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Card market reform means non-card opportunities
I’m in Frankfurt for the annual PayComm MEETS Europe, my chance to catch up with practitioners from the continental card markets. It’s really hard to keep up with all of the change in the market,...
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Putting “identity” on the “blockchain”. Part 1: Find a problem
I have to give a presentation about putting identity on the blockchain, even though no-one seems entirely clear what “identity” means or, for that matter, what “blockchain” means. So I thought I’d try...
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Putting “identity” on the “blockchain”. Part 2: Create an identity model
I’m continuing my week of thinking out loud about identity on the blockchain. In Part 1, we came up with a real problem that needs fixing and explored the idea of a financial services passport. In Part...
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Putting “identity” on the “blockchain”. Part 3: Define the transactions
Now onto part three of our week of thinking out loud about putting identity on the blockchain. In part one we found a problem that could be solved using some kind of identity infrastructure. In part...
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Putting “identity” on the “blockchain”. Part 4: Create a ledger of transactions
Okay let’s continue the experiment of thinking out loud about putting “identity” on the “blockchain”. Just to recap, in Part One we identified a specific identity problem that might be solved using...
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There you go bringing class into it again
Cash continues to dwindle in the UK, albeit slowly. No-one really needs it any more, except to pay people smugglers, although I suppose it might find a niche amongst hipster nostalgics sort of like...
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Facing the facts
I always have a lovely time in Sydney, one of my favourite places in the whole world, and I had a particularly lovely time down there last month at the Biometrics Institute Asia-Pacific conference at...
View ArticleThe Bavarian Savings Bank Association and large-denomination banknotes
The European Central Bank (ECB) interest rate for bank deposits is currently minus 0.4% and economic theory would predict that at a minus rate, depositors (and this includes companies as well as banks...
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Identity and inclusion, an ongoing case study
America is a strange country to foreigner such as myself. And one thing that is particularly strange about it is the constant demand for identification in a society that lacks an identity...
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Tired: Banks that store money. Wired: Banks that store identity
Speaking at the Dutch National Blockchain Conference back in June, I remarked in passing that I thought bank customers would be storing their money (their wealth) in all sorts of places in the future –...
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1966 and all that
Ah, 1966. Back to a time when Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup and the Mini Cooper and Mini Skirt were the vanguard of a new pop culture. The French were in the Common Market and we weren’t. Remember...
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A legacy of transparency
Well, the paper that Richard Brown of R3, my colleague Salome Parulava and I put together what seems like an age ago (a year is a long time in fintech) has finally been published! Hurrah! Here’s the...
View ArticleProving Age Online Is About to Get A Whole Lot Simpler
xxx In practice, a consumer will choose from a list of Age-Check Service Providers unless age-checking is integrated into the payment process. From Proving Age Online Is About to Get A Whole Lot...
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Taking the cash out of a pop festival (literally)
A lovely story of Caledonian crime dropped in through the interweb tubes this weekend. It must have taken some balls to do it, so I have sneaking admiration for the ne’erdowells behind this one. A cash...
View ArticleSharing ledgers
Like many of you I am sure I never miss The Economist “Money Talks” podcast, which is how come I happened to hear about the bankruptcy of an Indian airline. A first glance a normal, run of the mill...
View ArticleInclusion, identity and privacy
Financial inclusion is necessarily built on a foundation of customer identity, but the rush to inclusion and the consequent focus on mass registration in many countries has placed at risk the citizens’...
View ArticleCryptocentralbankdigitalcurrency, or something similar
In the speech that the Governor of the Bank of England eh, Mark Carney, didn’t give to the Mansion House in June he devoted some considerable time to the general topic of shared ledger technology, even...
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Enough with the “Britcoin” already!
Yesterday we were chatting about the Governor of the Bank of England’s comments about central bank digital currency. I said I thought this was a good thing. Other people think the same. The new...
View ArticleUK account switching a “complete waste of time” redux
OK. I know this is going to annoy some people that I like and respect. But I do firmly believe you can disagree with integrity without dissing those on the other side of the argument. So. Let’s talk...
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