I gave a talk on the blockchain to the Vendorcom Cryptocurrency SIG, putting forward a couple of fairly radical ideas about Bitcoin, the blockchain and the future. Or so I thought.
Blockchain blockhead
Category: Money
“Fast” is so last year
The era of “faster payments” is over, even before it’s begun in the US. We’re now into the era of “instant payments” and that’s great, because we’re also in an era of “instant commerce”
Well, yes, withdrawing cash is suspicious
If people want cash, it’s pretty reasonable to ask them what it’s for, since we all have to suffer the externalities.
In-app and on-message in Barcelona
Wandering around #MWC15 in Barcelona this year I got involved in a bunch of conversations about Apple Pay, Loop, NFC and so on. But I thought that focus on the physical, in-store interface, could be diverting people away from the central strategic shift to in-app payments.
The Fintech Fortean Times starts here
I wonder if there is room for a blog that brings together payments and the paranormal? A Fintech Fortean Times, if you will? In an age where the Tory chairman of the Parliamentary Group on Integrated Healthcare is recommending that the National Health Service starts to treat patients with astrology and homeopathy, we need to be open to new thinking, don’t we?
Fungibility and feasibility
Whatever Bitcoin is, it isn’t cash. Cash is fungible. I’m not saying whether we need e-cash or e-cash fungibility or not, but it’s interesting to consider the ramifications.
Bitcoin isn’t killing it in retail, even for porn
The figures show very clearly that Bitcoin isn’t being used as a retail payment mechanism. Will it ever be? I wouldn’t think so, but that doesn’t mean that cryptocurrency will never be used in retail.
What is bitcoin? As opposed to Bitcoin, that is
Oh dear. I have such a terrible attention span and I’m so easily distracted. I didn’t get more than a few pages into “The Age of Cryptocurrency” without setting off for Google.
Payments back up
Businesses should surely have some sort of back-up plan to move to if their card payments go down. It’s really not that complicated and there are plenty of ways to take electronic payments.
Payments may be the least interesting thing to do with a blockchain
The general fintech consensus seems to be that the blockchain is interesting but that Bitcoin is not. Maybe it’s just fashion. Who knows? But I’ve always thought that the blockchain is a fundamental technological breakthrough and I’m fascinated to see the emerging use cases.
