Fintech and DeFi Research Archive — The Fintech Blueprint

Origins of Metamask's 20 million Web3 users, with co-founder Dan Finlay

In this conversation, we chat with Daniel Finlay – a former Apple software developer, co-founder and co-lead developer on MetaMask – a non-custodial Ethereum wallet, allowing users to store Ether and other ERC-20 tokens and make transactions. Further. With the growth of DeFi and NFTs over the past year, MetaMask has increased in prominence as an entry point for novice users. So much so that its user base is now over 20 million monthly active users.

More specifically, we touch on how Dan went from teaching kids to code to having an app rejected by the Apple App Store to MetaMask, the philosophy behind e-government, questioning the role and job of software engineers, how crypto wallets compare to neobanks, and so so much more!

paytech, metaverse, crypto, decentralized finance, DAOs, digital investingLex SokolinDecember 3, 2021MetaMask, Apple, Ethereum

What will Stripe do in crypto?

In this discussion, we explore ways that Stripe — arguably the best American fintech company full-stop, although who would want to mess with Square — could be entering the crypto space. We consider approaches similar to the payment onramps, then discuss the underlying market structure powering those experiences, and highlight more generally the role of gateways relative to protocols. We touch on the role of custodians, banks, and wallets, as well as Square’s attempt, the tbDEX, where KYC/AML comes down to forms of opt-in identity. Finally, we address questions about Circle and USDC, and how stablecoins differ from the rails on which they travel.

Powering the FX behind Africa's trillion-dollar growth, with Aza CEO Elizabeth Rossiello

In this conversation, we chat with Elizabeth Rossiello – the CEO and founder of AZA, an established provider of currency trading solutions which accelerate global access to frontier markets through an innovative infrastructure. Elizabeth founded the company in 2013 in Nairobi, Kenya and has expanded it to 10+ markets across Africa and Europe.

Before founding AZA, Elizabeth was a rating analyst for microfinance institutions across sub-Saharan Africa, consulting for Grameen Foundation, Gates Foundation and the Acumen Fund, as well as working with regulators and policy-makers on legislation for financial innovations. Elizabeth co-chairs the World Economic Forum's Council on Blockchain and holds an M.A. in International Business and Finance from Columbia University.

More specifically, we touch on ratings agencies and the activity of rating intitutions, M-Pesa and how it influenced the thinking towards a crypto-centric future, Africa’s banking landscape and some of the outstanding issues it faces, Bitpesa and how it became Aza, banking infrastructure in Africa, and so so much more!

crypto, paytech, Africa, crowdfunding, digital investingLex SokolinNovember 26, 2021AZA Finance, BitPesa, mPesa, PayPal, Bitcoin

Digitizing banks with better BNPL, Underwriting, and Anti-Fraud Tech, with Amount CEO Adam Hughes

In this conversation, we chat with Adam Hughes – the Chief Executive Officer at Amount, a technology company focused on accelerating the world’s transition to digital financial services via its digital retail banking platform, world-class digital authentication & fraud prevention tools, and ecommerce point-of-sale financing technology.

More specifically, we touch on digital lending industry Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), as well as the trends of working with large banks and enabling their digital transformation to access some of these themes as part of embedded finance and banking-as-a-service.

digital lending, digital transformation, mega banks, neobank, paytech, embedded financeLex SokolinNovember 19, 2021Amount, Avant, Enova

Plaid's payments ecosystem & Affirm's decoupled debit card reveal embedded finance Trojan Horse

In this analysis, we want to update the discussion of card networks, money movement, and the potential existential threat — or perhaps evolution — to existing infrastructure. It continues the thread on articles like Is Plaid cheap at $5.3 billion for $500 billion Visa? and Marqeta's $300MM of revenue & Ethereum's $20B in ann. transaction fees highlight opportunity and industry structure, and Who are the customers of Embedded Finance, and what do they reveal about Stripe, Affirm, DriveWealth, and Green Dot?, and more generally in this research section. We map Plaid’s progress in building out a payments ecosystem, and highlight Affirm’s debit card product powered in a novel manner through open banking. The analysis visualizes a likely evolution of the space with the introduction of Web3, and highlights a couple of early symptoms.

paytech, open banking / PSD2, neobank, embedded financeLex SokolinNovember 10, 2021Visa, MasterCard, Marqeta, Affirm, Plaid, Yodlee, Evolve Bank & Trust

