There is something quietly generous about the weekend the clocks go back. An extra hour, handed over with no strings attached. Some people sleep through it. I tend to spend mine with a coffee, looking out over a Guernsey autumn morning and thinking about what the next few months might hold.
This year, there’s a lot to think about. Almost all of it is good.
A rulebook worth waiting for
I’ve spent a good part of the last two years in conversations about regulation, and I’ll admit that isn’t everyone’s idea of a good time. But it matters. The GFSC’s responses to the Digital Finance Initiative Consultation are coming to life, and the Commission’s stablecoin rules are due this autumn.
For TVVIN, that is the moment we have been building towards. My focus this winter is getting our stablecoins to operational release: real clients, real minting and redemption, real money moving on-chain, all backed one-for-one and properly supervised from Guernsey.
It’s a good time to be doing it. The US finalised its first federal stablecoin rule last week, and Canada published its draft rules days later. The world is settling on what a trustworthy stablecoin looks like. I’m proud that Guernsey is in that conversation, and not just watching it.
Banks people can walk into
The other half of my working week belongs to banxlocal. Where TVVIN is about the plumbing of money, banxlocal is about the front door. Too many high streets have lost their banks, and with them the simple reassurance of talking to a person.
We think the branch still has a future, just not in its old form. Shared, multi-bank and rooted in the community. Over the coming months we will be taking that idea off the page and onto the high street.
Something new on the wind
And then there’s the part I can’t fully talk about yet. I’m getting involved in renewable energy and electric vehicles, two things I have cared about for a long time and which make a particular kind of sense on an island.
We import almost all of our energy, and most of our journeys are short. That combination is a problem and an opportunity in equal measure. More on this soon. I promise it will be worth the wait.
Darker evenings, brighter outlook
The nights are drawing in, but the outlook feels brighter than it has for a while. Regulation is catching up with innovation. The infrastructure is ready. And the projects I care about are moving from plans into practice.
So I’ll take the extra hour, and say thank you for it. There’s plenty to do with the rest.
