Betterment launches bank accounts into a world that has changed completely
Betterment launches bank accounts into a world that has changed completely

This week, we look at Betterment launching a bank account and payments feature. They are not the first, but they could be the best! Still, it feels like the world has moved on. Barriers to entry around digital finance have collapsed, and shifted industry goal posts. Hundreds of companies are integrating API-based solutions that connect to banking and investment entities. Amazon, Google, and Apple are there already. And let's not forget the incredible pressure from the COVID recession: 20MM+ unemployed, $100 billion decrease in global remittances, 1 in 8 banks being unprofitable. Is it time for incremental improvement, or a sea change?

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digital investing, neobank, roboadvisor, macroeconomics, covid pandemicLex SokolinBetterment, Personal Capital, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, N26, Monzo, SoFi, Amazon, Tink, Galileo, DriveWealth, Stripe, Simple Bank, Moven, The Bancorp, CBW Bank
The Grand Theory of the Universe
The Grand Theory of the Universe

I came upon this announcement by Stephen Wolfram recently: Finally We May Have a Path to the Fundamental Theory of Physics… and It’s Beautiful. Wolfram is a theoretical physicist turned mathematician, computer scientist, and entrepreneur responsible for the rigorous Mathematica software. After a career of building one of the most advanced computational packages ever created, he is returning to the question that endlessly captivates geniuses — what is the equation at the heart of our universe?

Is there one unifying stroke of the pen that can connect conventional physics, general relativity, and quantum mechanics into a single whole? Wolfram is not conventional, and I cannot do justice to his thinking both given its complexity and rigor. He claims to have found one such answer, which I will try to sketch. But what drew my atten

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crypto, enterprise blockchain, artificial intelligence, metaverse, Fractals & reflexivity, game theoryLex SokolinWolfram, The Universe
War over Money reaches new heights, as Libra opts into regulation, China launches national blockchain, and Financial Stability Board raises alarm
War over Money reaches new heights, as Libra opts into regulation, China launches national blockchain, and Financial Stability Board raises alarm

This week, we look at cash -- blockchain cash. The war for money is just starting to ramp up, as Facebook Libra explains its new regulated plan, the Chinese national Blockchain Service network goes live, Ethereum stablecoins reach historic market caps in the billions, and the Financial Stability Board recommends to go heavy on global stablecoin arrangements. In 2008, Bitcoin threw a rock through the window of the financial skyscraper, and today we are starting to see the cracks. As the US government runs out of $350 billion in small business bail-out money and gets ready to print more, where do you stand?

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stablecoins, covid pandemic, macroeconomics, China, small business, central bank / CBDC, regulation & complianceLex SokolinChina, Libra / Diem, Ethereum, USDT, USDC, Blockchain Services Network, Fabric, Ant Financial, CCP, ConsenSys, Codefi, MetaMask, Infura, Financial Stability Board
Apple and Google help with government contact tracing, setting stage for war over Data
Apple and Google help with government contact tracing, setting stage for war over Data

This week, we dive into the social, economic, and financial implications of data in a post-COVID world. As Apple and Google work to build out the government's contact tracing apps to combat pandemic, what Pandora's box are we opening without consideration? As Plaid reaches into payroll data to accelerate small business bailouts, what power do we hand to aggregators? Will dignity-preserving solutions come to market in time? The opportunity for decentralized identity and data storage is clearer than ever. Or will fear drive us to make permanent compromises?

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philosophy, macroeconomics, covid pandemic, embedded finance, identity and privacyLex SokolinApple, Google, Covid, Napster, Plaid, IPFS / Filecoin
Why Fintech Venture Capital firms are not returning your calls and emails
Why Fintech Venture Capital firms are not returning your calls and emails

We look at why venture capital investors are slowing down, and the dynamics of how their portfolios work under duress. We talk about the incentives of limited partners to derisk exposure, the implication that has on cash reserves, new deals, and fundraising. We also touch on how the various Fintech themes are responding to an increase in digital interaction while seeing fundamental economic challenges. Shrewd competitors will be able to consolidate their positions and gain share during the crisis, but that will have to come from the balance sheet, not intermittent growth equity checks.

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venture capital, covid pandemic, asset management, ICO / IEO, neobank, roboadvisor, small businessLex SokolinCovid, Binance, CoinMarketCap, Finch Capital, Chime, Square