How China is winning the race in Fintech, Payments, and CBDCs, with Fintech expert Richard Turrin

In this conversation, we chat with Richard Turrin – an award-winning executive, previously heading FinTech teams at IBM, following a twenty-year career, heading trading teams at global investment banks. He’s also the author of the number one international bestseller, Innovation Lab Excellence. One of his books is Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, which brings the story of China’s incredible new central bank digital currency to the west. He lives in Shanghai, China, where he’s had the privilege of living in China’s cashless revolution firsthand.

central bank / CBDC, China, paytech, super appLex SokolinOctober 22, 2021China, Ant Financial, Tencent, Alibaba

Will Paypal's digital wallet beat Google Pay and Square Cash App on shopping & banking?

PayPal just launched what it calls a super app. It has a cash account with a 0.40% interest rate, direct deposit, money movement, bill pay, and remittance features. It also integrates shopping functionality with rewards and cash back. In this analysis, we compare this offering with Google Pay and Square Cash App, as well as trace the DNA of PayPal to understand whether such an offering will succeed where others failed.

neobank, paytech, embedded financeLex SokolinSeptember 29, 2021PayPal, Google, Square, Ant Financial, Amazon, Shopify, Venmo, Braintree, Chime

Unlocking Demand-side growth with Square's payment network and Goldman's GreenSky acquisition

Square upgrades Cash App into a payment processing powerhouse, completing the loop between the consumer and merchant side of the house. Goldman Sachs acquires GreenSky, adding a lending business at the point of intent. This analysis connects these symptoms into a framework explaining the increasing integration between commerce and finance, and the increasing role that demand generation plays. That in turn explains how the attention and creator economies interconnect with financial services.

The principle behind Mastercard's CipherTrace acquisition, L1 growth, and IRS getting your bank data

Paying attention is the path to seeing and doing. Mastercard has bought CipherTrace to see blockchain-based finance, to launch new businesses, and to plug in more networks into its nexus. The crypto networks proliferate at every layer, creating more computation on Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, Fantom, and Solana. The US executive seeks to see more too, asking the banks for their records of financial transactions to enforce taxation compliance.

OnlyFans bank-forced adult content ban, its failure, and the Metaphysics of Finance

We talk about OnlyFans, and how its bank vendors pressured it to try to ban adult content, and how and why that failed. We also discuss the crypto tax provisions in the Senate version of the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, and their impracticality. These themes are tied together with a metaphysical hypothesis about the role of financial services, anchored in a discussion of the Platonic model of the mind. How are rationality, emotion, and social context involved to define the shape of our industry?

Treasury Prime CEO Chris Dean on Banking-as-a-service, embedded finance, and the evolution of FinTech API infrastructure

In this conversation, we chat with Chris Dean, who is the Founder & CEO at Treasury Prime. Previously, Chris was the CTO & VP of Engineering at Standard Treasury, which was acquired by Silicon Valley Bank for an undisclosed amount.

More specifically, we discuss all things banking-as-a-service, FinTech APIs, embedded finance, and the general evolution of the FinTech banking industry over the last decade.

The fundamentals of Circle's $4.5B SPAC, Robinhood's IPO, and the $30B of fintech venture capital

Last quarter, fintech funding rose to $30 billion, the highest on record. $14 billion of SPAC capital is waiting to take these companies public. Robinhood and Circle are about to float on the public markets, via SPAC and IPO. In this analysis, we explore the fundamentals of both companies, as well as the unifying thesis that explains their growth.

Fintech venture investing after a career in the US treasury and Wall St equity research, with Patrick Pinschmidt of MiddleGame Ventures Jul 9 2

In this conversation, we talk all things Wall Street, FinTech, and Venture Capital with Patrick Pinschmidt, who's the general partner and co-founder at MiddleGame Ventures.

More specifically, we discuss the ups and downs of sell-side research in the early 2000s, the evolution of financial technology to today’s FinTech, an insight into the Financial Stability Oversight Council at the US Treasury Department, the founding of Middlegame Ventures and its impressive investment portfolio, and the transformation of financial services fueled by the rapid innovation in FinTech.

Building the best payments fiat to crypto onramp, with Ivan Soto-Wright of MoonPay

In this conversation, we have a really cool conversation on fintech, crypto assets, payments and all the things around it with Ivan Soto-Wright, the CEO and Co-founder of MoonPay.

