Tag: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency
The Reason Why China Will Fail at Banning Bitcoin Again…
Guest post by Elena Obukhova, Founder & CEO at FAS | Fintech Advisory Services All the news outlets are saying China banned Bitcoin, but does this ban actually change anything? Let’s start with remembering what Bitcoin is. It is a decentralized peer-to-peer currency that was designed to give people financial freedom. The immutability of Bitcoin…
Back to Basics: What is a Bank?
Maybe that sounds like a silly question to ask. You know what a bank is, you use their products and services almost every day. Most people have a bank account. Unfortunately not everybody. Nonetheless, it’s probably worth breaking it down for a minute. If you want to understand what fintechs are trying to disrupt, it’s…
What’s FinTel? Interview with Andy Hallam
Everybody hopes that 2021 will be slightly better than the year we have just had. Not that everything was bad, especially for fintech that has proven resilient. Fintechs were not wiped out in numbers by the pandemic. Good startups managed to raise big funding rounds and products hit the market at pace. But before we…
Top Finance Skills to understand Fintech
It’s very true that Fintech is a lot about tech, as per the little war for talent happening in the industry. So it’s obviously helpful if you have tech skills like coding. However, let’s not forget that we are talking about finance here. Without finance, there is no financial technology. Maybe it seems obvious, but…
Can Fintech help with financial inclusion?
One of the biggest premise of fintech, perhaps somehow implied, is that it would change banking for the better. You know the story: the year is 2009, greedy banks have created a massive mess. And that’s an understatement, just watch The Big Short (ad) for a quick recap. In the following years, fintechs will emerge…
Top Fintech hubs in the world
By now, you should know who are the top European startups (more like big companies actually) in fintech. If you do not know them yet, you can have a look here. And you probably have heard of a few other well-known fintechs outside Europe like Stripe or the gigantic Ant Group (that is or is…
Blockchain and crypto, know the difference!
Let’s clear a common mistake. Probably the biggest misconception in technology and finance that there is nowadays. There tends to be lots of confusion between blockchain and crypto (abbreviation of cryptocurrency). The confusion stems from the fact that the former powers the latter. You need to know the difference though: many people use these two…
Is Blockchain a revolution for financial services?
There is a lot of hype around blockchain technology. Some of it is driven by cryptocurrency, and most notably Bitcoin (if you have not heard about it yet, you are living in a bubble). Some of the hype comes from the potential applications of the technology in several industries. However, these two things are quite…
Top 5 trends for Fintech in 2020
Firstly, to really understand the growing importance of Fintech, you need to follow the money. According to estimates by KPMG, over $136 billion was invested in fintech initiatives globally in 2019. The number is most certainly going to be even higher for 2020. So what will be the 5 top trends for fintech in 2020?…