Frontier Tech Radio

At the close of the Bank of England's consultation on the Digital Pound Barry interviews Danny Kruger MP, of the UK Parliament's Treasury Select Committee, who oversee the project, discussed the deep implications of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) on financial stability and liberty. While Danny expressed concerns about the potential negative effects, he acknowledged that he and his colleagues on the Treasury Select Committee were not experts on the topic and that there was a general perception that CBDCs were a natural evolution of the digital revolution. Barry and Danny discussed the need for serious consideration at the legislative level regarding the introduction of a digital pound, as it could have implications for financial and economic stability. They also expressed concern about the lack of public engagement from the Bank of England's consultation and emphasized the importance of government and parliament's role in making decisions about the use of a digital pound. Danny and Barry discussed the potential risks and dangers of a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). They also discussed the need for greater attention and a new institution to ensure transparency and accountability in the use of CBDCs - the potential benefits of a digital money commissioner, with Danny saying "Yes, I do. I think that is a good suggestion, a digital commissioner of some sort" Danny congratulated Barry on raising the debate and they talked about working together to continue raising the debate towards creating the needed structures and safeguards for the future. Quotes include: "China is going full ahead. That in itself should cause us to pause and think about what we're doing." Q. James: “This seems to me something akin to rewriting part of a constitution, in the sense that it will live with us for generations to come. Do you feel that the Treasury Select Committee is… replete [with all it needs]? Kruger: No, not to approach the topic in that sense. No, definitely not. Nor should it be. I mean, if it's a constitutional question, that's not for the Treasury Select Committee. They're particularly focused on the Treasury's remit, which is to grow the economy, and to maintain  stability and so on.” "We need to remain at the cutting edge of financial technology and market developments [but…]  “The UK should not adopt a digital currency simply because other nations are doing so." "The case for a retail CBDC, in answer to your question, I don't think has yet been made. It does have the sense of a solution looking for a problem." “There's a financial stability question. And then the other [that's] more obvious and pertinent is liberty. What does it mean for you and me if we are being encouraged, or at what points does it become required, to hold our wealth in this new form?  And what powers does government have to oversee these transactions? “Obviously they [governments] make a strong case that they wouldn't assume that power. But once the technology exists you can see the way that a crisis comes along, as it did for the Canadian government when they were besieged in Ottawa by a lot of angry anti-COVID truckers, they reach for the levers that are available to them.” These technical, technological, innovations are not neutral… By creating the thing, you put the country on a path to making use of it… But fundamentally it'll be for Parliament, not even government, [to decide] because Parliament would have to pass legislation for this… and I worry that we don't have the political culture and that we're not asking the right questions at the moment to ensure that that's what happens. “You also need distribution and individual liberty. And it might be that, as you suggest, some sort of statutory commissioner who has some meaningful sort of agency in the world of information and financial information could be the necessary stabilising influence [providing] the sense of security that the system needs so we can have a more genuinely distributed arrangement whereby people might well be holding their wealth in these innovative different forms” They said to us the introduction of a digital pound will not, in itself, increase the reduction in the use of cash when, of course, it will. It's unthinkable that it wouldn't. This will further squeeze cash out of the system. "It's unthinkable that it wouldn't. This will further squeeze cash out of the system." -

Summary Jasmine and Barry discussed the Bank of England's consultation on creating a digital pound. Jasmine expressed her concerns about central bank digital currencies, stating that they allow for too much control and monitoring by the government. Barry and Jasmine discussed the differences between cryptocurrencies and central bank digital currencies, with Jasmine expressing concerns about the centralized nature of CBDCs and the potential for government control over people's finances. They also talked about the impact of taxation on small businesses and the extractive nature of the economy. Jasmine and Barry discussed the potential risks and benefits of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and how they have been implemented in different countries. They also talked about the possibility of abuse of power and loss of control for individuals once CBDCs become the only form of currency. Barry and Jasmine discussed the lack of media coverage on the restriction of access to cash in Nigeria and the potential dangers of CBDCs in terms of data privacy and inequality. They also expressed concern about the mainstream media's reluctance to report on alternative views and the need for more protests to protect individual freedoms. Barry and Jasmine discussed the potential implementation of CBDCs and the impact it could have on society. Jasmine suggested using cash, investing in gold and cryptocurrencies, and not keeping too much money in bank accounts. Barry and Jasmine discussed various alternative options to traditional banking and currency, including Tally Money, a gold-backed bank account and payment card. They also talked about potential collaborations in the future.   Join us at the event: The Great Digital Pound Debate: Do We Need It, Is it Safe or Is It Great?Thu, Jun 1, 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM BST https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7066732162867154946/ 

Barry talks to David Palmer, Blockchain Lead at Vodaphone and  Jamiel Sheikh, Founder & CEO of Chainhaus - a leading advisory, education, events and app studio about the rapid rise of DeFi and the advent of 'Central Bank Digital Currencies' in the week that the Bank of England announced its digital Pound project - closely following the digital Euro. Jamiel Sheikh reveals the activities of central banks around the world and talks about the coming digital battles he sees to establish DeFi - decentralised finance.

In this fascinating conversation with David Palmer, a visionary, who is also the blockchain lead for Vodafone, we range widely across digital transformation, including the fact that we're all increasingly cyborgs living in a digital, as well as physical environment. The potential to increase human joy and human creativity through digital transformation, based on blockchain and DeFi, and the future at not just government level, but at every level, including the future of democracy, and of finance.

So, today we interview. Finexos, the winners of the fair finance hackathon about their solution to the mountain of stress and distress already at a peak before the pandemic and the mental health crisis it is driving. And what can be done. President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists Dr Adrian James has predicted: "there is going to be a big surge – we refer to it as a tsunami – of mental illness as a result of the pandemic". Meanwhile according to the FCA 26 million people in the UK showing signs of difficulty in terms of their finances - via an an analysis of bank accounts. "So this is a massive problem. There's £450 billion of unsecured debt out there, where individuals in the UK are reliant on high interest revolving credit, just to meet day to day finances. So our challenge is to disrupt that circle of high interest, low disposable income - and so stress on the individual mental health." Says Steven Bone, chair of Finexos. As he points out this situation fundamentally bad for society - as UK poverty and the poverty trap is growing driving poverty, financial stress and anxiety. Pre pandemic over 20% of the UK population was in Poverty with 14.9 million consumers now behind on their bills and 5.7 million people in receipt of Universal Credit - many using food banks due to the cost of repaying debt. So our 'safety net' has been so shredded that many have no choice other than the high cost lenders. We talk about the five years of development to create an innovative fintech platform that can help people not just by ensuring their finances become more controllable and intuitive, but that they have support and better alternatives too. And the new solutions coming in the first half of 2021 - not a moment too soon!   Watch the video interview at https://youtu.be/XTHrpDoGUko  See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network. 

What has gone wrong with capitalism? It seems it has taken a wrong turn. But how? Staring at the scenes of the redundant workers leaving Lehman Brothers in 2008 – followed by all the subsequent carnage - started, for me, a decade of thinking and research and that's yet to complete -seeking Humane Economics. Like millions of other people I knew then, in my gut, that something had gone wrong. That we're working harder and longer – yet increasingly ordinary people have trouble making ends meet, and many more live in fear that their jobs could disappear at any moment. The anger over the bank bailouts was palpable. And it's not going away. My guest today is Les Leopold, his book Runaway Inequality was, for me, something of a revelation not only putting flesh onto the bones I have been discovering but giving scale to the enormity of the situation we find ourselves in post COVID. Because he not only documents, from public sources, how this inequality has been growing since the 1980s, but how that it continues to accelerate to this day – and why. He also lays bare the mechanisms that explain why the assumption that market forces will reassert balance has proved to be wrong. The mechanisms behind the accelerating inequalities that means that in that time the average CEO has moved from being able to own the equivalent of 45 homes, and his workers 1, to being able to own the equivalent of 829 – while his workers increasingly have little or no chance of own one. That last statistic – the ‘Generation Rent’ one – is the most crucial one of course! Condemning a generation to a lifetime of housing and financial insecurity, given that, due to this process of financialisaton, rents continue to level-up consuming all available income, making saving near impossible. The book explains not only why capitalism is out of balance but also will continue to accelerate inequality. Until we do something about it! You can find his book at https://runawayinequality.org/buy-the-book/  Watch the video interview at https://youtu.be/HyVUqi1sFwA  See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network.   

In this episode we will be talking to another big-thinker: Andy Wilkins, founder of Vision4Health about the future of health and health services post Covid. Working with leaders in the field his vision is of a revitalised service that, turned on its head, wraps itself around us as people (rather than patients) rather than, as now, the other way around. That becomes a part of our day to day environment rather than something we visit when unwell – and can detect the warning signs before that happens. The convergence of machine learning and AI, genomics, big data analytics and the internet of things are creating a new context enabling personalised medicine - as a service. Andy's research is looking forward 10 to 15 years and using systems thinking to create a new vision. “There're huge opportunities to sort of hack disease [with] the net result of a population able to spend more time living well... more active and productive, and creative at work. So this will feed through to the economy. And also it has the potential to reduce the demand on a current health and care service, which is inexorably moving higher in terms of costs than the economy can afford. Because at the moment, we're not very effective at looking after people. This really turns everything upside down... a really exciting vision for the future.” We also touch on what might happen if we do not grab the myriad opportunities – such as the disintermediation of public healthcare by silicon valley tech companies. We touch on ‘Valuism’ (a subject for a later interview with its founder, Paul Barnett) in a world where money dominates the Neo-liberal era, where maximising shareholder value has become “not only a culture but a fiduciary duty” and the economy and society is measured primarily by GDP – the economy comes first and everything comes second. Thus financialising almost every aspect of life. But that way of thinking creates externalities, whether it's polluting the environment damaging the ozone layer or global warming - things which historically been ‘off balance sheet’ - not accounted for in our economics... We are now seeing these ‘externalities’ coming back to haunt us because we live in a finite world with finite resources, which we can't exploit forever.... Watch the video interview at https://youtu.be/y1V1LgvGiRk  See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network. 

