Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says that he expects inflation to persist this year as a fresh narrative takes shape.
As we usher in a near year, resolutions and renewed commitments, our daily lives, and the technologies we use are also seeing the light of new possibilities.
The chief executive of one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies has warned that cyber attacks, rather than natural catastrophes, will become “uninsurable” as the disruption from hacks continues to grow.
Karsten Wenzlaff, Advisor
August 26th, 2025
Karsten Wenzlaff is a Crowdfunding and Fintech Expert from Germany. He is Secretary-General of Digit[...]
Category Archives: Voices
Pomp Recommended Book: The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
The Pomp Letter | Anthony Pomp | Jan 16, 2023
- Overview: The world is littered with people who dream, but very few who have the courage to act. You can see this highlighted in every industry. Pressfield assigns a name to the friction that prevents action — Resistance — and then unpacks how you can overcome whatever you are facing, so you can produce your best work. This book is part motivation, part psychology lesson. It is worth reading every page.
See: Why Creativity is Essential for Your New Business
- Key Takeways:
- Everyone has a talent that arms them with the ability to create something valuable for the world. Very few people act on this talent because they give in to “Resistance.”
- Pay attention when you fear something. It is a good sign that you should attack that activity with an immense level of enthusiasm. You will be surprised by the positive impact of completing the task.
- There is one strategy that continually defeats Resistance. You must turn pro at your specific craft. If you do this, you have a shot of conquering Resistance.
- You have to ignore the haters. They will always surface as you build momentum. The professional understands why they are haters and chooses to keep working.
- Consistency is essential to defeating Resistance. Without consistency, you will self-sabotage. Do the work. Sit down. Be consistent.
See: Creating a Scale-up Marketing Strategy That Works
Select Quotes:
- Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us.
- “The enemy is a very good teacher.” - the Dalai Lama
- Resistance is always lying and always full of shit.
- Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement.
- It’s one thing to lie to ourselves. It’s another thing to believe it.
- The professional endures adversity.
- Resistance feeds on fear.
- We fear discovering that we are more than we think we are.
- To labor in the arts for any reason other than love is prostitution.
- In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it.
- Pomp's past week’s book was The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. Highly recommend reading it.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Billionaire Predicts Wage Inflation in 2023 – Investment Approach
The Daily Hodl | Jan 9, 2023
Billionaire venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya says that he expects inflation to persist this year as a fresh narrative takes shape.
- 3 chapters of inflation:
- So 2021, chapter one, was all about energy inflation… It caused that initial spike in inflation, and then we had it come off…
- 2022 was really the story of goods inflation. All these prices and all of these things went up because the input costs went up, and we all had to bear the implications of that. But then that started to ebb.
- 2023: as the labor participation rate stays low and continues to go down, and also it’s compounded by an unemployment rate that may go up, it’s going to be harder and harder to get people to do the work you need at the company you have unless you pay them more.
- If that gets exaggerated, then inflation will stay where it is.”
See: a16z: Big Fintech Ideas to Tackle in 2023
Conservative investment strategy:
“I would have a combination of cash and the front end of the yield curve, so Treasury bills all the way up to two-year bonds. You can generate 4.5%, probably by the end of this year 5% pretty safely owning this stuff while you wait for things to become more certain. The way that I think about it is that I would rather miss the first 10% or 15% of a rally once we’re really done this stuff than try to overcorrect and try to pick a bottom.”
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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PBOC Restructures Ant Group: Jack Ma to Lose Control
BBC | Tom Espiner | Jan 8, 2023
Image: Unsplash/Li Yang
The billionaire founder of Ant Group, Jack Ma, is to give up control of the Chinese fintech giant after a regulatory crackdown, and will own just 6% (down from over 50%) after restructuring.
- 2 year forced restructuring and $1B fine: Ant Group runs Alipay, the main online payment system in China, which has eclipsed cash, cheques and credit cards. Mr Ma directly and indirectly controls more than 50% of Ant Group. However, after the changes in governance structure, he will control just over 6%, according to an Ant Group statement.
- Chinese authorities are poised to impose a fine of more than $1bn on the firm, according to the Reuters news agency.
See: PBOC to Fine Ant Group $1 Billion as Part of Regulatory Overhaul
- The IPO that never happened: In November 2020 Ant's £26bn stock market flotation, which would have been the world's largest, was cancelled at the last minute. At the eleventh hour Chinese authorities cited "major issues" over regulating the firm.
- Some analysts saw it as an attempt by the Chinese government to humble a company that had become too powerful and a leader who had become too outspoken.
- The regulatory intervention came after Mr Ma had told a financial conference that traditional banks had a "pawn-shop mentality". He also lauded the merits of the digital banking system, and stressed that future lending decisions should be based on data, not collateral.
- However, the authorities have softened their tone recently amid efforts to bolster the Chinese economy, which has been hit by the Covid pandemic.
See: Galloway: Life Expectancy – China Pulls Ahead of the U.S.
