Nikolai Storonsky, the billionaire head of the London-based financial technology firm Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the country where his father was born.
Benefits of digital ID ecosystem will be realized only with adequate privacy protections, say data protection authorities
Heather Zordel, the chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, has resigned less than a year after her appointment to the role.
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
Revolut Chief Nikolai Storonsky Renounces Russian Citizenship, Condeming Ukraine Invasion
AltFi | John Reynolds | Oct 31, 2022
Nikolai Storonsky, the billionaire head of the London-based financial technology firm Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship in response to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, the country where his father was born.
- Nik Storonsky, the CEO and co-founder of Revolut, has renounced his Russian citizenship after his father was included in a sanctions list handed out by the Ukrainian government following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
- Storonsky, who was born in Ukraine but spent time in Russia growing up, previously held both British and Russian passports but renounced his Russian citizenship following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in news first reported by The Telegraph.
See: Revolut executive resigns amid growing tensions with the FCA over banking license
- Storonsky’s father Nikolay Storonsky senior was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government for working as director-general of Gazprom Promgaz, the engineering and research arm of the Russian state energy firm.
- The move by the Revolut co-founder also comes as Revolut, which now has more than 20m customers, awaits a decision on its application for a UK banking licence, a licence it is keen to attain to help attain further funding and enhance its reputation in the market.
- Storonsky has previously voiced his disapproval of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine calling it “abhorrent” while offering Revolut employees in Ukraine and Russia relocation support as well as support for the people of Ukraine.
Nikolai Storonsky, CEO Revolut:
I would like to make clear, publicly, what I've felt privately from day one: War is never the answer. This war is wrong and totally abhorrent. I am horrified and appalled at its impact, and I add my voice to those around the world calling for an immediate end to the fighting, and a commitment to diplomatic solutions. Not one more person should die in this needless conflict.
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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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NCFA Open Banking Success with Senator Colin Deacon and Mahi Sall
About NCFA Canada | Oct 31, 2022
The National Crowdfunding & Fintech Association of Canada (NCFA), true to its mission of providing education, industry stewardship, networking, growth, and funding opportunities for innovative financial technologies and related sectors, is pleased to launch a brand new thought leadership series on Open Banking led by Berlin-based NCFA ambassador and independent expert in Fintech-Bank Partnerships Mahi Sall.
The series is called ‘Canada’s Open Banking Journey’ and aims to aggregate international and domestic perspectives of Open Banking/Finance expert practitioners from around the globe to advance dialogues, key considerations, and explore potential solutions for the development of a made in Canada open banking regime with the following timeline:
- Sep 2018: Canada’s Open Banking journey officially began when the government established a multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee tasked to conduct a review into the merits of Open Banking
- Apr 2021: Advisory committee publishes final recommendations
- Mar 2022: Government appoints Abraham Tachjian – PwC Canada as Canada’s Open Banking lead responsible for convening industry, government and consumers in designing the foundation of the system of Open Banking for a launch in 2023.
- Oct 2023: Phase 1 implementation expected
Speakers:
Senator Colin Deacon, Senate of Canada
Mahi Sall, NCFA Ambassador, Open Banking
Themes:
0. Introduction
1. Championing Open Banking
2. Current State in Canada
3. Governance
4. Success *THIS VIDEO *
5. Implementation Risks
6. Future Outlook
NCFA Open Finance, Open Banking and Beyond Banking interviews:
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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Elon Musk Owns Twitter Now –> What’s Next? | $8 Verification Service floated
CBC News | Oct 27, 2022
Image: Manu Cornet
Dismissal of company's CEO, CFO among his first moves and what happens next is anyone's guess
- Leadership fired: Elon Musk completed his $44-billion US acquisition of Twitter late on Thursday. Within hours, he had fired CEO Parag Agrawal, head of legal Vijaya Gadde, chief financial officer Ned Segal and others. Agrawal and Segal were in Twitter's San Francisco headquarters when the deal closed and were escorted out of the building. Reports suggest Musk has installed himself as CEO, but he has yet to confirm that.
- Stock to be delisted although there is speculation that Musk plans to eventually resell the company one day and make it public again.
See: 11 C’s of Soft Leadership and Emotional Intelligence
- "Employees are already worried about massive layoffs."A report this week suggested he planned to fire three quarters of the company's 7,500 staff.
- In an open letter to users and advertisers Thursday, Musk said he bought the company because "it is important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square, where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner, without resorting to violence. But Twitter obviously cannot become a free-for-all hellscape, where anything can be said without consequences".
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Vox |
Musk has tweeted a lot of ideas about how he plans to change Twitter. Here are some of the most significant ones.
- Musk-Twitter Saga just getting started: After more than six months of one of the most chaotic, high-profile business negotiations in recent memory, it’s finally real: Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, is in charge of Twitter. Twitter won’t have to wait in limbo any longer as an orphaned tech company pleading for someone to take ownership. It also won’t have to deal with Musk’s public shitposting directed at the company’s leadership. (Musk tweeting a poop emoji at Agrawal may go down as one of the most juvenile executive insults of all time.)
See: Which Is a Better Investment in a Bear Market: Public or Private Companies?
- Business challenge: how to effectively run a social media platform that’s used by nearly 400 million people — including highly influential world leaders, journalists, and other public figures — and deal with the political speech moderation issues that come with that. Musk also needs to figure out a better business model for the company.
- Twitter has never made nearly as much money as its social media competitors like Facebook and YouTube
- Along with other major tech companies, it has also seen a major decline in its stock value in the past year.