Professor Ronald MacDonald is a Research Professor in Macroeconomics and International Finance in the Adam Smith Business School at the University of Glasgow. His previous positions at the University were Bonar Macfie Chair of Economics (2005-2006), and the Adam Smith Chair of Political Economy (2006-2015). He has consistently ranked in the top 1% of the IDEAS/RePec ranking of economists, and was awarded an OBE in 2015 for services to Economic Policy. We discuss his report: 'The Post Pandemic New Normal' and it's follow-up calling for a rethink about the UK economy post-covid and discuss his insights and prescription for the #CovidSpring that show some marked similarities to some of the conclusions of humane economics. Including the need to “move away from the shareholder capitalism model” based on “short-termism and value extraction” to a “stakeholder model based on value creation” and discover that while there are string signs that some business leaders are moving in this direction that this is not being reflected in university teaching. Other key points include: We need to reboot the banking sector so it helps industry and business create jobs Recalibrating the economy so it’s fairer for ordinary workers. GDP - why it's bad for us and what are the alternatives? The need for “a new form of social contract " as we move out of the pandemic. The government should “instigate a wellbeing fiscal stimulus… that has a major focus on greening the economy”. That also means “no return to austerity policies” Let's... spare the economy from mass unemployment and guide it on a path to a New Normal What might the #NewNormal look like? What are the alternatives / what happens if we carry on as we are? Prof. McDonald explains the asset management has made the economy very much focused on value extraction and rent seeking rather than value creation and that this has been hugely detrimental to the UK economy, having led to short-termism in investment and failure in the UK economy including in the banking sector and finance. Where policymakers have previously thought that the shift to finance, as the basis of the economy was a good thing. It's now clearly evident that this is a dead end and we're seeing a movement away from shareholder capitalism and towards stakeholder capitalism – but without this being reflected in university teaching. Meanwhile the pandemic is opening minds and allowing people to reprioritize and think about what kind of society we want. More on Prof. MacDonald's work is here: https://policyscotland.gla.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/PSPostPandemicNewNormalRonaldMacDonald.pdf & https://policyscotland.gla.ac.uk/this-time-it-has-to-be-different/  and a useful summary here: https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/18531122.revolutionary-new-vision-post-covid-scottish-economy/  Watch the video interview at https://youtu.be/QgHqZJLzqqE  See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network. 

Before we get fully into gear to explore the #CovidSpring and so the future let's take a glance at the past and the present Covid Winter with a look at the effects of predatory capitalism unleashed via the ongoing story of the Mortgage Prisoners. This is an extraordinary story of the toxic economics we have in action involving the FCA, the British government selling British citizens into a form of modern slavery, trapped with their abusers, who behave without balance or restraint threatening financial ruin and visiting ill heath, mental and physical, on their 'customers' via an as yet unclosed loophole in the law. Despite censure over years culminating in a recent report from the London School of Economics the government continues to evade its clear responsibility to the 250,000 plus mortgage holders (according to the FCA and LSE - more according to many other) - plus family members, with no sign of relief or redress in sight. You can read more about the experience of the Mortgage Prisoners at UKMortgagePrisoners.com Worse still the 'loophole' that allows mortgage holders to be effectively stripped of their rights for profit has, astonishingly, yet to be closed or even assurances forthcoming in the face of credible reports that the very same predators are on the prowl again with millions more British bank customers in their sights.   Watch the video at https://youtu.be/8GXN7xvN1u0  See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network.   

Welcome to the #CovidSpring series in which we look through the Covid winter, which we are now enduring, to the coming spring beyond the crisis and harness some of the world's finest minds to together think about what kind of world we want to create. What kind of world we want and need - in search of humane economics. We'll be asking the question: Why is how did our economy become so toxic? Why do we have a plague of crises ranging from climate change and diversity loss through runaway inequality and insecurity that has impoverished millions of people - adding millions more people year on year? To the pandemic itself, and why we failed to take the measures we knew were necessary? Looking to what all these crises have in common - the roots. The mechanisms that have brought this about - around the world. We'll be asking what we need to do to create a more Humane Economics. In the #CovidSpring. Before we dive into that, right at the start, we'll look be taking a look at the reality of international predatory capitalism right now. An aspect of the current emergency that threatens to throw hundreds of thousands of Brits into the arms of the most predatory of Wall Street capitalists.   Watch the video at https://youtu.be/ZDUbQCwNf4Y See HumaneEconomics.co for more and to join the linear-conference and network. 

As the masterclass moved online... Dan Green and Sarah Beaumont from Baker Botts explore cryptoassets and stablecoins. Maria Graza Vigliotti talking about her recently launched book - “Executive Guide to Blockchain”- using Smart Contracts and Digital Currencies in your Business. Taweh Beysolow II, Aludra Capital’s chief data scientist, joining us from San Francisco to discuss: How Artificial Intelligence can enhance Digital Asset Investment Strategies.  

What if Libra Was LiveToday? The world was in a different kind of uproar for months after Facebook and their alliance announced Libra. Then it was that senators were foaming at the mouth and it was the central banks that came close to rioting. Amid similar Trump-inspired scenes of protest on the streets of some of the cities of America today what if Libra now existed after all, quietly in some lab somewhere? Well it does – not in a lab but ‘out in the wild’, on thousands of mobile phones downloaded from the app stores. The Strange, but true, story of Moneybrain BiPS This is the strange, but true, story of Moneybrain BiPS. Conceived in England’s, Alderley Edge well before Libra had been heard of by a company regulated by the FCA, but with precisely the same structure and legal underpinnings as Libra itself – including a foundation: the BiPS Foundation.

Today, mid covid-crisis and with banks under increasing criticism I interview Lee Birkett, founder and CEO of P2P platform JustUs who today wrote to the UK Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Business Secretary, asking they open the doors to #Fintech so that business can be helped now, when it's most needed, rather than in a month or two's time - and  too late for many businesses.   Banks don't want competition but in a crisis it's all hands to the pumps and fintech has come together and can deliver at scale and in time to keep business is alive.   It's time for the banks lobbyists to stand aside and allow fintech to do the job that they cannot.   Please:   1. Sign the Petition 2. Join the LinkedIn Group 3. Read, like and share Lee Birkett's  open letter to the PM 

A HiveMind Explores the #NewNormal #BeyondCovid2020   On the 20th of March 2020 life in the UK changed forever when the government, a conservative government to boot, created a safety net for the population as well as for businesses and began to pay the wages of a significant proportion of the population for the duration of the crisis. Around the world the coronavirus is disrupting at least this deeply in many places.   The way forward looks difficult, challenging. But what is also clear is that there is no way back. The definition of normal is suspended. For how many months - we do not know? Initially 3 but it could be 6, 9, 12 or 18. No one really knows.   All we can say for certain right now is the definition of normal will never be the same again. Whenever that day comes we will still be grappling with climate change and many of the other forces we were grappling with before. But there will be a new normal.   Earlier in the week on a day when I had had a stream of phone calls from people asking me for, or offering me, ideas about all this, some of the best minds in the country and across the world, I had just decided it was probably time for the next in the series of #GreatDebates when my friends from Fifth9 rang (have you noticed how many more phone calls rather than emails were all now getting) to suggest much the same thing.   So it was that's on on the afternoon of March 20th as the prime minister and Chancellor we're preparing to lay out their ground shifting plan to support the nation, it's businesses and people, through the next year that I gathered, electronically of course, together a team of expert thinkers who have already proven an ability to explore the future.   Kate Baucherel is a writer and acclaimed novelist, an experienced finance professional and thought leader in the blockchain space. Her books include the recently published "Blockchain Hurricane.”   Johnny Fry is a denizen of the city and money markets and knows more about what's happening in crypto and blockchain then almost anyone - partly because for the last 2 years he has been producing a weekly report called digital bytes analysing what's happening around the world.   Yakeen Prabdial is a partner at Fifth9, that is helping lead the mobile telecoms world, on which we all now all rely, increasingly so in these times, into the 5G future and beyond.   And Lee Birkett, who is CEO and founder of MoneyBrain (who have created BiPS) and the JustUs P2P lending platform is one of the UK's leading exponents of fintech for the people - including the revolutionary #PeopleMortgage, and champion of #FairerFinance   Jonny Fry launched us off by painting a chilling picture of the present and recent past, with us all - governments and people - in denial of the fact that the world is awash with debt and close to drowning, the levers of the economy no longer working, with interest rates now negative in many places and close to that in others and money being printed at an alarming rate so as to raise the spectre of hyperinflation ala the Weimar Republic, and more recently Mugabe's Zimbabwe. Followed by this hammer blow - raising the question as to whether it might survive.   So I started by asking Lee and the panel "is it really that bad? And what comes next?   The answers were revealing!   The barriers to 'digital' are already falling all around us - including adoption by the elderly, and soon. of digital identity.   People are already 'working from home' in unprecedented numbers and this is about to mushroom - as those who did not think they could, discover otherwise. Nor are many of them going back - so creating a potentially massive slump in demand for transport and especially office space and nowhere more so than in London.   It's long been said that London is another country with different mores and that too has been apparent with cafes, pubs and High Street's more generally all but deserted around the country for the last few days while they continue to heave in Central London - necessitating the imposition of laws to close them.   Digital medicine is taking off like a rocket with online consultations now the norm.   And connectivity, broadband and beyond, has become the fourth utility.   Before long we may all have an official government provided digital wallet into which may be deposited food tokens, on a use it or lose It basis, as a better delivery mechanism than money into bank accounts. TA precursor to the introduction of the digital pound perhaps?   Meanwhile necessity being the mother of invention, as in the second world war and the aircraft industry, innovation will be accelerated rather than the reverse.   The meaning and nature of social media will also change.   Now that "We're All In This Together" perhaps they will be room to challenge the idea and attitude that's for four decades has brought us to this point... That "Greed is good".   I certainly hope so.

