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I live at Buckingham Palace but am secretly a Russian launderer

Building on yesterday’s blog about onboarding me as a client based in Buckingham Palace – or was that 10 Downing Street? – there is some interesting reporting about Revolut. Why haven’t they got their UK credit license sorted? After several years of discussion with the regulators, they finally got the green light to launch a…

Designing our next banknotes: Notey McNoteFace?

The Bank of England launched a platform yesterday for anyone to suggest who should be on Britain’s next generation of banknotes. Here’s the verbatim: As we begin to design the next series of banknotes, we invite you to share your views on potential themes. Our banknotes have celebrated notable historical figures since 1970, when William Shakespeare…

Is fintech young or old?

I just received the latest World Economic Forum’s Future of Fintech report so, here’s a summary: The fintech industry is transitioning from rapid expansion into a phase of sustainable growth, increased collaboration and broader market reach. The fintech sector is experiencing a customer growth rate of 37% from 2022-2023, down from 55% in 2020-2021 reflecting a…

Is AI making us stupid?

Catching a new report from MIT, there are clear indications that AI is making us stupid. We no longer internalise data and detail, we delegate it. The fact that the Alpha Gen can get all their school reports written by robots and teachers cannot tell the difference, is evidence that this is the way we…

Are you fit to lead your bank if you don’t understand tech?

I would love to walk into a bank’s boardroom with my opening slide explaining: “Step confidently into the future of Web3 with Zond, a quantum-resistant Layer-1 blockchain* engineered to transcend today’s security limitations and safeguard your dApps, from DeFi protocols to NFT marketplaces, while powering the next generation of smart contracts in tomorrow’s digital economy.”…

A Utopian or Dystopian future?

I often write about Trekonomics, and how our future world might play out based upon a Utopian or Dystopian future. In a Utopian future, Gene Rodenberry – the creator of Star Trek – envisaged humans exploring space to improve humanity. Star Trek is a Utopian future without money, where people trade on the basis of…

Our Sentient Future

Ten years ago, I was honoured to be invited to the Next Web conference in the Netherlands where I delivered a keynote about sentient banking. The idea is that the bank knows more about your lifestyle and living than you or your partner does. A decade later, thanks to Agentic AI and imminent AGI, we…

CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto: which will win?

I’m discussing a lot about digital currencies these days, and the future of CBDCs, Stablecoins and Crypto. The conversation generally goes along the lines of central banks issuing digital currencies is really unnecessary. No one wants them and no one trusts them. The whole thing is just a scam for governments to track and trace…

Elon Musk’s dream of life in 2100 might be your nightmare

The year is 2100. Earth is still here, but the Elon Musk vision is now delivered. What is that vision? Read on … Earth in 2100 is a place of automation. Everything is connected. Robots are everywhere. Self-driving aeroplanes and cars move goods and services. More than this, the world is run on a network….

What economy would machines create?

We talk a lot about AI these days or, as some call it, A1 or Al (yes, Betty, when you call me, you can call me Al) and we have now moved on to other terms including Generative AI, Agentic AI and AGI which stands for Artificial General Intelligence. The thing is that these terms…

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