PayTM shows how not to balance risk and growth, CBDCs won't break the banks, Apple Vision Pro shows the metaverse is alive and well.
Newsletter No 100, is brought to you with gratitude just like Van Gogh's Sunflowers
Artwork of the day: Sunflowers, Vincent van Gogh, January 1889 - 1889
Van Gogh’s paintings of Sunflowers are among his most famous. He did them in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889. Vincent painted five large canvases with sunflowers in a vase, with three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’. In this way, he demonstrated that it was possible to create an image with numerous variations of a single colour, without any loss of eloquence.
Van Gogh wrote that the sunflower paintings had a special significance for him: they communicated ‘gratitude.’
This is newsletter number 100 on Substack, and I’d like to convey my gratitude to all subscribers who read, enjoy, and share my writing! Thank you!
Your notes and encouragement are what keep me writing!
Van Gogh painted his sunflowers with just three shades of yellow without a “loss of eloquence.”
Ironically, Van Gogh’s three shades of yellow are a lot like fintech, which is fueled by perhaps three shades of digital: cloud APIs, analytics, and AI. The problem is that fintech seems not to have achieved the same eloquence, with companies like PayTM and Revolut leading the charge for growth at the expense of integrity.
The same lack of eloquence also arises from banks’s continued assault on CBDC. Banks also paint with a limited palate with three shades of trust. This trust is being assaulted by their outrageous claims that CBDC will irreparably harm banks. Once again, this week, I attack this absurd claim.
With all the talk about Apple’s Vision Pro, the metaverse is back! The metaverse was the big thing in 2022 and has since been displaced by AI as the favorite “shiny new toy” of the tech scene. The BIS looks at the metaverse, likes what it sees, and proposes three shades of how it will change our world!
Finally, I ask the provocative question: Do we focus too much on fintech? I ask that question because of a fabulous report covering the world’s top Ten megatrends that helps give fintech important context.
Thank you again for subscribing!
SPECIAL NOTE
I am considering changing the frequency of the Cashless newsletter and need your feedback.
Would you prefer to see this newsletter 2x or 3x per week during the work week, or should I continue this as a Sunday-only newsletter?
My motivation for the change is that the best-performing newsletters on substack are all 3x weekly, during the work week, not on weekends.
What do you think?
Payment Risks Drive Growth, Tell That to PayTM!
Never have the stars aligned more perfectly for a McKinsey report on managing payment risks because PayTM is a perfect example of how NOT to do this! For those who may not know, India’s famous payment fintech PayTM has been banned from accepting new credit card transactions, and digital wallets are in runoff mode, effectively shutting down the company’s…
Thank you for sharing Cashless with friends and colleagues!
BUSTED: Bank of Canada shows CBDC will not kill banks
The 39% impact to bank deposits shown above is considered a "mistake" and an overestimate. This is what banks do all the time to stir fear of CBDC disruption! ”Under this extensive network design, if we misspecify the model by neglecting the complementarity between deposits and other financial products, we would significantly overestimate the impact of a…
Thank you to all my subscribers! Become one now!
The Metaverse Beyond the Hype: Three Ways It Will Change Our World
Thanks to Apple’s new Vision Pro and the stream of articles about the USD 3500 plunge into “spatial computing,” it’s once again a good time to talk about the metaverse! Remember the metaverse? Before GenAI became the “sweetheart” of VCs, Web3 and the Metaverse dominated the news in 2022.
I would love to hear from you! Let me know what you think!
TEN Megatrends that Will Rock Your World 🤘🏼⚡
We focus too much on fintech!
Did I really write that?
That may sound odd from a fintech author and self-proclaimed guru, so let me explain.
The biggest issue facing fintech isn't the nuts and bolts that hold it together but the role it will play in a world dealing with disruption across all aspects of our lives.
That's why this report on megatrends by the DUBAI FUTURE FOUNDATION is so important.
It's a great read that helps us consider how fintech fits in the context of much broader tech and societal disruption.
👉TAKEAWAYS:
The ten Megatrends
1. MATERIALS REVOLUTION
2. BOUNDLESS MULTIDIMENSIONAL DATA
3. TECHNOLOGICAL VULNERABILITIES
4. ENERGY BOUNDARIES
5. SAVING ECOSYSTEMS
6. BORDERLESS WORLD – FLUID ECONOMIES
🔥This was my personal favorite section and where fintech shines
7. DIGITAL REALITIES
8. LIVING WITH AUTONOMOUS ROBOTS AND AUTOMATION
9. FUTURE HUMANITY
10. ADVANCED HEALTH AND NUTRITION
👊STRAIGHT TALK👊
"Context is everything."
"Nothing exists and, therefore, can be understood in isolation from its context, for it is context that gives meaning to what we think and do."
That also works for fintech, and these megatrends give context to fintech in the big picture.
Think of fintech as an actor, playing a dominant role in creating a "Borderless World" (Chpt 6) while playing a supporting or even cameo role in many other megatrends.
So do we (I) focus too much on fintech? Yes, we need to see it in the context of the many other technologies that will "rock our world" in the future.
Thoughts?
A big thank you to all my subscribers! I appreciate your notes telling me how much you enjoy reading the Cashless newsletter.
Join them by subscribing! You’ll be glad you did!
I call myself a spiritualist.
Even if the whole planet explodes, my eternal Soul will reincarnate elsewhere.
Maybe my next skin will be green, who knows? ;-)
Love the newsletter Rich! And since attention is the limited resource all writers contend for, your consolidated approach of issuing the newsletter weekly is wise. The world needs less noise, not more and sending it once on Sunday diminishes noise while demanding focused attention!
Btw just read your article on PayTM. 😳I turned down a job in 2021 to bring PayTM to the US. So glad I did!