Surrey University have launched an exciting new crowdfunding initiative in concert with the local council and local charities. Surrey's crowdfunding platform Gaggle Connect is hosting a raft of campaigns including one to expand the 'Library of Things' service - which brings a new dimension to the sharing economy. Barry talks to Jim Sears who is programme Director MSc in Entrepreneurship & Innovation & Senior Teaching Fellow in Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Together with Helen Leech from Surrey library service - who run one of the growing number of LoT services and Benz Thanida a student running their campaign.   Could this be a pattern for the future of Crowdfunding and the Sharing Economy?  

SignOnTheGo is a new Blockchain-Based e-Signature Platform designed for ease of use by SME's and individuals. Bringing simplicity to a service previously only available at a high cost to corporates. Currently crowdfunding on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/signonthego/signonthego-blockchain-based-e-signature-platform

This episode covers. The team blockchain. Masterclass for February, held on the 17th of February. Where I talk with Anthony Abell. Director and co-founder of Trust Me and T-P X about the property exchanges due to launch this year, which will revolutionise the ownership of property by making it liquid. Amongst other things, it will allow equity release on a much fairer basis and will help to power a whole new market by releasing liquidity around the world.  I talk also to Ferry Tilekens, who is working with a various groups, including government, in the Netherlands to work out the wrinkles in tokenization and normalise it for the economy. There's a huge educational aspect to this, as well as working on the taxonomy.  Finally, John Small, a programmer with over far 35 years experience in finance, supply chains and media and a deep understanding of mathematics and physics, which he brings to the blockchain world with a new insight and a project to go with it - to create something beyond blockchains that you might call a block-lattice with many advantages - especially or high volume use cases were adaptability and simplicity are at a premium. Could this be Blockchain 2.00 [00:01:38][0.0]

Barry E James & Jonny Fry talk with Vy Pettit of Vizidox, Phil Cambell of Pepo and Bridget Greenwood from The Bigger Pie

December's TeamBlockchain Masterclass is an eclectic mix with lawyer Charley Kerrigan, who played a role in a milestone-making report that confirms the backing of English law for crypto-assets, digital signatures and smart contracts. Technologist Hock Law, CEO of Ethernom talks about a computer on a credit-card hosting a crypto-wallet while Bob Booth of IBM about adoption of Blockchain. Richard Ells Founder at Electroneum, the cryptocurrency that's up and running in multiple countries and coming the Europe soon and Petr Stransky of icieba.com who is working to bring justice to SME's who often just can't afford to litigate even while suffering grave injustices.

BiPS are breaking new ground streets ahead of Libra and the field and I speak with CEO Lee Birkett about the latest from Moneybrain. With Liliana Reasor founder of SupraFin about opening investing & diversification to all & On Yavin about the Cointelligence Academy - which is now open & free!

BBFTA cofounder Dr Jane Thomason addressed this months meeting of Commonwealth Finance Ministers in Washington DC, presenting a paper on #Blockchain and Sovereign Debt.   She discussed the potential and benefits including cutting out 10 intermediaries and moving Sovereign Debt transactions from 5 days to 5 seconds.   Already the pilot has a secondary market created and boosted transparency and accessibility with a resultant reduction of risk - as smart contracts encode regulation to ensure rules are followed. SPECIAL OFFER: GET 50% DISCOUNT ON TICKETS FOR Digital Impact Week 2019 - London - https://digitalimpactweek2019.eventbrite.co.uk/?discount=bbfta50

Tom Mason is Koodoo's Technical Director, a tech entrepreneur, technical architect and business strategist. In 2008 Tom founded the software agency YouSoft, providing award-winning development services to best-in-class firms, including Porsche and Mercedes. Koodoo is a global equity crowdfunding platform connecting conscious investors and impact focused entrepreneurs, that unlocks the value of the blockchain to enable positive change for people and planet. Koodoo aims to democratise equity investment on a global level, enabling anyone to become a changemaker, whether you’re a startup from Shoreditch making ethical fashion accessible, a company from Kenya empowering off-grid citizens with a recognised location so they can open a bank account, an everyday investor in Holland who believes in the clean meat revolution looking to invest £20 into Cellular Agriculture, or a professional investor from South Africa looking to diversify their portfolio into impact investing. Title: “The blockchain to power frictionless, global financing for social impact businesses.” Chris Luck is a Corporate Partner in the CMS Funds and Indirect Real Assets team. His main focus is in the real assets and financial sectors for UK and International clients. He advises fund managers, investors, including for investment in technology, and also advises on REITs, stock market matters and M&A activity. Chris works with and participates in industry bodies on matters such as the Alternative Investment Fund Managers' Directive (AIFMD). He is leading the CMS Funds Group initiatives on the impact of AI & Technology in the Funds sector including tokenisation and its potential. Charlie Morris - Chief Strategist at Atlantic House Fund Management. Previously, he was the Chief Investment Officer at Newscape from 2016 to 2018 and the Head of Absolute Return at HSBC Global Asset Management. He specialises in multi-asset investing and is well known for his views on gold. In other roles, Charlie is the editor of the Fleet Street Letter (est 1938) and the Chairman and founder of ByteTree.com; a leading data provider within the crypto market, that enables real-time fundamental network analysis. Charlie shares experiences of the crypto market and what first caught his eye in 2013. Comparing crypto to other traditional asset classes, with an overview of the key ByteTree metrics, that enable the network to be measured and the coins to be valued. He founded ByteTree to enable other professional investors to make rational, and compliant, decisions so that this new asset class can enter the mainstream. Preparing crypto for the old world will be crucial for its continued success. Ross McCall from Aberdeen Standard Investments, a global asset manager with combined AUM of c.€562bn and 48 office locations globally (as at 31 December 2018), is a structuring advisor in the Global Private Markets and Real Estate Structuring team. He acts as relationship manager to ASI’s c.€45bn (as at 31 March 2019) Real Estate business and also works closely with ASI’s Commercial Real Estate Lending team. Ross’ responsibilities include supporting the development, structuring, launch and life cycle events of the Real Estate business’ funds, clubs and joint-ventures from inception through to liquidation. He is also heavily involved in the work that Aberdeen Standard Investments is undertaking on digital assets in the Private Markets and Real Estate space.  

Frontier Insights are a weekly analysis of the latest advances and setbacks, use cases and major case studies and game changers in frontier tech. Published weekly to BBFTA.org members - here're this weeks highlights: How Blockchain technology is being used by vehicle manufacturers Central Banks digital currencies - Just a matter of time Generating income from exposure to Crypto SEC places a restraining order on one of the worlds’ biggest Cryptos Digital Assets in the property sector Governments to accept Digital Assets to pay citizens tax Get all the latest Frontier Insights at https://bbfta.org/insights

On the fringe of TeamBlockchain's September Blockchain Masterclass Barry interviews the speakers: Sean Kiernan. CEO and cofounder of DAG Global - the first UK bank created precisely to serve the blockchain and digital assets space - while all the other banks seem to be running in the opposite direction. Not only that this new breed of bank recognises the needs of SMEs in the UK k.and, seeing how underserved they are, aims to serve them too Dr Stephen Castell about developments in the world of blockchain over the last year - including changes in the way ICOs are run and the due diligence and legal processes that're developing around this and tokenisation. Not least the challenges of applying law conceived in a pre-digital age to decentralized systems and ecosystems. Who takes the blame when something goes wrong? Which leads me nicely into a conversation with... Henry Burrows. cofounder of Alaco Analytics who travels the world performing due diligence on crypto assets and the companies behind them - while rubbing shoulders with the odd spook, who also inhabit this world, along the way.

Kicking off season two Barry talks to Jonny Fry, CEO of TeamBlockchain and cofounder of the BBFTA.org about how the global landscape has changed so very fast. First the shift in the zeitgeist resulting from Libra coin, backed by Facebook and a consortium including Mastercard and Visa - plus the spread of CBDCs (Central Bank Digital Currencies) - sometimes called "digital fiat currencies". Not least among them the People's Bank of China's announcement that they will lead the world with their own digital currency - set to rival, or surpass at a stroke, Libra. We touch on how a digital token could add 20% - 30% to the bottom line... and whether understanding and exploring this is part of director's fiduciary duties. Why BP created the VAKT - and then made it available to their competitors. How Louis Vuitton have done something similar. We explore how and why we now have negative rates - and what it all means.

Apple famously remade to music landscape - can this blockchain startup help to cut out the middlemen enable help musicians and artists to earn a living from their work? Nigel Rudlin is one of the cofounders of IndieOn.com - the blockchain startup that is seeking to remake the landscape for musicians and filmmakers.

