Product Officer…

I was looking for any decent reports on the big tech trends for 2021 and first of all  stumbled upon an interesting report from 2017. This was for the World Economic Forum, who surveyed 800 experts on their views of the key technologies for the future, and found seven major areas to focus upon: Robots…

As regular readers will know, I quite like Global Processing Services (GPS), the payments processing firm behind many of the leading FinTechs I deal with. So, when they sent me their views of 2021 trends for FinTech and payments, how could I resist? Enjoy! Four Predictions for Fintech and Payments in 2021 by Richard Hodgson,…

There are lots and lots and lots of reports and predictions for 2021 in banking. The one I liked the best is the report from Standard & Poor’s (S&P, see end of blog) about the impact of the crisis in 2020 and the outlook for banking in 2021. It’s a difficult discussion, as the only…

After a year where every day felt like Groundhog day – same shit, different day (SSDD) – I’m hoping that 2021 will be different – different shit, every day (DSED). I’m not complaining, but 2020 was pretty awful. Some loved it – more time at home with family – but many hated it – more…