I had a chance to sit down with Jeff Garzik, co-founder of Chicago-based enterprise blockchain firm Bloq, during a lunch break on May 28, the last day of the Consensus 2017 blockchain conference in New York. Note that this was just about at the start of the Summer of Bitcoin. Jeff’s answers amount to a tutorial on blockchain. Q: Blockchain partnerships in banking are … [Read more...] about Bloq on Blockchain
The Mortgage Blockchain
Gaining the ideal-state efficiencies that blockchain technology requires cooperation across a value chain. Almost certainly, it will require significant government collaboration and resources, especially when public records are involved. Governments are known more for regulation than collaboration, but this is starting to change. At the Chicago Blockchain Summit last week, … [Read more...] about The Mortgage Blockchain
Collaboration: Blockchain
FINTECH ARTICLES OF THE WEEK 10/15/17 Collaboration between banks and FinTech startups came to focus as financial media expanded on the need for collaboration, and a blockchain summit provided some cogent examples. "Since 2016, there has been a significant move from banks fearing start-ups and start-ups wanting to disrupt banks, to start-ups and banks working together in … [Read more...] about Collaboration: Blockchain
Chicago Corner 10/15/17
For an overview of Chicago's current FinTech ecosystem, take a look at Douglas Monieson's "FinTech on the prairie: What's the state of Chicago's FinTech ecosystem?" Chicago has always had a broad-based, business-to-business economy, and that's the reason "Why Chicago's B2B enterprises and startups thrive globally," writes Fred Hoch. … [Read more...] about Chicago Corner 10/15/17
Two Banking-FinTech-Payments Conferences
Last week, I split my time between two conferences focused on banking and FinTech: two very different worlds that have more common than not, as this series of quotes show. It would be too easy to characterize the Next Money conference and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago’s Payments Symposium as the new v the old, and there’s truth in that. Yet the similarities and … [Read more...] about Two Banking-FinTech-Payments Conferences
BLOCKCHAIN Watch 10/05/17
IMF head: Cryptocurrency could be the future. Really. At a Bank of England conference in London: "In many ways, virtual currencies might just give existing currencies and monetary policy a run for their money," Christine Legarde said. . . . "It may not be wise to dismiss virtual currencies," she told the audience. "Instead, citizens may one day prefer virtual … [Read more...] about BLOCKCHAIN Watch 10/05/17