This week, Barry E James speaks with Jonny Fry of Team Blockchain about Frontier Insights. Everyone is struggling to stay on top of the fast moving frontier of new technologies, especially Blockchain/DLT, AI and IoT. Every day there’s an incredible avalanche of stories published online, some fake and many more unreliable opinion or plain PR puff. There’s been nowhere to go to get concise, reliable, insightful and authoritative information. This is why Frontier Insights is essential - scanning the horizon for the latest significant developments, innovations and use cases. Barry and Jonny talk about what it is, what it covers and how to get hold of it:  bbfta.org/insights

'Blockchain Rookies' Explain Blockchain, Clearly, to Rookies (and others)   Saying that blockchain technology is the result of a paradigm shift while true is not much help in understanding it. In fact it just points to the difficulty for most people in understanding it.   People who can articulated advantages and explore its applications - especially with reference to a particular company or scenario - are still few and far between. Unfortunately much of the airwaves are filled with the noise of uninformed opinion.   So blockchain rookies come as something of a welcome relief, since, so the story goes - they're able to walk into a room full of the uninitiated and have them walk out with a clear understanding of at least the basics. What blockchain is and how it works.   So I challenged them to do just that!

We are now launching the first Association globally, the first network globally, for frontier Technologies But it's not just an Association for technologists at the Frontiers of AI, bots, robots, iot, autonomous vehicles, alternative reality, augmented reality, DLT and blockchain. Nor is it just for geeks in all the other emergent area a fintech and other sectors, or even those who are expert in more established Technologies. It goes wider than that because the Revolution we are now facing goes for wider than that. We know that technology can change our entire world, environment, because it happened already numerous times - and including in living memory with the internet and the World Wide Web This is accelerating is simply self-evident to anyone who's watching closely enough I think it's fair to say that last time the web took our Breath Away and caught us on the hop - we were victims the hype cycle, the.com boom and bust. I Irrational exuberance occasion by amazing technology followed by irrational disappointment because of the time it took for the dream to be realised That dream has been realised in spades - and it threatens to become a nightmare. It was Buckminster Fuller who taught us then we can choose to be Architects of or future rather than its victims. This time we need not just conscious capitalism but as we rebuild our world we need to be conscious of the world that we are building That world will be built on a backbone that we now understand and call variously blockchain or DLT. It will be made not just with those Technologies but also all of those other front here Technologies I mentioned earlier But what kind of world will it be? Who can tell us? Well - no one can!

London blockchain week has grown into one other major annual fixtures for the ecosystem.   Barry interviews founder Luis Carranza, about how came about, this year's highlights and a vision for the future, not to mention all the good reasons to join the community as part of this year's London blockchain week from February the 8th to the 14th   https://blockchainweek.com

Lee Birkett describes what just happened as a world first and for them something akin to landing a mission to Mars.   It's certainly hugely significant because this is the very thing that we were talking about with Mike Barrell the founder of the Security Tokens Realised conference: the tokenization onto the blockchain of regulated assets. In this case loan parts from properties, regulated by the FCA.   So how did one of the smaller regulated players, from the P2P market, get there first and break this new ground?   Well the fact is they were already ahead - because they were already able technologically and within the regulatory framework they worked so hard to construct to fractionalise traditional physical assets such as property and loans.   Adding blockchain technology and a token they've chosen to call BiPS is simply like throwing petrol on the fire.    As Mike Barrel put it last week this market is going to go quickly into the billions.   You can explore BiPS here: bips.Moneybrain.com   You can also read about the advent of BiPS in City AM here        

Tokens That’re Set to Take City by Storm? Security Tokens: Rising rapidly into the Billions? Security Token Offering (STO) investor Mike Barrell says that security tokens represent “a massive tidal wave of opportunity” for not just geeks but those in the city in 2019. Now he’s putting his money where his mouth is as the founder of next week's 'Security Tokens Realised' conference in the city, bringing together the leading minds in the field from the four corners of the planet. Inevitably ‘The New Normal’ He also believes it is inevitable that such token in their various forms, representing stocks, bonds and new instruments, will become a ‘New Normal’ for major banks, stock exchanges and the city – able to replace traditional equity,  bringing additional liquidity. “We're talking hundreds of millions which I think will quickly go to billions in terms of property portfolios and the tokenisation of existing funds for example.” If this sounds just like insupportable hype then think again. It's widely thought that 2019 will be the year of the Security Token, for good reasons. An increasing number of people see this as a natural progression not just for ICOs but for the mainstream too. Tokenising to Scale Of course there will be some of that, startups and early-stage companies seeking capital, but the vast majority of security tokens, he believes, will be completely different. And far easier to understand than all the ICO white papers and video pitches, because they will be coming from established companies. So they can be valued in established ways that are familiar to those versed in banking and private equity - without the need to understand blockchain, tokens, and tokenomics Adoption Will be Rapid…. Which is why, he says, adoption will not just be rapid and the pace rapacious but shortly the established banks and capital markets will have little choice but to dive-in simply because the commodities in which they need to invest will be available only as tokenised securities. A Turning Point in Financial Services The conference is certainly timely and promises to be a milestone, and possibly a  turning point, in the rapid development of tokens and the adoption of blockchain technology as the means of choice to keep account and track ownership. Fostering more fluidly than ever before, at minimal cost. Microscopic cost when compared with more familiar digital transactions, let alone paper (which many of those digital transactions just ape). An Inevitability? I asked Mike if this shift is really an inevitability?  "I think absolutely it's 100 percent inevitable." He says. "The train's left the station. It's happening, and the event will be absolutely packed. We have 35 different media outlets clamouring, all extremely interested - this is very, very hot. Because the market that's involved with security tokens will rapidly go to Billions". Why? "Direct ownership” means there aren't a lot of margins being skimmed off everywhere on each transaction. Plus the removal of most of the cost and friction also allows a kind of hyper-fluidity. "There are a lot of elements , not just one element at play here. There's liquidity, there's cost cutting, there's availability, there's access to assets that people can't currently invest in - including physical assets such as property and art. Plus it's a win-win thing; the person with the asset wins and the investor wins". It’s Happening Now If you’re in the city, says Mike “You need to learn about this and you need to be part of it because it's happening.”

Following three decades as an entrepreneur and eight or so years specialising in equity crowdfunding, today’s guest Oscar Jofre explains why he firmly believes 2019 will be the year of the Security Token. Along the way, he discusses his own lightbulb moment about the democratisation of capital during a speech given by former vice chairman of NASDAQ David Weild. He talks about the paradigm shift crowdfunding brought about in opening-up investment to those previously excluded - and then putting this on the internet. And about the work his own platform, KoreConx, is doing in bringing trust and compliance between all parties, as businesses - both new and established – turn to tokenisation to raise funds. As Oscar rightly says, crowdfunding was the start of all this. It allowed everyday people around the world the opportunity to participate in an early stage start-up; suddenly you didn’t have to be a high-net-worth individual paying huge fees to investment houses. He himself specialised in equity and debt crowdfunding as offering the most opportunity for disruption. Now, Oscar believes, tokenisation is going to take this to a new level. Whereas previously start-ups only thought friends and family would get involved, now it’s just as likely to be someone the other side of the world who likes your project. Blockchain as technology adds the trust element, so that when somebody makes an investment in a company, they know that what they’ve been provided in the transaction is rightfully theirs. And, moreover can offer the chance for trading that security on the secondary markets. In the world today there is over $500 trillion sitting in private companies, not able to move. How groundbreaking would it be if you were able to make that money move, to be used in other securities, to have that money actually moving to keep business flowing? KoreConx itself is a platform where companies can manage all of their capital market activity and stakeholder communications in one place, on the internet, without charge. And where for a fee, companies can also design and launch their own security token, tapping into the expert legal and marketing advice the platform offers, and using introductions via the trusted partner broker network to trade in different jurisdictions. And the exciting thing this offers is that established companies looking to raise funds no longer have to agonise about whether it’s the right time to sell, or to go public; now they can release funds by tokenising shares, which can themselves be traded without affecting the core business itself. His closing thought is that we are now, for the first time, seeing the most disruptive opportunity in the democratisation of capital. For the first time there’s the chance to raise capital through tokenisation, which itself offers investors the trust that when they own something, it is theirs; and they can go on to trade without any restriction, within local rules and regulations. And it further offers the chance for small-time investors to get involved through the fractionalisation of assets and businesses. This is a very disruptive and exciting time, of a type we’ve never seen before in financial Capital markets. 2019 will truly be a Happy New Year!

Scott Picken has been an entrepreneur since his teens, passionate both about property and technology and the wealth that they can and do create. He created Wealth Migrate as a global enterprise five years ago and this now boasts 20k members from 125 countries, $80m in equity and over $520m in total deal value.   More recently Blockchain technology struck him as a golden opportunity to move beyond what's possible with fiat currencies alone and the mission now is it lower the cost of investing while making it universally available - from  $1 per person, per transaction!   There's still a way to go but Scott talks about the progress and vision for the future - including their successful current raise on Seedrs. 

