Grid

As those who have picked up my recent books, you will know that I’m an avid observer of Ant Group and Alipay’s activities. After all, the company did become a 30,000 word case study in my book Digital Human. I haven’t written about Alipay for a while, but did note the release of Alipay Plus or,…

I was intrigued by a nudge that came through of a company that believed cryptocurrencies could transform Africa. The African continent is the third fastest growing market for cryptocurrencies, and Africa has many nations engaged in crypto usage. Nigeria is one of the largest. I decided I wanted to know more and reached out to…

After this year’s Money 2020 in Las Vegas, there’s lots of doom and gloom. FinTechs struggling for investment, rats leaving sinking ships, companies desperate for bank buyouts and bank support, and so on. Specifically, this commentary on Medium stood out for me: Fintech is Slowly Dying and That’s Good News Fintech was going to eat…

Most of us don’t care. We just click. Even in the good old days of paper-printed documentation, did you read the terms and conditions? You’re sitting with the salesperson and there’s 5,000 words on a page that look like standard conditions. Do you read them? Nah, most of us don’t. I always remember a gaming…

It’s Halloween. It’s time for a fright! And so Swiss Re decided to do just that. Some headlines catch my attention, and when Swiss Re launched a report about Zombie Businesses the other day, well … I had to read it. The report, after the headline, is less explosive, and is all about corporate debt: “The…

The main blog discussions this week include … Are you real or fake? I watched the recent series Capture on the BBC where real-time images can be distorted and changed. This moves from CCTV images to live television. It’s all about deep fake technology where a person can appear to be ‘live’, when it’s just a fiction….

I was called out by Nick Kerigan, Head of Innovation at SWIFT, when I accused SWIFT of becoming a sloth a year ago. So, I was interested in the latest announcement that shows the aim of SWIFT to be the arbitrator of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies): SWIFT has successfully shown that Central Bank Digital Currencies…

I’m watching things every day, and am immersed in DeFi, CeFi, WiFi and HyFi (not forgetting ReFi), but I read something the other day and thought: WTF? Let’s share it. Just bought an airplane ticket without having to add my name to it, and then I listed it to sell it back. This was through the TravelX protocol…

I got into a debate about currencies the other day. A colleague said that the future of money was power. Well, all power is based upon money, and his point was that money would be based upon power. The energy industries. Oil, gas, electricity. These are the key industries providing energy to the world. True,…

For years, we have debated privacy versus identity. I am all for privacy, but governments are all for identification. If we can identify you, we can tax you. If you are private, you’re off the grid. It’s a balance. The most private way to deal with money is with cash. Cash can be transacted off the…