Technology

I haven’t commented much on bitcoin’s (BTC) recent surge, as I’ve been watching and waiting, but it is something. Just in case you didn’t notice, the value has moved from a low of under $5,000 per BTC in March 2020 to around $50,000 per BTC today. But it’s not just BTC: it’s Ether, Bitcoin Cash,…

It’s interesting that the UK regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, came out with its review of the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) economy, and the media started comparing Klarna with Wonga. I’ve blogged in-depth about both in the past: Whatever you think, Wonga is doing well, July 2013 The Finanser Interviews: Niklas Adalberth, Co-Founder, Deputy…

Unless you were hiding under a rock last week, you must have noticed the Gamestop story. In case it left you bemused, Simon Taylor of 11FS gives a great breakdown of what happened. Over to you Simon … How Robinhood weaponized the Occupy Wall Street movement What happened with Gamestop is the beginning of economic…

Someone asked me to elaborate on the links between banks, government, the economy and society, and this was well illustrated by the video I shared the other day of James Pierpont Morgan, who founded the JPMorgan empire (see end of this blog entry). That all began with learning the banking ropes in Europe; then enabling…

I’ve seen many people struggling during lockdown when their WiFi goes down. In fact, in the UK, TalkTalk and Sky Broadband have seen some big issues with celebrities complaining and those who are vulnerable not only losing their internet access but also their telephone access during lockdown Christmas. Not good. It made me think about whether…

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…

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…

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…

We talk a lot about Big Tech moving into big banking … but then we have talked about that for years. Now, with the revamped strategy for Google towards payments and finance, is Big Tech finally making its move into big banking? If you didn’t catch the announcements, here’s the gist of it. Google will…

It’s 2020 and, since I was born in 19-whenever it was, I cannot think of a more challenging year. We are being forced to isolate, stay indoors, go nowhere and stay well. As I’ve blogged a few times, that’s good news for digital but bad news for humanity. I think this year has really brought…