Fed up scanning your passport, driving licence and all the rest to prove who you are? Imagine a world where you only have to input your identity details just once; imagine the time and the hassle that would save. Imagine not having to drag out your passport and your ID documents every time you want to check out an exchange or investigate an ICO investment. Imagine finding access to all that verified, trustworthy information about other participating people, and companies - and even devices! – all via one app. Imagine no more! Blockpass is already here and operating, linking verified people, companies and things in our ecosystem, forming a trusted connection between them. In this episode, Director and CMO Hans Lombardo and Guy Davies, Business Development for UK and Europe, explain how Blockpass offers a self-sovereign identity, user-centric and with the data owned entirely by the owner – Blockpass is a verifier of data and retains no user information. Offering complete confidence that the network of linked platforms and people on its system can be assured of one another’s identity at all times. Hans was always a tech entrepreneur ever since the beginning of the Internet boom, around 1998, involved with a number of start-ups and business intelligence companies focused mainly on Chinese high-tech. Having been bitten by the Bitcoin bug, he has been involved in many initiatives since, including internet.com and Internet World magazine and events, launching his own news channel, co-founding Chain of Things and working with ith Professor Bill Beaumont on  Infinity Blockchain Labs, the incubation hub for disruptive start-ups in the tech space. Guy came to this space down a very different route – a business development expert, but originally a professional musician, and all-too-aware of the shortfalls in the music rights system and the contentious issue of copyright. It was while Chain of Things which was trying to create an identity for devices that the team realised there wasn’t a good human identity system - and Blockpass was born, to fill that need. The Internet is already a perilous universe, especially with the rise of connected devices. So there is a need to put humans first and keep people protected - to give everyone their own impregnable identity. Web 3.0 is going to be this big decentralised web, and the only way to get there is to solve the identity equation. Most identity on the Internet is centralised, controlled by companies and not by the individual. The only way to get to a fully decentralised web is to start with the people. Working with compliance lawyers and Infinity Blockchain Labs, the first Blockpass app was released this April and it has been progressively added to and updated ever since. It is now maturing and is being used in various exchanges and ICO platforms to run instant and verified KYC, allowing verified users access to participating merchants via the Blockpass ID QR code they carry at all times on their smartphone. And what is popular with all those using Blockpass is its decentralised, user-centric nature. Putting people back at the centre of their own data. Plans for the future include the addition of more functions, such as a security token wallet, and the development of Blockpass for Business, allowing people to do KYC for a company including all the directors’ details and documentation all built into one portal. Ultimately, Blockpass will have a role in IOT systems, in device ownership including transfer of ownership – making it all part of the sharing economy. If you start to think of spinning this out into finance, you move towards the user becoming fully in control - having a choice. Blockpass aims to stop people having to keep giving their data over (and over again!) to the old world. We can leave behind the inherent problems of the web 2.0, and start to move towards the new, identity-safe, people-centric world.

This is no time for making plans for 2050 - people are dying - today! It was while studying at Cambridge university that today’s guest Nat Rich realised quite what a state the world is in – and that if people knew some of the stuff she was finding out, they’d be horrified. The problem of carbon emission, and the high NOx levels which kill people, is global, and especially bad in London where it’s easy just to blame the cabs, or the buses, or the trains. We constantly break the EU’s limit for safe pollution levels. And it can only get worse. And government is tackling the issue by charging vehicles for their emissions – rather than trying to solve the problem at source! But the issue goes much further than that. We reply on all sorts of machines to keep the world running, and it’s not just cars or plans or lorries, but also the generators that run our hospitals. It was a few years back that while working within the water industry, Nat had come across a magnetic device that claimed to reduce carbon emissions when fitted an engine. And while she herself was sceptical, she decided to go with the flow – literally! - and to investigate the potential of the technology in case it really could deliver what it promised. And this is not a new technology – it’s been in operation for over twenty-five years. But it needed to make an impact on a global scale if this pollution was to be tackled once and for all. And as she started testing the technology, working with Sheffield Hallam University, Nat realised a number of things. Firstly, that Government moves very slowly on matters like this.  There were recent press reports of councils being set a deadline of October 2019 to come up with plans for how they are going to tackle emissions in their borough. Almost a year – and that’s just to come up with plans, never mind putting them into action! And second, she realised that while there are expectations that within 30 years, electric vehicles will be the norm, it will take more than half that time to create the infrastructure to support this. And thirdly, she realised that creating a movement would be the most effective way to get people on board – rather than a corporate, or government – looking to harness people’s passion for a better and cleaner, more sustainable world. The device itself has been proven to work. While much depends on the type of vehicle, and how you drive, Sustainable Flow has had results of up to 90% reduction in carbon emissions, with 65% as the average across tests, and up to 63% in NOx. And it’s not only old vehicles where the problem is currently on the road – tests on a three-week-old Peugeot car showed NOx reduced by 46% - on what is a brand-new car! Academics and investors have told Nat that this is too good to be true, but here it is, actually proving them wrong; 20 scientific journals have articles explaining how it works, using magnetic principles – and this is old technology, just never before applied on a global scale. This technology can literally completely change the planet. The only catch is people need the ability to believe it will work. Howard Cox from Fair Fuel UK decided to take us to the houses of Parliament, to present to the APPG on carbon emissions. He has now written a report for Chris Grayling, the Transport Minister, to present to the Prime Minister as an effective solution that can be used immediately. Nat knows that charities can be very effective for some things, and this was one option for gaining attention and support. But she also realises it’s still possible for companies to make money while doing good for the world. So, as she grows this network, this movement, she wants to give people a financial interest as well as relying on their passion, to have the maximum impact. She is working on rolling out the movement across the four elements – she’s starting with Air, but especially when attracting media attention, she’s also looking at Fire, Earth and Water. There are many great products out there that can change the world for good - but which never see the light of day. These she wants to support in this movement she’s creating. And in an effort to get businesses and the public alike interested, she’s looking to raise the money to create the biggest splash – by tokenising. But that is in the future. At the moment you can register your interest and support on the website, you can pre-order your device for when it is available, and you can pre-register for the blockchain angle with your details. As Nat stresses, people are dying right now. Asthma levels are rising and there are ever more vehicles adding to the roads by the day. But the Sustainable Flow solution, proven to reduce emissions so dramatically, doesn’t need forward planning, or development, or regulating. It’s here, now, today.

Why We Need A Blockchain Bill The answer is simple: We want to lead the world, not fall behind.   Once we put the same legal weight behind blockchain technology we long ago did behind paper and 'wet signatures' we can help lead the world  ...replace many of our digital (banking, payments and other) slow toll-roads with far faster highways shrinking times from days to seconds (3 to 30 days through a bank network to 3 seconds on the Ripple network – that’s between 86,400 & 864,000 times faster, so let call it a round 100k times). With a similar reduction in costs, because there are no people involved once the network’s running. This doesn’t just make things a hundred thousand times faster and cheaper, removal of friction on this level makes possible all sorts of things that were completely non-starters before. On top of all that it makes possible a whole list of things proven impossible (at any scale) before. From micropayments to fractionalisation of assets, decoupling ownership from use of an asset (including houses, cars, art, goods in transit... to name a few) releasing trillions in value currently locked away. Which is why nimbler jurisdictions, Zug Switzerland, Singapore and Malta spring to mind, are leapfrogging the UK. Its why Liechtenstein have a Blockchain Act. This really matters Professor Bill Buchanan OBE, of Edinburgh’s Napier University explained to me - and why he’s launched a petition to parliament saying so. It matters because it means jobs and future prosperity. As well as losing our place in the world versus helping lead it. This is why you should sign the petition. Britain needs a Blockchain enabling bill. Please search for and sign UK petition 230869!

On the cusp of remaking the world: unlearning everything you learnt at school Or: throwing down the digital gauntlet Global Nomad – ‘Glomad’ - Jane Thomason has been working in international development most of her life, helping developing nations cope with enormous problems - poverty, inequality, and healthcare. In 2010, her son told her someone had invented this digital currency, Bitcoin, and she needed to invest in it. And she laughed at him, and ‘passed’. One of her abiding regrets! He came back a few years later and said, “Mum, you know I told you to buy Bitcoin? Have you got any idea how much it’s worth now?” At that stage it was probably about $7,000, while it was about $10 when he first told her. But on the back of it she started reading up about blockchain even though it was difficult at first - confusing, a bit counter-intuitive. Her moment of realisation came one day when she was thinking about the Banda Aceh Boxing Day Tsunami when 200,000 lives were lost, and where she’d worked on the reconstruction. In the aftermath, all the identities got washed away, and no one knew who was lost and who was found. All the bank records were gone. All the medical reports were gone. And then donors came in trying to help people, and no one knew whether the money was actually getting to the people who needed it. And then came the people-traffickers. Jane suddenly had this moment of realisation. If all of this had been stored on the blockchain it would’ve been so very much easier to do the reconstruction. It wouldn’t have taken away the pain and the suffering and the loss. But it would have made the whole reconstruction so much quicker and simpler. And she realised she needed to start making connections, explaining to people why this was so terribly important. There was some push-back. Some people still say blockchain is a solution that she’s trying to fit to a problem. But Jane has been working with exactly these problems for 30 years, and is perfectly positioned to see how this can really change people’s lives in emerging economies for the better. And she’s become a total blockchain evangelist! Blockchain’s transformational technology can help the bottom billion worldwide in economic terms change their lives in the way we’ve never even imagined – until now. Jane is passionate about getting the message out, making people move faster, getting international institutions and governments to understand how blockchain can change the lives of citizens in their own countries, and asking them to lean in, and help shape the technology in a way that’s going to be effective in lifting the bottom billion out of poverty and make their lives better. According to Jane, there already over 500 blockchain use cases on projects in emerging economies - so we need to look at those, see what they’re doing right (and wrong) – work out which are doing something that could be replicable - and then rolling that out for others. This is no good unless it has a scaleable effect around the world. And we need to make a connection between the start-ups unable to access VC funding because they’re working with the poorest people and don’t fit a traditional commercial model, with what Jane calls the ‘money galore’ in the system, using the framework that ICOs offer. As she says, start-ups generally don’t get into conversations with governments and international institutions; and even if they could get in there, they don’t always have the right language to connect with people who are currently the old world order. We need to understand that the innovation, the ideas, the building of the future is from the young people. And we need to take their ideas and think about how you can actually make that work in a way that is executable and, especially in the emerging world, culturally-appropriate. And, finally, Jane is wary of an us-against-them women/men focus, but says we should look to Eastern Europe and parts of Asia, where they automatically have plenty of women scientists, coders, and engineers – far more than in the US, or the UK. We need to look at ourselves and see how these biases are getting into the education system, we need to put coding into the primary school prospectus. Jane recently visited Nigeria for the first time, where they have implemented ‘Code Lagos’ – an initiative to train one million coders within five years. And again, an equal mix of men and women. They have realised their future will be digital. They are throwing away their old education system. It’s a model for almost every other country – they have thrown down the gauntlet. Jane’s thought for the future: Blockchain and other frontier technology will be the way to change the world for those living in poverty in emerging economies. But it can also help address problems in the global commons – climate change, oceans - that’s the new frontier, irrespective of sovereign nations and politics. If we can build this around one issue, everyone will get it. As she says, this is going to change our world. We need to unlearn a whole lot of things we’ve been taught throughout the education system, and throughout our lives. We must open our minds to the possibilities of distributed systems that will allow people to engage and connect right across this planet. Our children’s future is digital, and we all need to be part of it

It's 10 years now since Satoshi wrote the white paper that sparked a revolution and is set to change the Internet, money and so the world A look back at the first ten years, where we're going and how we are doing from the perspective of that original vision. Not least though the choices that lie ahead: Will be we architects of the future now being formed around is, or its victims?

