News & Updates

February has been a difficult month for me on many levels.

A family health scare brought home just how important it is to live a healthy life and keep a healthy mind. Taking pleasure from the smaller and perhaps ‘taken for granted’ circumstances.

I’ve been guilty of trying to do too much simultaneously for too long, and this has been to the detriment of the effectiveness of my work and my happiness. Sometimes I should just say no!

I recently listened to a number of audio books on the topic of time management, quality of life and similar subjects, and the take-away for me from these is that the power and ability to control what you do, what you don’t do and manage the two is what leads to satisfaction in work and personal life.

Being able to control things is a gift, controlling how much work you do, how much time you allocate to certain things, how much leisure time you take, is really the secret to happiness and satisfaction in life.

Demanding situations occur from time to time, having spent a lot of time pushing for results on a number of aspects, I now realise that all of this effort was for nought. I didn’t control the situation and therefore will always find it hard to become satisfied by it.

As we move from winter to spring, I now take a new focus on the things I can control, seek the opportunities where I can actually make a difference and then revel in the satisfaction of having done so!

More next month!

The end of 2022 was very busy and time available in my schedule prevented me from writing an update as I might usually do at year end. That said, given the state of the financial markets at that time, I was not enthused to write too much! The FTX scandal has had far more impact on my activities than I first suspected, with many clients, investors and colleagues taking a much more cautious approach even if not directly affected themselves. The recent delisting of USDT on the Canadian exchanges has also caused more concern generally – so frankly speaking, I haven’t been too inclined to write too much here as I don’t like to spead any doom and gloom. The media can do that perfectly well!

That said, I’ve met the first weeks of 2023 with a renewed optimism. I sometimes surprise myself with my ‘every cloud has a silver lining’ attitude.

I’ve not any specific update aside from the fact that the festive period and the social scene that goes with it brought me to meet lots of new people, which is one of my favourite things. I’m always inspired hearing the diversity of peoples’ personal and business lives.

This month is largely a month of catching up on a range of outstanding matters, clearing out the hangovers of 2022, and whilst I won’t write specific details on this page just yet, all my January efforts will be important in shaping the new year ahead.

People my age have been through this cycle before, with volatile and uncertain markets. The one thing that age is good for is that it provides the experience to know that there will be better times ahead, no matter how the situation looks now.

Happy new year and I wish you a positive and successful 2023!

I’m fortunate that the events surrounding the collapse and demise of FTX appear to have had little impact on me personally or my network of friends and colleagues. Of course, the ‘ripple effect’ has again set the markets into turmoil and this clearly affects everything. The worst impact is that all the good work heading towards ‘RealFi’ as opposed to DeFi has taken a step backwards and means those perhaps considering a first foray into the blockchain world have used FTX as an excuse or reason to pause again.

Cryptocurrencies need regulation. Personally, I think the idealistic world of DeFi and its anonymity is unsustainable if crypto is going to ever going to go mainstream.

I advocate change in the financial world, wholeheartedly! Having been involved in the finance sector all of my working life I know first-hand that the system is not efficient as it stands.

Regulation is coming, KYC and AML procedures will be the norm, but that doesn’t mean they have to be there in the way the market looks today.

As you will know, I advocate SSI, and specifically IAMX’s implementation of it. IAMX to my knowledge is the only 100% GDPR compliant solution which conforms to the W3C open standards for DID’s.

IAMX is now in the process of scaling up significantly, with numerous strategic and significant partners becoming more involved.

The Cardano Summit 2022 in Lausanne was a hotbed of talk about RealFi and how the cornerstone of unlocking this trajectory for the industry lies in new, more convenient, more secure and innovative ways to perform the regulatory check we all know (in our heart of hearts) that must be in place to prevent financial crime.

December is nearly here, and often it heralds a time to reflect on the year past, honestly, I’d say let’s put 2022 into the history books quietly and spend December planning and developing the space for 2023.

On the day the clocks go back to GMT and officially British Summer Time comes to an end, inevitably I’m tempted to start thinking about how the year has been for me, 10 months of the year gone, and what have been my results.

A huge swathe of this year has been devoted to IAMX and deservedly so, as it’s a huge project with massive impact and real-world benefits. The challenges have been around getting the conversation of digital identities started. I’m pleased to say though that we are now engaging in meaningful conversations, looking at real use cases and practical applications. The pinnacle of this I think will be as IAMX heads to the Cardano Summit in Lausanne in November. Digital Identity is on many people’s radars now, which is a huge shift from earlier this year when I’d say 9 out of 10 people that I mentioned it to didn’t really understand the technology, why it is so needed and what the wide-ranging benefits are.