Andrew Collier, managing director of Orient Capital Research:
Jack Ma's departure from Ant Financial, a company he founded, shows the determination of the Chinese leadership to reduce the influence of large private investors. This trend will continue the erosion of the most productive parts of the Chinese economy.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Will 2023 Deliver the Promise of a Fully Immersive Internet?
Monaco Voice | David Lucatch | Jan 7, 2023
As we usher in a near year, resolutions and renewed commitments, our daily lives, and the technologies we use are also seeing the light of new possibilities.
- Early on Web 1, marketers learned very quickly that they could trade information, technology, and services for a user’s personal information and data, and that trade has been more valuable than gold. Data is truly portable and could be easily combined and analyzed to create even more valuable insight that an organisation could then use to deepen relationships with its users and create monetary opportunities for itself. Individuals cared little about who had the information and what they were doing with it, as long as they got something for free.
- This made smart corporations very, very rich and there were little in the way of regulations for online privacy or data protection and organisations around the world expanded and exploited a user’s private and personal information and data as they saw fit.
See: Connected Metaverse Platforms Coming to TV with Oorbit and LG Partnership
- Then along comes Web2 and the advent of social media and the opportunity to find out what a person was doing that moment, what they like, who they liked and what they were willing to tell you, give you, recommend, along with the opportunity to gather, process and use that data, exploded. This also came with a dark side, as a user could be who they said they were, or anyone else, good, or bad, have multiple and fake accounts, bots began to appear and so did online fraud in a big way.
- Users could say, generally, whatever they wanted, without retribution. Corporations who used these details grew exponentially as the quest for data and how to micromanage it, and extracting the maximum value, became paramount.
- In 2015, that all started to change with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, as companies started to have immense responsibility for how, when and what they could do and were doing, with a user’s data, and users started to have rights as well.
- 2022: Computing power, communications, and our portable devices also became faster, smarter, and more immersive. A new Internet, the one talked about for years, started to take shape, and by 2022, many countries, states, and provinces had adopted consumer data rights legislation.
- The Metaverse, that promise of the fully immersive online experience, was finally on the horizon, giving rise to Web3 and the Owner Economy and the move towards responsibility and accountability blending our everyday real and virtual existences.
See: Proof of Humanity: Aftermath Islands Metaverse Launches Blockchain-based Facial Recognition
- 2023 will be the year that the real Internet will emerge – the Metaverse. While the Metaverse will evolve over the years to become a completely immersive experience allowing us to work, play, learn, earn, entertain, create, and socialize, today’s Metaverse is just the beginning.
- Together with Proof of Humanity, to faster communications and new tools and services, like Pixel Streaming which require no downloads, and everything is active from the cloud, allowing mobile phones and other portable devices to have the capabilities of more powerful gaming devices and laptops, ushering new and exciting experiences, commerce, and collaboration on a truly global scale
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Canadian Bitcoin Mining 2022 Recap and Outlook
Hashrate Index | Ben Harper, Ethan Vera, Colin Harper | Jan 4, 2023
Image: Luxor Business data
With access to abundant, low cost, sustainable energy, a highly skilled workforce, cold climate, underutilized industrial infrastructure (particularly in rural areas), and a relatively stable and secure political environment, Canada was naturally positioned to be a global leader in Bitcoin mining. 2022 went very differently.
- Economic and political headwinds made for a disappointing end to the year. We estimate that Canada’s market share of global network hashrate peaked at 13% in 2021, only to fall to 7-8% by the end of 2022.
- Bitcoin was no exception: Attempting to bring inflation back to target levels, central banks raised interest rates, causing the prices of most financial assets to crash. In the real economy, growth in Canada and around the globe slowed substantially, and the United States experienced a brief (technical) recession.
See: Canada: Release Of Draft Tax Legislation For Consultation including GST/HST for Crypto Mining
- Hash woes: To the further detriment of miner revenue, network difficulty rose almost 46% primarily due to ASIC and infrastructure investments made under better economic conditions months prior. Hashprice – what miners are paid for hashrate, the digital commodity they produce – was down almost 76% as a result.
- Politics/legal: In the aftermath of the Canadian trucker protest, governments across the country brought in harmful legislative proposals and new regulations which made life even more difficult for Canadian Bitcoin miners, pushing many to look elsewhere to expand their operations.
- In February, without advance notice to industry, the Department of Finance proposed an amendment to the Excise Tax Act which would declare digital asset mining not a “commercial activity” in Canada.
- Despite the fact the industry employs thousands of Canadians and contributes tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue to support public services at all levels of government.
- If the proposal passes, companies engaged in digital asset mining would no longer be eligible to receive Input Tax Credits for the value added taxes paid on mining inputs increasing the cost of Bitcoin mining by 5% - 15%, making Canada a significantly less competitive jurisidiction.
- In response, Canadian miners formed the Fair Tax Treatment for Responsible Digital Asset Mining Coalition. They have so far been successful in pausing the proposed changes and have been imploring officials to consult with industry to learn more about digital asset mining, how it works, and how fair taxation and regulation can foster a healthy Canadian digital mining industry.
