'technology' Category
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2018 will be the Year of the Regulator
January 11, 2018Almost exactly two years I proclaimed that 2016 would be the Year of the European Entrepreneur. At least two other geopolitical earthquakes — in the UK and the US of course — garnered most of the attention in 2016, and understandably so. Still, I submit that a case could be made that several European startups […]
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Bitcoin forecasting
December 15, 2017Would somebody please build a blockchain which immutably tracks the forecasts for the year-end bitcoin price from all these self-annointed pundits ?
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2017 Startup holiday gift guide
December 11, 2017Back by popular request, I’ve compiled a holiday gift guide featuring companies and projects in which I’ve invested or have been involved in some form. La Belle Assiette. Host your family and/or friends to a delicious dinner party prepared by a professional chef at your home with La Belle Assiette. Here are some free credit […]
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Japanese government statement on ICOs
November 4, 2017Almost as if reinforcing the point about constructive regulation, Japan’s Financial Services Authority published a statement yesterday on ICOs. The brief statement (full statement in english here) warns interested investors of the risks of ICOs: price volatility and fraud potential. The FSA helpfully invites inquires via email. “A certain token issued in an ICO falls […]
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Japan: Bitcoin #1 now in paperback
October 28, 2017For those of you who prefer paperbacks over e-books (like me), Japan: Bitcoin #1 is now available on Amazon in paperback form in most major markets. Profits from the sale of this book are directed to rebuilding efforts in Japan’s Tohoku region. I’d like to reiterate my appreciation to the numerous people who helped make […]
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Self-doubt about self-driving
October 21, 2017Perhaps inspired by some discussions at last week’s Innovative City Forum as well as the prior AI Summit, I’ve been reflecting on the impact on our cities of all this exciting innovation in driverless vehicles. We speak a lot about the virtues of self-driving cars, and there are many. As evidenced by this recent test […]
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Will Japan ban ICOs ? Constructive regulation more likely.
October 14, 2017A lot of people have been asking my opinion on whether Japan will ban ICOs. China and South Korea have essentially implemented full-on bans of cryptocurrency and ICOs. A Siberian winter for cryptocurrencies also appears imminent in Russia. So will Japan follow suit ? The short answer is: I really don’t know, but I think […]
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Japan: Bitcoin #1
October 7, 2017Despite Japan’s accounting for half of the worldwide bitcoin trading volume daily (yes, half !), I could not locate any substantial research on this fascinating phenomenon. Frustrated by this absence, I decided to write a book about it. A primer on the world’s leading country for bitcoin and blockchain adoption Japan, the world’s third largest […]
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Five takeaways from Japan’s AI Tech Leaders Summit
August 26, 2017Some of the Asia’s leading experts in artificial intelligence mingled yesterday with a small group of corporate acquirers, startups, and investors at the first ever Japan AI Summit. Here are my five takeaways from the interactions: 5. The sovereign gap is widening In advanced AI research, the U.S. still has the lead, but China has […]
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AI Startups: You’ll want to read this
July 14, 2017As this recent opinion piece in the New York Times from Lee Kai-Fu suggests, perhaps the greatest threat of Artificial Intelligence is the devolution into a world AI have- and have-not countries. China, Japan, and the U.S. have taken note, and are dedicating research efforts to the domain. If any European nation possesses the same […]
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Incumbent banks: startups are coming for you
July 7, 2017In my previous post I wrote about the sparsity of financial services and products from incumbent banks for small businesses that act globally. This chasm has grown as the increasing proliferation of globally-minded startups face a retail banking sector that is stagnating for reasons of inflexible business models, obsolete systems, and corporate inertia. Fortunately for […]
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Global startups hamstrung by local banks
June 30, 2017In countries with developed financial systems, small and medium sized businesses have long been at a disadvantage for banking services relative to large firms and even relative to consumers. In this piece and the one that follows I’ll review some of the basic business banking services on offer which I’ve experienced firsthand as both an […]