Issue #344 - Towards A New Year December 30th, 2021

“It appears safe to say digital currency is now mainstream”. Even if the “digital gold” is still not the best choice for those who want a worry-free asset, and the debate on Bitcoin’s carbon footprint is still open, altcoins and the blockchain technology have already found solutions to major problems that the traditional economy was not able to address. The Forbes team looks at 5 numbers that describe very well the impact of blockchain and cryptos on the economy and financial system in 2021.

The famous designer, technology consultant and writer Neal Stephenson is the man who coined the term “Metaverse”. What today is the main character of the economic and technological revolution we’re witnessing, is the result of Stephenson’s visionary genius. In this interview by Alex Zhavoronkov, Stephenson shares his opinions on technology, literature and life.

India is with no doubt one of the nations where fintech is thriving. With this article Tanul Mishra, contributor at Entrepreneur, revisits what happened in 2021 and shares predictions about the future of fintech - that looks extremely bright.

AFF is Asia’s premier platform for global leaders in government, finance and business to exchange insights, intelligence as well as to explore business and investment opportunities.

Elon Musk is always in the headlines when it comes to cryptocurrencies. In an interview with Lex Friedman, Musk said that it is not so important to know the identity of the creator of the first crypto, but is far more important to focus on the revolution that cryptos and blockchain started.

2021 has been an important year for cryptocurrencies. In this article published on CNBC, James Ledbetter talks about his predictions for 2022, taking into account what El Salvador did, the highly probable expansion of cryptos in secondary markets, Ethereum’s competitors, the competition among big tech companies, governments’ decisions and volatility.

Security is a big issue for fintech companies: frauds and cyber attacks have damaged many firms, and we at Fintech Weekly often covered this kind of news. But there are some solutions that fintech firms can consider: Angela Scott-Briggs covers them for Tech Bullion.

The Kenyan fintech company IMFact collected about $4 million from FSD Africa Investment: the fintech company, which found an innovative solution to solve liquidity problems of microbusinesses and SMBs, demonstrated that its new business model is worth the attention of investment companies.

The regulation of cannabis in the US doesn’t mean that it ceased to be a high-risk business: Abaca chief executive, Dan Roda, talks about how fintech firms can solve the unbanked condition of firms involved in the cannabis industry.

The fintech Fnality will use blockchain technology to reduce banks’ intraday liquidity requirements by collaborating with other platforms and creating pools of liquidity.

The fintech Apollo will make smart contracts accessible to anyone: thanks to easy-to-use templates, which can also be personalized, people won’t need to know about coding to profit from the advantages of a decentralized web 3.0.