- In February, without advance notice to industry, the Department of Finance proposed an amendment to the Excise Tax Act which would declare digital asset mining not a “commercial activity” in Canada.
See: DeFi 2.0 Project Are Testing Liquidity Mining Alternatives
- What's up for 2023? Canada’s Bitcoin mining industry is well overdue for a serious, permanent, and coordinated cross-Canada digital asset mining lobbying effort. A permanent body signals to governments that our industry is not going away, which could help with a resolution on the Federal tax issue, establish a more credible deterrent for harmful policy endeavours in the future, and get ahead of issues on the industry's behalf.
- The industry needs to better highlight how producers of digital commodities add value to Canadian society.
- Digital asset miners create jobs and bring investment to their local communities, often in rural or remote areas with limited opportunity and underutilized industrial infrastructure.
- They improve environmental and energy system efficiency and sustainability, by using stranded gas that would otherwise be flared or vented, support electrical grid stability through demand response, and enable the build-out of new renewable generation assets.
- The industry needs to better highlight how producers of digital commodities add value to Canadian society.
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The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Brookings Event Jan 17, 2023: When Financial Institutions Become “Too Big to Manage’ (or Fail)
Brookings | Jan 6, 2023
On January 17, 2023 Brooking's event will feature remarks from Acting Comptroller of the Currency Michael Hsu on regulating management of large financial institutions.
Following the keynote, a panel of experts featuring Doug Elliot, partner at Oliver Wyman; Susan Ochs, senior fellow at the New America Foundation and founder of the Better Banking Program at the Aspen Institute; and Ron Feldman, vice president and chief operating officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis will engage more deeply in these topics.
Event Overview
Tuesday, January 17, 2023, 2:00 – 3:30 p.m. EST
- When financial institutions become “too big to fail,” insolvent or illiquid organizations are allowed to continue operations at the expense of individuals.
Much law, policy, scholarship, and regulation has addressed this issue, but what if the institutional problems are a function of organization and management, not capital and illiquidity?
See: Top Economist says Headed for a ‘Profound Economic and Financial Shift’
What is the role of financial regulators in overseeing the management and operations of the organizations they regulate?
How can our financial system remain resilient while allowing private financial institutions latitude to make managerial and organizational decisions that carry risk, reward, and are necessary to sustain the flow of financial opportunity our society requires?
Register for this online or in-person event --> here
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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Zurich CEO: Cyber Attacks May Become ‘Uninsurable’
The Wealth Advisor | Tom Jowitt | Dec 28, 2022
The chief executive of one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies has warned that cyber attacks, rather than natural catastrophes, will become “uninsurable” as the disruption from hacks continues to grow.
See: Insurance Industry Sitting on Treasure Trove of Big Data, As Regulators Wrestle Data Privacy
- For the second year in a row, natural catastrophe-related claims are expected to top $100bn. Amid growing concern among industry executives about large-scale cyber-attacks, Mario Greco, chief executive at insurer Zurich, one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies warned that cyber-attacks, rather than natural catastrophes, will become “uninsurable”.
- “What will become uninsurable is going to be cyber,” he said. “What if someone takes control of vital parts of our infrastructure, the consequences of that?”
- There is no doubt that the cyber threat landscape continues to grow, as insurance executives fret about the risks from pandemics and climate change, which test the insurance sector’s ability to provide suitable coverage.
- Zurich’s Mario Greco praised the US government’s steps to discourage ransom payments. “If you curb the payment of ransoms, there will be fewer attacks,” he told the Financial Times.
- Spiralling cyber losses in recent years have prompted emergency measures by the insurance sector’s underwriters to limit their exposure. As well as pushing up prices, some insurers have responded by tweaking policies so clients bear more of the losses.
- Lloyd’s of London also defended its recent move to limit systemic risk from cyber attacks by requesting that insurance policies written in the market have an exemption for nation-state cyber-attacks.
- He called on governments to “set up private-public schemes to handle systemic cyber risks that can’t be quantified, similar to those that exist in some jurisdictions for earthquakes or terror attacks”.
See: How Reworded Insurance Can Help Your Business
Mario Greco, chief executive at insurer Zurich: praised the US government’s steps to discourage ransom payments.
If you curb the payment of ransoms, there will be fewer attacks.
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association (NCFA Canada) is a financial innovation ecosystem that provides education, market intelligence, industry stewardship, networking and funding opportunities and services to thousands of community members and works closely with industry, government, partners and affiliates to create a vibrant and innovative fintech and funding industry in Canada. Decentralized and distributed, NCFA is engaged with global stakeholders and helps incubate projects and investment in fintech, alternative finance, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer finance, payments, digital assets and tokens, blockchain, cryptocurrency, regtech, and insurtech sectors. Join Canada's Fintech & Funding Community today FREE! Or become a contributing member and get perks. For more information, please visit: www.ncfacanada.org
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