When Lee Birkett launched his online P2P lending and financial product comparison sites on the internet, he says it was a whole new world. Now, he says, Blockchain has the capacity to plug the leaky plumbing in the banking world, globally. Having managed portfolios of £5bn in loans and mortgages over 25 years as a regulated individual, Lee sees credibility and corporate governance as key to public acceptance of blockchain. And while he kept his own head down, hiding from this new technology behind the sofa for many years, the recent involvement of such banks and blue chips as Goldman Sachs with Circle and Barclays with Coinbase, finally convinced him to see some credibility in the sector. So what was it brought risk-averse Lee round to this world, which has been seen as the financial Wild West? The 2008 crash saw Lee’s partners including HBOS, Lehman Brothers and Northern Rock, suddenly unable to support his £100m/month lending business. And yet experience and a long contact list of credible people looking for loans and savings advice showed him the appetite was unabated. The economy had broken due to malpractice in the sector. But he had hundreds and hundreds of borrowers left unserved, and hundreds and hundreds of savers making no returns on their money. Nobody was lending. Until Zopa (Zone of Possible Agreement), the innovative peer-to-peer lender, inspired him for the first time to take up the crowd-sourced and crowdfunded mantle and get things working again. Crowdfunding £450k from 100 investors, JustUs went down the long journey to regulation – 5 years in total, launching fully-regulated a year ago. And having lived every hard minute down this route, Lee was now determined to bring those 5 years of investment in teambuilding, controls and corporate governance, and deploy them on the blockchain. The BiPS token, created by Lee’s MoneyBrain comparison site with sister company JustUs, is the first asset-backed token created and mined by a regulated entity. At this stage it is a project, a network, for which people can buy tokens – BiPS - not shares, but as a way to expand the network, to develop it around the world. The more they raise, the bigger and stronger the network will become and faster it can grow. Next year when the token goes on public sale, using the liquidity platform of JustUs, the majority of proceeds raised will be used to acquire property or other real-world assets, providing stability and growth for the network - and giving bonus tokens back to holders to cash out or buy more BiPS. Lee aims for BiPS is to bring stability to a global blockchain economy. To be part of building a robust global blockchain with robust token mechanisms. To allow those in underserved countries, especially in the third world with no access to bonus assets, to acquire tokens with accretive value. The BiPS team is one of the most impressive in the UK in this field, having accrued decades of experience in P2P loans, governance and compliance. And as Lee says, if the stakeholder participants are sound people of good reputation, this can only go from strength to strength. He has seen, as we all have, amazing things in this space. Transformative things. Including the potential for third-world countries running their economies on digital currencies. Bringing stability,  security and prosperity. Host Barry James asked Lee about the potential, and what was the one thing he’d like people  to remember from this interview as BiPS starts its pre-sale. It was: This could be the start of fair finance - Globally.

Why Blockchain and Cryptoassets are "The biggest gift to the Regulator - possibly ever - certainly in a generation!” Why Barry E James saw fit to write an open letter to Philip Hammond, Chancellor of the Exchequer, titled ‘Britain Leading the World – or Losing a Historic Opportunity Forever’ Think of Britain. Traditionally a world leader in financial services. The nation that gifted to the world its model Parliament; its open and evidence-based legal system; even, through Sir Tim Berners-Lee, the web on which we all operate, all around the globe. On the brink of Brexit and already facing an uncertain social and economic future, Britain now faces missing out on an unimaginable opportunity. But it’s not too late - yet! This week, Founder of ICO Radio Barry E James answers questions - and raises more - about why he felt compelled to write an impassioned letter to the Chancellor, to make the case for supporting blockchain entrepreneurship, and advocating a new approach to innovation in regulation. He outlines the Government’s own pledges of support, including from Margot James, Minister of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, who addressed the industry a few weeks ago in glowing terms, talking about the importance of transparency and how the UK needs to be the first choice of those looking to set up a blockchain business. And contrasts this with the evidence that businesses transacting in cryptocurrencies or funded by them, are unable to set up bank accounts, or are having established accounts frozen and shut down, making it impossible to do business in this country. Strange indeed! Until he found out why. Barry was recently handed a letter from the FCA addressed to CEOs of banks and headed ‘Crypto Assets and Financial Crime’, in which they are made aware in no uncertain terms that if they even considered banking such companies, life would be made very difficult. Barry goes on to discuss the contrast between the views of the Bank of England, the recent APPG on blockchain, and the Government itself, at least open to the opportunities that could be on offer; and in the other corner, the FCA quietly throwing up barriers. Criminalising the very technologies other countries are trying to attract. Countries including as South Korea who recently pledged $100m to create a Smart City to attract more blockchain entrepreneurs, an approach being echoed in Berlin, Malta, Gibraltar, and in jurisdictions all around the world. Barry’s letter states that this is a moment of huge opportunity for Britain; we are seeing the rebuilding of the internet as a secure environment, and as a nation we should be leading this. But instead we’re driving the very talent we need to make it happen, away. As he says, the Government needs to go beyond a defensive position on crypto assets and instead move towards becoming as open and positive as other countries - in fact, the UK is the best placed of all. His advice to the regulator is to analyse its own role, and to see that well-made regulation, fit-for-purpose, not only gives a solid framework for a safer environment for both industry and consumers, but becomes an asset in itself for any regulated business. It is more than just a way to limit fraud, bad actors, malfeasance; and the transparency of blockchain is many times more powerful than heavy regulation. Blockchain itself is a public infrastructure that doesn’t need a perimeter. It allows a trusted network of systems, of machines, of transactions, that cross every border - this is the time for unimaginable opportunities and benefits worldwide as the next variant of the internet. And the UK needs to be at the forefront. Barry’s final thought is that he would like to see the UK set up, and bring others together, in a ‘World First’ Taskforce. Putting the world first. Addressing poverty, inequality. And what right-minded person, whether regulator, MP or regular Joe on the street, wouldn’t want to join him in that?  

A Mindset Shift Among Incumbents! Those in the fintech and crypto space have gone from being the problem wild child to the cool kid on the block according to Martin Bartlam who shares some of the insights from DLA Piper’s recent report ‘Digital Transformation in Financial Services’ - which throws up some very interesting findings. Not least that there’s been a massive shift in the mindset of the big players in traditional financial services. It has become clear that blockchain technology, cryptocurrency and challengers in the space are here to stay. And, as Martin says, it’s those countries, those big players, who try to ignore them out of out of existence who will ultimately be the loser. The financial services space is changing from one where the big players are guarding their backs to a space where collaboration and adoption of new technology has become the new normal. The report covers the evolution of disruption; collaboration and investment and working with those who were previously competitor; the shifting landscape of regulation, payments and cryptocurrency; and cyber security - and how all of these are changing the face of traditional financial services. Martin’s final comment: this is now happening and cannot be ignored. Those countries supporting innovation will do well; those who sit on it will be left behind.

Shaking the bad apples from the ICO tree, self-policing code of conduct changing the world. Global regulation of the ICO sector has proved contentious, with individual jurisdictions reacting differently to the rise of tokenisation and the need to deal with bad actors and the potential for fraud. But it is widely agreed across the industry that it can only work if it avoids regulating this creative and passionate sector out of existence altogether. It became clear early on to today’s guest, Simon Taylor, fintech expert from within the traditional banking sector - at Barclays. With so much happening in the ICO space in 2017, he knew there was a wave coming. One that the regulator might snap at, rather than nurturing the innovation this could kill it off. During research, he was meeting more and more mainstream banks concerned that tokenisation would become stifled by regulation. They liked the idea of tokenising traditional assets, making the system hugely efficient. And whereas in the early days of blockchain the banks’ reaction tended to be a standard ‘no’, because of propaganda around  Bitcoin, in more recent times they have actually started driving the innovation, setting up their own innovation units to explore the possibilities of the technology, and looking to bank the sector. The answer seemed obvious. As Simon says, in order to engage with risk, you need to know what it looks like. And to reassure the regulator that you know what you’re doing, you need to demonstrate you understand what it is you’re trying to do! One thing that became apparent was that the clinical trial methodology which has been applied fintech and other areas of the blockchain space has challenged with bankability, with no chance to do small tests on just a few subjects – banking tends to work on an all-or-nothing basis. So with a background in creating digital solutions, including the UK’s second ever banking app, he founded Global Digital Finance alongside Lawrence Wintermeyer of Innovate Finance. He felt that it must be up to the industry itself to become self-policing and to create its own Code of Conduct – along the lines of the FX Code regulating currency exchange. So the remit was creating a taxonomy, a common language, and building a principles-based code that is self-policing and run pro-bono. Similar The same kind of codes have also rolled out in other parts of fintech – peer-to-peer lending for example.  The interim advisory board held a consultation this summer, during which over 200 organisations gave more than a thousand bits of feedback. The code of conduct will be finalised over the coming months, and the activities within the ICO space carrying risk outside the normal regulatory parameters can be flagged as outside the code. Legitimate entrepreneurs in the token space need to differentiate themselves from the bad actors, and this kind of self-policing model can clean up the sector’s image if done right. A final thought from Simon? If we radically change the infrastructure of operating norms and assumptions within financial services, we can make the greatest difference to every industry and every person alive.

