Emerging Technology

PayPal announced this week that they are enabling customers to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrency on their platform. Although the news was cautiously received for several reasons, it’s just one symptom of the dash for digital currency which is gathering speed around the world. I expected that PayPal would eventually throw their hat into this…

The future of work against a backdrop of accelerating technological advances has been the subject of discussion for years, and the debate has intensified in the last few months. Our recent experience has focused on technology and best practice which enables effective communication and collaboration in a distanced setting. There is another dimension which is…

While researching my latest book “Blockchain Hurricane: Origins, Applications and Future of Blockchain and Cryptocurrency” in summer 2019, I came across an article from Fintechnews Singapore that intrigued me. “Millions of Durians Will Be Tracked on the Blockchain for Thailand’s Largest Durian Exporter,” it said. Having eaten the legendary smelly fruit (once and once only)…

E-voting has been under the spotlight in the past few months, and as the world moves inexorably online in the face of COVID-19, how close are we to finding a real solutions? The adverse publicity around an apparently hastily-built voting app made all the wrong headlines as chaos ensued at the Iowa caucases. After all,…

The one certainty around the January 31st Brexit milestone is that there is going to be an awful lot of work to do in the coming year and beyond. The time has come to flesh out the details of our future relationships and establish the systems and processes which will help the country’s infrastructure and…

The second phase of the enquiry into the tragic Grenfell Tower fire begins today. As the BBC reports, the first phase found that the cladding work on the tower did not comply with building regulations, and the role of the second phase is to unpick the complex records held by seven different contractors to determine accountability.…

Bitcoin celebrated its eleventh birthday on January 3rd, 2020, the anniversary of the creation of its Genesis Block. The first working peer-to-peer system of electronic cash was born into turbulent times. In that original block lies a hidden message which reads: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”. It is generally…

As cryptocurrencies gain both ground and notoriety, questions are increasingly asked about the future of money. I confronted this in my 2017 novel Bitcoin Hurricane, imagining a near future where digital and fiat currencies trade side by side in the money markets, and banks still have a role to play in our lives. Austin’s SXSW…

Is it hype, or is there something in it? The innovation spawned by cryptocurrency and its underlying distributed ledger technology is matched only by the scepticism that surrounds wild claims of future potential, and by the scams which arose in the Wild West of the 2017 bull run and ICO fundraising. The sector is beginning…