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A headline jumped out at me the other day: World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee calls crypto ‘dangerous’ and likens it to gambling The key points he made in an interview with CNBC are: Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, called cryptocurrency “dangerous” and likened it to gambling. Discussing the future of…

Brian Armstrong, CEO of Coinbase, the cryptocurrency exchange preferred by many, was interviewed by Bloomberg[1]. I’ve selected a number of key comments he made, as this feeds well into my arguments about DeFi (Decentralised Finance) versus CeFi (Centralised Finance). All commentary below is direct from Brian: … One in five households have used crypto, about 50…

I often return to a theme: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? After the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank during the past week, it begs the question: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? After losing money on MtGox ten years ago: where’s my guarantee? Where’s my backup? With the failure of FTX and Terra-Luna: where’s…

“When you’re not working, what do you do to de-stress?” was the last question Greg Becker, CEO of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)*, took at an investor conference on Tuesday last week. “Cycling is my advice,” he replied. Three days later he was on his bike as his bank went into receivership.  You’ve probably seen a…

This week’s main blog discussions include … What’s hot and what’s not in FinTech? I just picked up a long and fascinating article on TechCrunch this week. Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall, but they interview seven leading VC investors in FinTech and asked a whole variety of questions: Many people are calling this a downturn….

The news about Silicon Valley Bank is having an impact on banks and markets globally – and it wasn’t even the right answer to a question this week! The team spoke about N26, boiling frogs and Belgians (no, not boiling Belgians!!) and our singing quizmaster was back on form once again (or off-key, depending how…

I just picked up a long and fascinating article on TechCrunch this week. Unfortunately it’s behind a paywall, but they interview seven leading VC investors in FinTech and asked a whole variety of questions: Many people are calling this a downturn. How has your investment thesis changed over the last year? Are you still closing…

Part of the reason why I started debating the point about bank branches is that there are places where you cannot find one for love or money. In many places in the UK now, customers are being forced to make an hour long round trip to get cash or pay in a cheque. Some face a…

For as long as I can remember, we have had a debate around whether, to be a retailer, you need stores? As a retail bank, do you need branches? The predictions from the early 2000’s have been that branches and stores will close. It’s certainly true that many have. I’ve blogged about this often and probably…

The fintech bloodbath continues as three really interesting articles came across my desk last week (we discussed them on Fintech Uncut in case you missed it). The first, from Reuters, talked about the valuation of Stripe, my favourite FinTech. Why are they my favourite? Because they expanded massively from a new entrant in 2011 to…