In the face of a plethora of ‘Wild West’ references around the ground-breaking innovation of the blockchain space, is the old way of doing business, the old way of making money, facing its final frontier? Does the battle to keep this space regulated end up like Tombstone, Arizona? Or, making money - without the Mint. Or, bringing Outlaws, in law. Pierre Bourke of Blockchain Radio interviews two leading lights of the British Blockchain Association, Sharon Henley and Barry E James, about how the organisation came about, what are its aims, and what is the future for the sector. And, back to the Wild West once again – is the BBA as colonial as its name suggests, or can it build an international community? Having been established for over a year, the aim of the British Blockchain Association is to support all those coming together in the blockchain space, entrepreneurs, governments, other organisations, to build a community, to offer guidance, and to become the voice for the industry. As Sharon notes, there’s so much changing right now, really, really fast; and the BBA looks to bring it all, calmly, together. And as Barry adds, the BBA really is interested in reinventing the world, in reinventing money, reinventing business, reinventing the internet – reinventing pretty much everything. Blockchain is about rebuilding the world – and Barry’s in! To start the ball rolling, the BBA went direct to the entrepreneurs and asked them, what do you want from us? What can we do to help? And they said that while of course they’re looking for funding for their ventures, for support with marketing and legal issues – more than anything, they want to cut through the noise, to have their venture percolate to the top. They want visibility. Now, the Global Blockchain Ventures Scheme, a partnership between the BBA and TokenIntelligence, is set to do just that. Because in a world of around 2,000 coins, how do investors tell good from bad from ugly? The Global Blockchain Ventures Scheme is working to bring all they learned over the last decade, about regulation, innovation and especially transparency, to bear on what it now a global phenomenon – and a global problem which needs to be solved, fast. After all, if this space ends up like the OK Corral, and the reinvention of money and the internet, bringing on a brave new world of commerce and business, becoming a battle, we need both sides to be the guys in the white hats to see us safely through.

Cryptocurrency: a new kind of Clubcard? As a traditional asset manager with an interest in new technology, Jonny Fry of Team Blockchain came to this ecosystem thinking (as many still do) that cryptocurrency and blockchain were somehow inextricably linked with Ponzi schemes, drugs and crime. But he came to realise; if you’re involved in nefarious activity, the last thing you’d want to get involved in is cryptocurrency. Where any transaction leaves an indelible digital footprint, that sits on the blockchain forever. And while the west spends around $20bn a year on KYC and AML onboarding, in an effort to stem the flow of criminal money, it’s those oh-so-reliable banks which have been fined more than $100bn over the last decade for failing to do just that. In contrast, the majority of ICOs are actually very strong on AML, says Jonny. The system is a comparatively simple tickbox exercise. Meaning ICOs know, and can prove, exactly where the money is coming from. When he started investigating the world of digital assets, of bringing best practice from the traditional asset management world into this new ecosystem, Jonny saw a lot of push-back from those who felt this exciting new way of doing business didn’t need regulation. But now he sees more and more professional services moving into this sphere. And as anyone managing your assets can only operate on a regulated platform, such as a stock exchange, there will be many more exchanges trading cryptocurrencies over the next five years. With such financial luminaries as Goldmann Sachs, Standard Chartered, Santander and State Street all showing interest, there is an ever more urgent need for not only the central banks, but insurers, to get on board. And as blockchain brings greater transparency to the world of big business, huge corporations will find out exactly who their shareholders are – bringing an old-style relationship, or at least recognition, between owners and operators. With a recent Bain study showing a 5% rise in client retention leads to a 71% growth in profitability, and 80% of future turnover predicted from 20% of existing clients, this new form of attracting and rewarding customers via tokens will become the new normal, says Jonny; the new Clubcard, the new Airmiles. The current financial services industry is massively inefficient. And blockchain offers a solution. Devora are currently claiming that bonds issues via blockchain technology are 90% cheaper than traditional methods. And in a recent survey by DLA Piper, 31% of financial experts said they expect central banks to add cryptocurrency to their balance sheets in the next 5 years - and even 17% of asset managers admit to having a crypto strategy. Jonny says that amongst others, Google is watching Ethereum and Bitcoin using data analytics, watching smart contracts to get a richer picture of what’s happening – which may be pre-cursor for a bid or closer association with the sector. And we might see Apple, Amazon and other tech giants getting involved, in partnerships or even takeovers. On the other hand, should big data be seen as an asset -or a liability in light of GDPR, where a non-compliant organisation can be fined 4% of its worldwide turnover? Government experts conclude that data needs to be held in decentralised, super-secure way – which actually sounds a lot like blockchain! Jonny predicts that some huge companies will come under pressure to be broken up, they are becoming more powerful than some governments. But then, the billions in fines for some of giants is now just seen as the price of doing business. When it comes to individuals, this is a new world with much potential for us all to benefit, cutting inefficiency and friction in transactions, improving security, cutting out expensive intermediaries. He says, never be afraid to ask; there are lots of pre-conceptions about Bitcoin and cryptocurrency, which can be many different things - a bond, an equity, a currency – and we will certainly see many more global brands getting involved.

Zwoop: The new consumer champions, looking to make money out of the customer without cheating them, share the proceeds from their data, and blow Amazon out of the water! In today’s world of online shopping, the odds are very much stacked in favour of the retailer - never the consumer. There’s no doubt that e-commerce aggregators make shopping easier, rule our lives, influence our shopping habits; yet still all the current investment goes there – to make selling better and bigger, to monetise the system further. Whether through advertising or re-marketing, AdWords or store rankings, the results we see usually depend on who’s paid the most to which platform. But then it’s sold to us as efficient – the way to filter and aggregate choice across one, two, three, infinite, platforms. But it’s never become as efficient as it should be. Deliberately. Now – finally – emerges someone who is aiming to be the consumer’s best friend. Today’s interviewee, Alessandro Gadoffi, co-founder of Zwoop, tells me a few hard facts about the way e-commerce is failing the consumer, while milking every penny out of the transaction. And explains how he and his team intend to disrupt this! We might go looking for a particular pair of trainers on Amazon. We can put as much detail as possible in our search term. And if we are a member of Prime, we may filter the results so we only see those available on next-day, free delivery. But even then, we still have to open the item’s own page – probably one of many listed, fed to us according to Amazon’s ranking system – to check sizes, and whether changing the size changes the headline price; and then finally whether that exact size and colour is available. Alex says the average time a customer spends from starting a search and actually buying is between ten and twenty-five minutes. And only then, if we’re really sure this is the best price for the exact item, do we hit the button to purchase. Knowing that the retailer will pay Amazon a whacking percentage commission. And there might still be that nagging doubt, could you have got a better price going direct to a smaller retailer or even the manufacturer…? Zwoop is a new platform that crawls every online retailer to find the exact item the viewer is seeking. Completely unbiased, results are listed according to all-in delivered price, and only for items that are available, real-time. As Alex says, giving not only the consumer the most transparent price, but giving the smaller retailer the chance to get in front of the customer without spending a fortune on AdWords or aggregators’ commission (does someone breathe the word, ‘bribery’?). And the whole transaction, during its beta testing phase, is cut from 10-25 minutes to 10-25 SECONDS! As Alex says, this is not just ‘searching’ – most online searching is almost instantaneous now. The difference is, this is ‘finding’. And it is unbiased, on the consumer’s side, and – uniquely - gives a complete insight into who is selling what, where, and for the best price. Beta-testing by 1,000 users will be complete by the middle of October, and the platform will be released soon after; initially in the UK based on the 1,500 online retailers here, and then to the US - and beyond. Of course the company has to be making money. Nothing comes from nothing. But while users may see ads for an alternative product – the latest Samsung handset, for example, while searching for an iPhone – the results for the chosen item will not be in any way affected. And consumers are able to turn off certain aspects of the pay-off – for instance, stop their data being used. But for those who do bring the platform income, there will also be rewards – like loyalty points – in the form of ZWP cryptocurrency. Oh, and did we mention you’ll be able to purchase through Zwoop in any currency, fiat or crypto, in one click, simplifying what is otherwise a far-too-complex system for consumers? Zwoop has already raised more than $30m in two regular funding rounds, and is running their ICO less to raise funds, but more to launch the ZWP so transactions become normalised, and they can distribute the reward tokens. More information is available on the website along with all the whitepapers and team background. But with a team of over 60 people and more than $50m spent to get to this point, investors can be sure that this is one ICO not looking to make a quick killing in a volatile market, but one that want to become the go-to shopping site to take on the big boys; to make itself a verb in common parlance - just like we all ‘google’ information today. So, DOES my bum look big in these jeans? If it does, and I manage to lose some weight, at least I’ll know where to go back to find the next size down – and enjoy a reward for doing so!

