This weekly summary from our 7 experts, brings you insights based on their experience as investors, entrepreneurs & executives.
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Your Editor is Bernard Lunn. He is also the CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy and occasional opinion columnist.
Monday Ilias Hatzis our Greece-based crypto entrepreneur (Founder & CEO at Mercato Blockchain Corporation AG and Weekly Columnist at Daily Fintech) @iliashatzis wrote Why Crypto needs robo-advisors?
Robotization coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping every aspect of our lives. When we hear the term “robo-advisor”, our imagination is filled with images from science-fiction movies. But when we refer to robo-advisors, we mean things like bots, virtual robots or algorithms that automate different tasks. Robo-advisors grew out of the ashes of the 2008 financial crisis. Robo-advisors gained traction when people lost faith in traditional financial advisors and were looking for alternatives with lower fees. Startups like Betterment and Wealthfront were among the first to fill this void over a decade ago. They offered algorithm-driven financial planning services with little to no human supervision. If fintech wasn’t already disrupting the financial services industry, adding AI to the equation is an even bigger game-changer for finance across the globe. The cryptocurrency market needs robo-advisors to simplify investing and achieve widespread adoption.
Editor note: Robo Advisers in the legacy world is already a scale game with some existing dominant players. Robo Advisers in the crypto world is still a frontier market space without dominant players.
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Tuesday Efi Pylarinou @efipm our Swiss-based Fintech Adviser, founder of Efi Pylarinou Advisory and a Fintech/Blockchain influencer – No.3 influencer in the finance sector by Refinitiv Global Social Media 2019 wrote Alternative Data gained more trust and ML algorithms got good training
The conversation around the interaction between data, algorithms and humans is evolving.
Once again, A crisis like no other!
The COVID19 induced crisis of course, provides us with more data and experience on the topic of data, algorithms, investing etc.
Once again, A crisis like no other, is actually the title of an AQR article at the end of March. The 20+yrs old quant king has suffered after a very difficult 2018 (the so-called Red October) which led to large outflows and over 1000 layoffs- Investors pull billions from quant king AQR as performance slumps – Financial News.
There has never been a better time to bring up the conversation on whether Data (fundamental, conventional and alternative) made a difference during this crisis. Did algorithms help and in what way? And what about the interaction of humans with Data and algorithms?
Editor note: Investors adapt the famous quote to “It’s the Data Stupid”. Creating and using data that is reliable, transparent and actionable is not simple. Efi analyses ventures working in this exciting frontier space.
Alan Scott Managing Director EMEA at 24 Exchange @Alan_SmartMoney wrote Stablecoin News for week ending Tuesday 2 June 2020
This weekly snapshot is the news that matters in the Stablecoin market.
Wednesday Jessica Ellerm @jessicaellerm, our Australia-based Fintech entrepreneur and thought leader specializing in Small Business and the Gig Economy & CEO/Co-Founder of Zuper, a new superannuation startup in Australia wrote Australia’s Zip Co Cements Global Payments Presence With Acquisition Of QuadPay
Many quality listed fintech’s have represented once in a decade buying opportunities after the bottom fell out of the global market in mid-March.
In Australia, Zip Co falls well and truly into that category, having rallied off lows of around $1.17 in March to close at $6.35 at the close of ASX trade on Wednesday.
The buy now pay later fintech is steaming ahead on other fronts too, having this week announced the acquisition of US buy now pay later fintech QuadPay, for $403 million.
Editor note: This is a fascinating tale of a company on second tier exchange (not NYSE or NASDAQ) competing on the world stage using public market equity as currency.
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Thursday Patrick Kelahan @insuranceeleph1, our US based Insurtech expert (a CX, engineering & insurance professional, working with Insurers, Attorneys & Owners who also serves the insurance and Fintech world as the ‘Insurance Elephant’) wrote Life insurance as seen through the informed eyes of industry experts
Consider- a business that with a 5% increase in 2020 will add $100 Bn to its annual revenues, a business that has a customer growth potential of billions of customers, a business that in spite of billions of dollars of technology investment in the past few years remains a product that is most effectively sold person to person, and a business that in developed countries has average policy face values of more than $100,000 yet has the most effect on its growing market with policies that are sold with face values of hundreds of dollars. Yes, we are talking about life insurance. This week Daily Fintech discusses life insurance with four industry experts (and background from another) representing life insurance business on three continents.
Editor note: This is a must read for anybody who is serious about the future of Insurance. Pat asks 8 questions of 4 experts – a great panel moderator.
Thursday Christian Dreyer @x3er, our Swiss based CFA who focusses on how XBRL changes our world wrote XBRL: ESEF Conformance Suite, swaps reporting and data collection for sustainability
Editor note: This weekly snapshot is the news that matters in the XBRL market.
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Friday Bernard Lunn @LunnBernard, CEO of Daily Fintech and author of The Blockchain Economy wrote: If Security Tokens are in a coma, maybe it is time for a new look at Utility Tokens – did somebody say ICO?!
Before we had STO, we had ICO. Now the STO market is either taking a refreshing nap or in a coma – or punched by the SEC and down for a count of 10.
Before either ICO or STO became famous, somebody pointed out to me that tokenizing existing assets via what we now call Security Tokens is a big and important change but not as fundamentally game-changing as a totally new tool such as Utility Tokens. Maybe that idea of Utility Tokens is worth revisiting?
Editor note: In Legacy Finance we have Debt + Equity. In Blockchain Finance we have Security + Utility. The latter is more about marketing than capital raising but marketing efficiency drives Security value.
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Source: https://dailyfintech.com/this-week-in-fintech-ending-5-june-2020/