More specifically, we discuss Liability-driven Investment (LDI), the proliferation of AI in personal finance to drive sound decision-making, innovation in finance is following the same trajectory that resulted in VOIP for the telecommunication industry, the geographical maze of crypto KYC, payment networks, and crypto payment processing.

Marqeta's $300MM of revenue & Ethereum's $20B in ann. transaction fees highlight opportunity and industry structure

This week, we cover these ideas:

How market structure determines the types of companies and projects that succeed
A walk through Marqeta’s economics and business model, and how Square’s Cash App and DoorDash were needed for success
The emerging $10B transaction revenue pool on Ethereum, MEV, and the changes to mining and gas

Scaling B2B cross-border payments and the competition between global payment rails, with Marwan Forzley of Veem

In this conversation, we talk with Marwan Forzley of Veem about how the rampant evolution of the mobile phone spurred his fascination to turn the phone into a business-to-business (B2B) payments network. Additionally, we explore how generations of companies have tried to use correspondent banking to solve for B2B cross border and failed, the intricacies of payment rails and the infrastructure to support them, the impact of COVID on global e-commerce, how the future will blend the distinctions between digital wallets, banking services, and crypto wallets.

paytech, small business, eCommerceLex SokolinApril 30, 2021Bitcoin, Ethereum, Veem, Ripple, SWIFT, ACH, Visa, MasterCard

Building global paytech companies and communities with Anil Aggarwal of TxVia, Money2020, and Fintech Meetup

In this conversation, we talk with Anil Aggarwal of Clarity Payment Solutions (acquired by TSYS) and TxVia (acquired by Google) about how he “stumbled” upon the payment space at the right time.

Anil is an absolute FinTech icon as the founder of renowned FinTech conferences – Money20/20 and FinTech Meetup. Additionally, we explore the various concepts of payment network utlity, the market timing large platform shifts, as well as, how social capital and community formation can serve as drivers towards the monetization of our attention even further.

Why Square bought Jay Z's music service Tidal for $300MM, and how the NFT-driven transformation of music royalties and ownership can explain this future

This week, we look at:

Square acquiring Tidal and its 1-2 million of subscribers for $297 million, and the logic for what a payment processors has in common with the creative industry
How celebrities and creators like Mark Cuban, Gary Vaynerchuk, Grimes, 3LAU and others are generating millions in NFT sales
The impact on the economic model of the music industry, including a look at royalty structures, revenue pools, and financial vehicles when tokenized
The philosophical divide growing between a feudal platformed commons (e.g., YouTube) and a collectivist anarchist capitalism

The Federal Reserve Payment Processor, its $100B of revenue, and whether blockchains and L2s can match the value it settles

Let’s do some math homework. It’s good for you:

The Federal Reserve money movement system broke for several hours. We look deeply into its volumes and transactions, and value it like a Fintech unicorn.
The Ethereum ecosystem is throwing around as much volume in settlement as the Fed check processing system. We explore scalability barriers and solutions.
Can eCommerce fit into our emerging infrastructure? We anchor to the market numbers in China and the United States.

Things break.

Sometimes the things that break are the US Federal Reserve ACH service, Check 21, FedCash, Fedwire, and the national settlement service. They were down for a few hours — discovered at 11AM on Feb 24th and still in trouble at 3PM that day. Everything is now up and running again.

paytech, crypto, eCommerceLex SokolinMarch 1, 2021Federal Reserve, Ethereum, Bitcoin, Fedwire, ACH, Loopring, Optimism, Polygon / Matic, Skale, xDai, OMG

How $12 Billion in Fintech SPAC capital is teaching us about the economics of target unicorns like Payoneer, Apex, SoFi, and MoneyLion

This week, we look at:

The $12 billion in cumulative SPAC capital focused on Fintech, of which $3.6 billion has been raised in 2021 Q1 alone
Analysis of the private and public financial services markets and their valuations of profitability and revenue
A deeper look at the fundamentals and business mix of SPAC targets MoneyLion, Payoneer, Apex Clearing, and SoFi
Not everything that glitters is gold

IPO / SPAC, neobank, paytech, venture capitalLex SokolinFebruary 15, 2021MoneyLion, Payoneer, Apex Clearing, SoFi

Fintech & DeFi Research Archive🔄

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