I aim to write accessible articles about blockchains, bitcoins, distributed ledgers, fintech, and the metaverse, in plain English, for business people.
If you like this blog, you’ll love my book The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains. It is an essential guide for anyone who needs to learn about cryptocurrencies, ICOs, tokens, and business blockchains. Written in plain English, it provides a balanced and hype-free grounding in the essential concepts behind the revolutionary technology.
It’s out now on Kindle, hardback, paperback, and audiobook formats.
🏅 Awards 🏅
- 🏅 “Best Cryptocurrency Reference” on Investopedia’s 12 Best Finance Books in 2022
- 🏅 Listed on 21 Business Books to Help You Tackle 2021
- 🥇 Rated 1st in Fivebooks.com’s Best books on blockchains
- 🏆 Rated 4th on BookAuthority’s 100 Best Cryptography Books of All Time
- 🎖 Listed on Investopedia’s Top 5 Books to Learn About Blockchain
- 🏅 Listed on Builtin’s “Must read” blockchain books
- 🎖 Listed on Fivebooks.com’s Best books on cryptocurrency
- 🏅 Also on various FinTech recommended or mandatory reading lists
Most recent posts
- 27 Oct 2022: Why Do We Need to Commute in the Metaverse?
- 10 Oct 2022: The Virtual Worlds Type Indicator, or Metaverse MBTI
- 30 Aug 2022: Metaverse Musings Part One
- 2 Aug 2022: What if USDT Tether depegged?
- 27 Jun 2021: The Island of Crypto, or why crypto-for-crypto is ok
- 2 Jan 2021: Top 20 coins: Uncommon Core Podcast notes
- 30 Nov 2020: It ain’t just about programmability
- 21 Sep 2020: Tokens vs Accounts: A love letter to the NY Fed (and a quibble)
- 16 Sep 2020: CBDCs – Asking The Hard Questions
- 13 Sep 2020: Money, Programmable Money and Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC)
- 28 Jun 2020: Summary: Eth 2.0 Staking with Alchemy’s Mike Garland
Gentle introduction series
- A gentle introduction to blockchain technology
- What is blockchain?
- Avoiding blockchain for blockchain’s sake: Three real use case criteria
- Distributed ledgers: “Confirm-as-you-go”
- What’s the difference between a distributed ledger and a blockchain?
- Distributed Ledgers: Shared control, not shared data
- Confused by blockchains? Revolution vs Evolution
- A gentle introduction to immutability of blockchains
- A gentle introduction to Ethereum
- A gentle introduction to bitcoin
- A gentle introduction to bitcoin mining
- A gentle introduction to self-sovereign identity
- A gentle introduction to ICOs
- A gentle introduction to smart contracts
- A gentle introduction to digital tokens
- A gentle introduction to The Hyperledger Project
- A gentle introduction to money
- A gentle introduction to interbank payment systems
In a nutshell series
- Top 20 coins: Uncommon Core Podcast notes (Dec 2020)
- Summary: Eth 2.0 Staking with Alchemy’s Mike Garland
- Ray Dalio on What coronavirus means for the global economy – Apr 2020
- Ian Grigg’s Ricardian contracts and digital asset prehistory (Epicenter interview Oct 2016)
- DTCC whitepaper – Jan 2016
- Eris (Epicenter Bitcoin interview – Jan 2016)
- Multichain (Epicenter Bitcoin interview – Nov 2015)
Thoughts and reactions
- Why Do We Need to Commute in the Metaverse?
- The Virtual Worlds Type Indicator, or Metaverse MBTI
- Metaverse Musings Part One
- What if USDT Tether depegged?
- The Island of Crypto, or why crypto-for-crypto is ok
- It ain’t just about programmability
- Tokens vs Accounts: A love letter to the NY Fed (and a quibble)
- CBDCs – Asking The Hard Questions
- The Sweet Spot for Programmable Money
- The New Libra Coin – An Unofficial Explainer
- What Actually is Programmable Money?
- Audiobook Launch – The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains
- CBDC, DLT, Crypto, Stablecoin Resources List
- Three currency wars, not one
- How unlike cash will CBDCs be?
