I'm not sure how this entered my feed, but it was left open on a browser tab. I hit play while doing some other work and eventually stopped whatever I was doing to listen to it. It's excellent and worth your time if you're building a company right now for the first or fifth time.… Continue reading Operating During a Downturn
Category: written-words
Dwolla Patents
Say what you will about patents. The patent system is undoubtedly a unique one. Last week, a few patents showed up on my virtual doorstep with many Dwolla names from the past and present. I printed them out and read them to jog my memory. It was a fun throwback to some of the challenges… Continue reading Dwolla Patents
Access Leverage
The leverage someone or something gets through access to information, a computing system, or a database. When thinking about differences between web2 and web3, this is something that continually sticks out as being unique. Granted access to a dataset or system can change the course of a project and certainly all of the human lives… Continue reading Access Leverage
How to build a Neobank
Here is the e-mail that spawned this... "Hey Ben - Included is ______ who is starting starting a neobank to service _____ market. She's really close to the market but figuring out what providers to put together to make this work. Can you help offer some guidance?" I'm going to post my answer here because… Continue reading How to build a Neobank
Bad Ideas
A few years ago Jami bought me a notebook with Bad IDEAS inscribed on the cover. The notebook goes almost everywhere with me. It has become a stage for expressing thoughts bouncing around in my head. I cherish it. https://www.instagram.com/p/B8mCBxygucf/ After a nice New Years with our family, I opened up the book and started… Continue reading Bad Ideas
Games and Gains
My son plays Fortnite like a lot of people. He puts in real hours. I asked him to look and over his lifespan of the game he's put in over a thousand hours. We could be judgmental parents but I bet during my teenage years I put in that or more playing Golden Eye. Throw… Continue reading Games and Gains
The Speed Of FinTech
Yesterday was V-Sum_Eight, which was great. One of the demos was from Alloy. Their product makes it much easier for banks, FinTechs, and others, to validate an end user's identity. This has a special place in my heart because I've experienced the brain damage of solving the problem first hand in a far less elegant… Continue reading The Speed Of FinTech
Diverse Children’s Books
A close friend of mine has spent years looking for and cataloging diverse children's books. When she shared the list I was overwhelmed by it. I asked her permission to share it here because it's the best list I've seen to date on the topic. Hopefully some of you find as much in this list… Continue reading Diverse Children’s Books
CBDC & Currency Bandwidth
CBDC is a fascinating topic. Central Bank Digital Currency is simply digital money but at times this feels perplexing. Perplexing because money is mostly already digital and there are plenty of things to consider when creating a CBDC. When money is printed it's because a computer said it was available to print and another computer… Continue reading CBDC & Currency Bandwidth
The Value Layer
The phrase the value layer of the internet is peppered throughout my work. When I say, the value layer of the internet, what I'm speaking to is the immensely complex series of systems that support value exchange across the internet. I've come to think about this as being comprised of access, value types, transfer types,… Continue reading The Value Layer