A I develop conversations across many industry verticals which can directly benefit from a ‘one click’, GDPR compliant, secure user onboarding facility I’m encouraged by the willingness to speak that the space now has.

Elsewhere the markets continue to be slow, the crypto winter continues, and we are in something of a holding-pattern still as was wait for some positivity and confidence to return.

2023 is just around the corner, but there is a lot of work still to do this side of the end of the year!

September started with a flurry of activity on many fronts. Specifically IAMX seeing some significant progress in terms of partnership news and new innovative plans. I have now ‘beefed up’ my role in IAMX from Advisor to ‘Head of Innovation and Partnerships’ as the traction we’re seeing in these areas requires more attention and focus from me.

IAMX are heading off on a ‘roadshow’ across the Atlantic in October, visiting significant prospective partners stretching from New York to California, Canada to Florida across a two week period. By the time the team return I’m expecting to be able to break some really major news!

Other facets of my work are similarly busy, SIKA and Factiiv both making significant progress. Factiiv for example is now MVP ready on TestNet and embarks on a new phase of its journey in terms of attracting and engaging with it’s user base.

Some interesting new opportunities are under review now, and I continue to expand my network and secure relationships. Simple steps such as attending the local networking scene, whether the black tie dinner for the Guernsey Chamber, the premiere of a new movie, coffee mornings and breakfast meetings. All are opportunities to meet interesting new people.

Of course, the sad news of the death of Queen Elizabeth 2 has had an impact on the momentum of business this month as the country and commonwealth pause to pay their respects to a remarkable woman. Personally speaking, having only ever never known Britain with a Queen as monarch, a woman who conducted herself through some impossibly difficult times with grace and dignity, it’ll be an interesting time ahead to watch Britain develop in the new era with King Charles 3.

As the summer holiday season draws to a close, and people are turning their attention to children returning to school, re-immersing themselves into work I reflect on what has been a busy few weeks.

The Crypto ‘winter’ continues, along with poor news in all other markets and metrics, and with speculation rife on how long it will last and the severity of it it paints a poor forecast (if you listen to the ‘experts’. My work as an advisor has continued throughout, and whilst I have been able to enjoy the beautiful weather in Guernsey, I must confess I’ll be pleased to see the end of summer from a business perspective.

This year has been particularly notable in terms of how the holiday season disrupts the decision making processes in business. I’m sure there is a reality to the situation, but it’s been more obvious this year that it’s very easy to use it as an excuse when one or other partner is absent to delay or defer a decision. For example, a typical business with three or four founders means that if each take a two week break, it can be 6 or 8 weeks of bottleneck and broken chain of command, which renders the business to a halt during this period on anything strategic or progressive. Of course established businesses continue to serve their customers but the aspect I work with businesses on means that anything that requires a real decision is put on hold.

I’ve noticed in the last week or so that the return to work, an understanding that despite the economic climate decisions do have to be made, and that now is the time for building and making brave decisons.

History tells us that the ‘next big thing’ tends to emerge from the period of stasis that economic uncertainty brings, and so I’m buoyed by this fact and grateful to be operating in the areas that I do.

My expectations for the next few months – I’m bullish.

I say this that despite the pain that it will cause other sectors, FinTech is building rapidly and the projects I’m specifically working on now, such as IAMX, SIKA and Factiiv it seems are all on the brink of making some giant leaps forward in the coming weeks.

Obviously I’ll update significant news on these as it becomes public, but I really feel my efforts across the summer months will start to pay off as we head towards autumn!

I’ve introduced IAMX previously, however, the developments of the last few weeks merit some specific focus and attention.

Having confirmed and ratified the IAMX:DID with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) IAMX have now moved forward in bringing a lead investor, a seasoned entrepreneur, Tim Ringel. Tim also will take a position on the advisory board of IAMX, and we’re very pleased for him to join the team. Tim’s previous early stage investments include SpaceX, Spotify and AirBNB amongst others.

The IAMX token has also now been put through it’s paces and used in real life tests and pilots which will serve as evidence the legal opinion that the token has real utility.

Onboarding of e-commerce partners, online retailers and specific industry use cases is now at the forefront of my activities.

IAMX’s entry to the Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP) means the development cycle becomes rather faster and easier with more resource on hand and priority, coupled with membership of the SSI and DeFi alliances mean a rapid roll out can now be expected.

SSI and DID are going to be vital to the mass adoption of web3, the sticking point was always around who would move first. Monetizing this process was always key, something IAMX have solved gracefully and effectively, so our anticipation of wider end-user and corporate adoption grows.

