David Birch
Dave is Director of Consult Hyperion, the secure electronic transactions consultancy and is an internationally-recognised thought leader in digital identity and digital money. Named in Wired magazine’s global top 15 favourite sources of business information; rated one of the NextBank “Fintech Titans”; voted one of the European “Power 50” people in digital financial services and ranked Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments.
The future of cryptocurrency for banks could be as a settlement money that connects other different monies. The big question is whether this is this a role for Bitcoin specifically? My old friend Alistair Milne recently published a very interesting paper on Cryptocurrencies from an Austrian Perspective (SSRN, 12th April 2017) in which he explores the use of new […]
At the CSFI’s April “Fintech for Breakfast”, which was kindly hosted by the law firm Denton’s, an interesting topic popped up in discussion about Bitcoin. I’ll come back to precisely what the discussion was later on, but at this point I just want to note that it involved a core issue that often wanders into […]
I’m not sure if you’re supposed to have a favourite supply chain fraud or not but I do, and it is the famous case of the vegetable oil that almost bankrupted American Express (and went some way toward making Warren Buffet a multi-billionaire). The essence of the story is that a conman, Anthony “Tino” De Angelis, discovered […]
A few people forwarded a link from Time Out to me last week, calling attention to a new payment mechanism using a new biometric identification technology to effect retail payments in a new way. The latest in contactless payment – called Fingopay – uses a bartop scanner and allows customers to introduce their index finger […]
A funny thing happened on the way to Merchant Payment Ecosystem in Berlin. Three funny things, actually. I tried to use an app to buy something on the way and I got a message saying “transaction failed”. It didn’t tell me why. I’m sure the service provider didn’t know either, as they just got a […]
Well, I’m just back from Oslo where it was a balmy -4 during the Oslo Fintech Fest. The nice people organising this little get-together of a almost a thousand close friends asked me along to give a short talk on the next ten years of Fintech and since some of Consult Hyperion’s favourite Nordic clients […]
The new administrations in the UK and USA are apparently planning to work together to create a new transatlantic America First / Buy British trade alliance. This will, it seems, include financial services. A deal to reduce barriers between American and British banks through a new “passporting” system was being considered by Mr Trump’s team […]
Down at the PayExpo Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in Dubai this year, I saw an excellent presentation from Uber India. One of the most interesting things I learned was that because most Indian Uber rides are paid for in cash, the Modi government’s radical experiment in currency reform hit them hard. As cash vanished […]
I love the BBC’s Money Box programme with Paul Lewis and I listen to it every week. A recent episode included what, I’m afraid, has become an all-too-familiar story. Paul Lewis hears from a listener who built up savings of £180,000 over more than ten years in business, only to have it all stolen from […]
I expect that most of you will by now have read a fair bit about the (to my mind) fabulous living monetary experiment that is India. Obviously, I feel sorry for people who have been (to put it mildly) inconvenienced by the chaos caused by the removal of 85% of the currency “in circulation” in […]
Recent Comments