- KYC in stablecoins (permissioned pseudonymity)
- Tokens: Shares with Benefits
- State Sponsored Money – Under Pressure?
- Tokenisation – Innovation in Capital Markets
- Who legally owns all the shares? Not you.
- Tokens – Lowering the Barriers to Innovation
- Bitcoin’s payments are not peer-to-peer!
- Banking when the bank is shut: Token maximalism
- Can blockchains reduce the impact of data breaches?
- Please believe my database
- Frictionless tokens create friction
- Bitcoin price, gold, and nonsense – how not to value bitcoins
- Blockchains and central banks – what have we learnt?
- The hype around Central Banks, digital currencies, and blockchains
- Blockchains and financial inclusion
- Blockchains and laws. Are they compatible?
- Blockchains and cyberwar: Why the next wave of interbank settlement systems will be decentralised
- Yes, but what’s new with distributed ledgers?
- The emergence of blockchains as activity registers
- No, blockchain is not a solution looking for a problem
- So you want to use a blockchain for that? Some common misconceptions.
- KPMG Report on Consensus (Jun 2016): Interview with co-author George Samman
- Just because it’s on a blockchain it doesn’t mean it’s true
- On loyalty points and blockchains
- What you get for free with blockchains
- On disruptive innovation in FinTech
- Big wow for blockchain collaboration amongst banks
- On KYC and blockchains
- The pros and cons of internal blockchains
Public events and presentations
- 15 Nov 2022 SALT iConnections Asia: Fireside host: NFTs & the Metaverse with Punk6529 and Japanese Anime is Coming to the Metaverse with Motoki Tani of Animoca Brands Japan
- 27 Apr 2022 SALT x FTX Crypto Bahamas, Panelist: Institutional Crypto Adoption: From FAAMG to Sovereign Wealth
- [Oops! Forgot to update this]
- 17 Dec 2020 Singapore Fintech Festival, Moderator: Behind the Scenes With Temasek
- 12 May 2020 Consensus Distributed: Money Reimagined (Asia Edition)
- 5 Jan 2020 IEEE Blockchain Singapore: Banking in the age of CBDC and DeFi
- 30 Oct 2019 Decentralized 2019, Athens: Unlikely bedfellows: Security tokens and permissioned blockchains
- 11 Sep 2019 Invest: Asia conference, Singapore: The State of Security Tokens in Asia
- 6 Sep 2019 Investacrowd Digital Securities Forum, Singapore: Private Blockchains
- 27 Aug 2019 Global Digital Finance Roundtable, Singapore
- 18 Jul 2019 Bank of Thailand Bangkok FinTech Fair: Common Issues on Blockchain Implementation talk and panel
- 20 Jun 2019 Hubbis – Digital Wealth Asia Forum 2019 Singapore: Panelist “The Blockchain – what does it mean to you?”
- 22 May 2019 Digital Asset Working Group: APAC Readout, Singapore – organiser & presenter
- 7 May 2019 Blockchain in Finance conference, Singapore, 2 panels: Cross border payments and Securities settlement
- 2 May 2019 FIX conference, Hong Kong, APAC Trading Summit, Panelist: “Asset Tokenization – The Trend and How it will Impact Trading Going Forward”
- 4 April 2019 Deconomy, Seoul: Panelist. The impact of CBDC and its current state
- 4 April 2019 Deconomy, Seoul: Moderator Vitalik Buterin & Nouriel Roubini
- 20 Mar 2019 Money20/20 APAC, Singapore: Panelist
- 13 Mar 2019 Token2049, Hong Kong: Moderator: “Security Tokens, the road to trillions?”
- [oops, I’ve been lax updating my site…]
- 21 Jun 2017 Blockchain for Finance, APAC: Building the Blockchain business case
- 21 Apr 2016 Breaking Banks: Bitcoin and blockchains in ASEAN
- 25 Jan 2016 FinTech Finals Hong Kong
Gotta say it: Opinions are my own and do not represent those of any entities I am affiliated with.