Please reach out if you’d like to discuss any aspect of IAMX with me.

Yes, the temperatures are soaring, I write this on the morning after what was arguably the hottest day of the year (so far) but my title really alludes to the volume of work and the huge opportunities the current ‘crypto winter’ is delivering.

Specifically at IAMX the pace is really gathering, with World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ratification a real life use case delivered, adoption into the Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIP) program and membership of the Cardano DeFi and SSI Alliances, we are really seeing the topic of Self Sovereign Identity (SSI) being discussed widely.

My activities are, as usual, connecting, discussing, introducing the project to a wide range of interested parties – from future partners, service providers, institutions and the like. I’m always happy to speak on this topic though as it’s honestly one of the key enablers to a safer, more secure internet, metaverse and digital life.

SIKA is also moving ahead fast, with three separate patents for the IP now logged at the US patent office, the development progressing smoothly and the outreach for partners well underway there will be a heavy workload in the coming months delivering this innovative and exciting platform.

Factiiv is nearing MVP which means the pressure to tie up some of the administrative and organisational sides has increased. I’m now involved with selection of the blockchain, jurisdiction choices and of course strategic partnerships!

Following some travel in Europe in May and June, spending July in Guernsey is delightful. The weather, beaches, evening walks and the general pace of life, away from my desk, is ideal!

2022 is literally flying by! The longest day of the year has passed, and we draw towards the end of June, I’m just taking a minute to reflect on how the year has been so far, and, importantly, what’s in store for the next half.

Having decided to unshackle myself from a full time post and take on a variety of projects this year I have been amazed by the diversity of project styles and approaches to market. Spending time abroad visiting, meeting and interacting has been a big part of the first half of 2022, and this schedule is likely to continue.

One project that I went to meet with the founder of, and that I’m particularly pleased to be able to talk about finally is SIKA – this has been a work in progress for some time, I first mentioned the project in my post in early May and I’m pleased, now that the patents are filed, we can start to talk about it and begin this journey.

SIKA (https://sika.fund) brings a new way to invest in stocks, shares, commodities, bonds – in fact pretty much anything. Using some very clever IP protected technology it serves new markets, provides new combinations and new possibilities! I’ll write more on this over the coming months! I’ve now added the project to my LinkedIn profile of current appointments which I’m pleased to have finally done.

Looking ahead, the second half of the year looks to continue to be busy as I say. I’m being introduced to people all the time, founders, investors, tech people etc. Building my network and developing my professional relationships continually.

Whilst the crypto markets are depressed, and there is a lot of pain being felt right now, the opportunity for investment into start-ups has never been better, and I’m seeing a lot of renewed interest in the projects that have taken a pragmatic approach to their valuation given the ‘correction’ in the market.

I suspect the coming summer months specifically will be spent in delivering on this platform and as things begin to turn around I expect a strong finish to 2022, so no time to waste!

After driving approximately 4,500 miles on my visits to Gibraltar, Portugal, Spain, France and Monaco it’s a real pleasure to be back behind my desk and getting into the real day to day of my work.

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy being on the road, the journey was well worth every mile, visiting Damex, and IAMX, a meeting to develop a new project that isn’t ready to be unveiled yet, attending Metaverse conference and meeting lots of like-minded people at various other locations and events is generally a pleasing part of my work, but having conducted business over zoom/teams/meet for so long now, it somehow feels like getting things done in person is slightly more difficult?

Video calls offer the speed of literally leaping from continent to continent at will. Face to face meetings seem to take longer to plan, run on a lot longer and when you come away you still have to follow everything up in email or message!

What I really like though is the free ranging nature of face to face conversations. They offer the opportunity to really get to understand and connect with the client/supplier/colleague in a way that is lost on zoom.

IAMX is my lead project now taking perhaps as much as 50% of my average day, the deck looks great, the explanation of the project is clear and easy to follow, and there is a real drive to get the first use cases live and in use. Factiiv then takes a lot of my day now, as this is really gathering pace.

I keep my eyes open for other work of course as . One such ad hoc task whilst on the road was closing a funding round for equity in a Peruvian Neo-Bank. Introducing a ‘smart money’ partner to this company was a pleasure and a further round now opens which I am hopeful to fill also.

The crypto investors have taken a beating in the last few weeks, and understandably are ‘hodling’ to a large extent. My attention therefore is turned towards more traditional and institutional connections who are not affected in the same way right now.

I hope to be able to bring news of the ‘secret’ project next post!

Rolling my sleeves up and getting on with things is the format for this month now the bank holiday/jubilee weekend is past us. I think my zoom subscription and calendly link will be utilised a lot this month!