With regulators around the world scrambling to get to grips with Blockchain tech could the technology itself, and continuous audit, be part of the answer? When I spoke to Auditchain™ founder Jason Meyers this week, it felt a little like talking to blockchain royalty – at once removed anyhow Jason’s top team includes such luminaries as Dr.Stuart Haber, one of the co-inventors of Blockchain technology, who although cited three time by him denies he is Satoshi Nakamoto (but sometimes gets called that around the office); and Eric Coen, one of the creators of the business mark-up language XBRL The Auditchain™ mission is continuous, transparent, real-time audit. If audit ‘as we know it’ is a snapshot, then this is a video! Tamper proof and consensus-based - external validation and analysis ensuring transparency and so cutting the scope for fraud. After more than twenty years in investment banking and high level auditing systems, Jason set up a successful investment bank and raised capital at the time of the 2007/8 financial crisis –a great time to do so, with people who would normally be completely unavailable suddenly looking for work, and at reasonable price. The company ran a multi-jurisdiction platform allowing transparency for all departments on transactions from end-to-end. Facebook was a major and happy customer. But after a conflict over accounting with FINRA during when even 100% transparent, forensic audit couldn’t appease the regulator Jason realised it wasn’t about the audit... and stepped away from the industry altogether to rethink his future. During this break, in around 2013, he did a huge amount of reading about Bitcoin and blockchain, and a lot of thinking about its potential use in audit. He especially went deep into the science behind blockchain, to work out how the biggest transactions could avoid being hacked. Jason’s ‘aha!’ moment came when he realised he was part of a rare breed  of people who understand both the technology behind blockchain, and the workings of monetary systems. The revelation was profound! He began to write a paper about creating a decentralised continuous audit and reporting protocol ecosystem. And he realised that the more you explain such a thing to others, the more you understand it yourself. The more you can tailor your message, you sharpen your understanding. As we often say... you can’t keep a thing unless you give it away! The aim of Auditchain™ is to crowdsource enterprise dataset validation, in much the same way as any transaction in Bitcoin is validated by hundreds of external validators. It becomes part of that blockchain and is immutable. Change in the auditing landscape and efficiency in the assurance world are inevitable, bringing changes the role of auditor. The biggest issue is always independence.  But a consensus-based external validation of system control and financial statements will make transparency king - and cut the scope for fraud.

What if your money was backed by real gold yet could be spent via an ordinary-looking debit card, same as any other. With much lower transaction costs than you're used to - by a factor of around 10. Plus you got a 'yield' too? We’ve featured asset-backed cryptocurrency raises before, including recently exploring the real estate space in episode 21 with Leaseum. This time, Cayman-domiciled Kinesis is drawing on decades with the Allocated Bullion Exchange, an Australian institutional precious metal exchange with seven storage locations worldwide, and offering the next stage in that trade - by putting it on the blockchain. As Ryan says, it’s the evolution of the Gold Standard. The Kinesis cryptocurrencies, KAG and KAU, are based on physical gold and silver stored in vaults, which can be bought with fiat currency and then used in a variety of ways. They can be spent, via a debit card; sent, between e-wallets; or stored, on the Kinesis Blockchain Exchange, which itself runs on a proprietary fork of Stellar. The Kinesis team has looked at this from the outset as a way you can simply pay for a coffee. You could settle your bills, or send money to a member of your family in another country. So the speed of transfer was always a top priority – and by acting on the Stellar blockchain, these transactions are available at 3k/second – much faster than Bitcoin or Ethereum. The gold and silver underlying all this is stored in independent third-party vaults using the ABX infrastructure, fully insured and audited, and the Allocated Legal Title remains with the purchaser rather than on the balance sheet of any other party – important, as the safest way to store precious metals. The fees are set at 0.45% of any transaction – but this is partly offset by a unique system of yields, where monthly dividends are paid to all those depositing funds, bringing in their own gold and silver or holding the currencies – to encourage velocity in the Kinesis working as a monetary system. Alongside all of this, the KVT – Kinesis Velocity Token – is currently available in a discounted pre-sale stage, launching its public sale for two months on 10 September, offering participants a proportional share of 20% of revenue raised in this system. This is immediately followed by the KAU and KAG pre-ICO, with full ICO from 1 March. By which time the debit cards will be available and spending on that morning coffee can begin! So why do all this? You can already invest individually in precious metals. This way, says Ryan, you’re investing in gold and silver, but without the costs for storage and insurance – and with the benefits of instant liquidity, and the yields for simply taking part. Plus, there’s no guarantee that the world of fiat currency is safe. Banks worldwide can suddenly require bail-ins, there are currencies on the brink of collapse, and uncertainty about world economic events – including Brexit. So who wouldn’t consider shifting some currency out of those traditional areas, into something spendable, and backed by real-world assets? Ryan’s final message is: watch this space. There are announcements and developments almost every day. KVT is already available on sale, with the KAU and KAG following before the end of the year. It really won’t be long until you can drop into Starbucks with your kinesis card and tap for your Skinny Vanilla Spice Latte knowing it’s backed by pure gold!

If you want a thing to happen – get a woman in! Says the Crypto Diva! When Barry met Jillian Godsil, journalist, fintech expert, commentator and champion of Women in Blockchain, he described the meeting as a whirlwind that knocked him off his feet. Jillian is undoubtedly a force of nature – refreshingly upfront about how recently she’s moved into this space, but certainly making her mark ever since through sheer force of personality. This episode is less an interview, more a conversation during which subjects as diverse as the Irish Celtic Tiger, the financial crash that saw the country the butt of blame for problems across Europe, divorce, bankruptcy and suicide, ‘unthinking’ the old ways and starting again, and fixing the education system, all find a place. The driving force behind Jillian’s fascination for blockchain and cryptocurrency? Techy brains doing clever things; the disruptive side, taking on traditional sluggish elements like insurance, accountancy and the banks; and the ‘hippy-dippy’ element, making the world a better place. While reportedly only 4% of jobs across blockchain are filled by women, the capacity to change lives through education cannot be underestimated. As Jillian says, we need more women in this ‘wonderful, transformational, life-changing technological sector’ – who wouldn’t want to change the world for the better? Her sign off message for women to get involved in blockchain and cryptocurrency is simple: Just, have a go, why don’t you?  

This episode is less an interview, more a conversation between host Barry E James and someone steeped not in the world of Blockchain, but AI, chatbots and machine learning: Tania Peitzker founder and CEO of ‘Bots as a Service’ Billions of dollars have been invested in AI by Google, Amazon, Microsoft and others over the past thirty years. Tania believes it is inevitable that at some point, AI and Blockchain, ‘Brains and Chains’, will merge. Will it be Google or Apple et-al or led by scientists in the US, Berlin or Switzerland? Is Elon Musk right to worry - and warn? What if machine learning goes too far; if a programme interfacing with Blockchain just kept on learning? Tania has long been working with AI bots, cognitive interfaces, mixed and immersive reality, and machine learning - and provides some reassurance. AI bots have already passed the Turing Test - many times over. It’s important to understand that, like the internet, Blockchain provides an enhanced environment - one in which AI and bots of all kinds can become actors and provide support and other services. A possible way for AI to integrate with this would be to add a layer of chatbots to help users AI is a long-standing technology, Tania’s own is a 10-year-old algorithm and Google has been working for many years on just this - and paid $400M for the Deep Mind algorithm. Blockchain is supposed to be transparent but can be seen as obscure; both Blockchain and AI have image problems with the wider community. Japan is ahead and when the Japanese government-backed cryptocurrency was hacked last year, investors were given their money back. IPOs are too much for 10-year-old technology businesses, but ICOs are a possible way to raise funds. Links: linkedin.com/in/drtaniapeitzker botsasaservice.com businessexpertpress.com/expert-insights-article?id=188 rivieraprof.simplybook.it

Amazon disrupted publishing in the first wave of the Internet. Could this behemoth now be and disrupted decentralised by pebbles on a Blockchain? Today’s interviewees are Josef Marc, whose background in digital media and interest in Bitcoin led him to investigate ways to make the technology work for others, and Sukhi Jutla, author of three books, two by ‘conventional methods’ and the latest, ‘Escape the Cubicle – Quit the Job You Hate, Create the Life You Love’, the first in the world to be published on the blockchain. As Sukhi says to those who question her: “I wasn’t rejected by publishers - I rejected them!” The biggest issue for authors is, of course, getting their books to an audience. Even selling via what Josef calls ‘the A word’ and refers to as ‘the Amazon graveyard’, books get posted and then just sit. It’s up to the author to do the promoting. And even if a sale is made, and notified (eventually), Amazon keeps quite a chunk and the money doesn’t hit the author’s bank account for anything up to 6 months. Josef’s project is Publica, built on the blockchain for authors to sell or self-publish in return for a simple 10% fee of sales to keep the platform running. Authors put a book, even a draft or a chapter or whatever they want to sell to their audience, onto the platform, or run a book ICO, and sell their token - yes, a real book token - in a smart contract, managed entirely by themselves. Including the price. And when a sale is made, the reader immediately gets the access key in their wallet and the author gets instant payment in theirs in Publica’s Pebblecoin. Sukhi says there are three excitingly different things about publishing this way. Firstly, you have a one-to-one contact with the reader, in that there is no third party taking a cut. The second is that the digital files have a resale value, which you can set at the time of your smart contract. In normal life, when a book gets given away or sold, that’s it for the author - no more value. And thirdly, many people don’t know this but Amazon only has reach in 96% of the world - so even a behemoth like that can’t be truly global. And as Josef says, if you run an ICO for your book, taking advance orders which fund you to finish and distribute it to your fans, it is not like publishing and waiting for the sales to happen - you can even use your Publica page as your only website for the project. And running an ICO is much more of a conversation-starter with your fans than just selling via the Amazon mass-grave. Sukhi said she set aside an hour to set up her digital wallet, she was worried about the complexity of the technology. Ten minutes later, it was done. And a minute after that she had the app downloaded from the AppStore and she was ready to go. Her advice to other authors? It’s really simple. If this brings another way to distribute your work to a wider global audience, that has to be a good thing. And if it puts you at the centre of the financial transaction - even better! It allows authors and creatives to be empowered.