- According to a recent report in Reuters, the service’s most active and lucrative users have been leaving in droves since the pandemic.
- Make Twitter a “free speech” platform. “I think it’s essential to have free speech and to be able to communicate freely,” said Musk at a Twitter employee meeting in June that Vox obtained a recording of.
- The recent proliferation of “free speech”-themed platforms like Parler, Truth Social, and Gettr have shown that if you let anyone say whatever they want on a social media app, there’s a good chance that app could become a hate-filled, toxic place — which is why even these relatively more lax platforms have some basic content moderation policies.
See: Rise of the super app
- Bring back Trump: Musk has said he would reinstate former President Donald Trump’s Twitter account, which was banned for his tweets about the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot. “I think that was a mistake because it alienated a large part of the country and did not ultimately result in Donald Trump not having a voice,” Musk told the Financial Times in May. “Banning Trump from Twitter didn’t end Trump’s voice. It will amplify it among the right, and that is why it’s morally wrong and flat-out stupid.”
- Get Rid of Bots: Musk has promised to fix Twitter’s “bots” issue — meaning the prevalence of accounts that post spam or inauthentic content like crypto get-rich-quick-schemes and phishing scams.
- Superapp called 'X': Musk had said that he wants to fulfill Twitter’s potential by making it much more than a social media app: turning it into a “superapp.” The original superapp is China’s WeChat, which people use to do everything from paying their bills to ordering takeout to messaging their friends.
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CBC News | Pete Evans | Nov 1, 2022
Elon Musk, the newly minted owner, chair and CEO of Twitter, says he wants to let anyone get verified on the platform for $8 a month, in exchange for being able to post longer messages and videos, and receiving fewer ads.
- Last year, Twitter launched an expanded version of its service called Twitter Blue, which comes with a monthly fee but adds the ability to edit tweets, and allows some users to charge for their own content.
- Musk called the current system of verification a "lords & peasants system"
See: Jack Dorsey Announces Launching Bluesky, Decentralized Social Platform, Closed Beta Soon
- On Tuesday, Musk tweeted that he wants to change the system so that anyone can get verified, as long as they are willing to pay $8 a month, with the "price adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity."
- In exchange, verified users will be prioritized in searches and mentions, which Musk believes is essential to defeat spam/scam" that he says plagues the system.
- Musk said, verified users will be subjected to fewer ads, and he suggested that he was open to the idea of paying some users for the content they produce on the platform. "Power to the people!," he said.
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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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Neal Stephenson Doesn’t Give a Damn About Meta’s Snow Crash
FastCompany | Jesus Diaz | Oct 25, 2022
Image: Pexels/Tima Miroshnichenko
Like much of the world, Neal Stephenson doesn’t give a damn about Meta’s Metaverse.
- Stephenson coined the term Metaverse in his seminal sci-fi book Snow Crash.
- Stephenson is tired of people asking him about Zuck’s Snow Crash-turned-train crash, and I can’t blame him. Zuck’s Metaverse may be dead
- No matter how many Quests—Meta’s VR headset—get sold to die-hard enthusiasts, as long as you need goggles, putting a piece of plastic on your face will always feel like an unnatural barrier; a barrier that will stop billions from embracing it in the same way they embraced the smartphone, computers, or game consoles.
- The Metaverse already arrived years ago
- 2D interfaces remain the most accessible and natural way to access the Metaverse. "What happened is that Doom came along and gave birth to the video game industry as we know it"
- In other words, the Metaverse in its primogenial form is already here. From World of Warcraft to Red Dead Redemption to Fortnite, these Metaverses are getting more sophisticated, increasing their level of fidelity while building up entire economies. The only problem is that they are still disconnected from each other. There’s currently no way for us to maintain our digital selves—and the assets we own—across these platforms. But the Metaverse does exist. Instead of living inside those worlds, we live them through a looking glass that we can’t cross quite yet.
See: Google’s Fusing Street View with AI to Create Metaverse like ‘Immersive View’
- Lamina1: That is why Stephenson started a company with Peter Vessenes, who describes himself as a digital currency, tokenization, and blockchain technology expert. Its name is Lamina1, and it aims to allow anyone to build worlds and bridge them to others.
- Blockchain technology will be at the center of all that, which they think is the only possible way to create digital economies, connect worlds, and interoperate with each other, so you can bring your battle armor or your supercar from one world to the next.
- Stories are what matters: While these worlds are not physically immersive, as VR promised, we can feel them through the characters that we see on these flat screens. Their stories are our stories. And if those stories are very good, they draw us into their Metaverses.
- Standards: It’s hard to see these worlds’ economies coming together as one wide open standard, even while the many companies—including Adobe, Nvidia, Sony, Microsoft, Epic, or Unity, but curiously not Apple or Roblox—are all part of the Metaverse Standards Forum, the W3C group that is supposedly working toward the creation of true interconnected Metaverse.
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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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Office of the Privacy Commissioner Announces Digital ID Ecosystem Resolution to Ensure Transparency and Privacy
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada | Oct 24, 2022
Benefits of digital ID ecosystem will be realized only with adequate privacy protections, say data protection authorities
- In a resolution issued today, federal, provincial and territorial privacy regulators note that the digital identity ecosystem emerging in Canada and around the world will allow individuals, businesses and governments to confirm identities and carry out transactions online with a high degree of efficiency and confidence.
- However, while a secure digital identity offers many benefits, it must be designed and implemented in a manner that upholds privacy, security, transparency and accountability to be trusted enough to be widely adopted.
Ecosystem properties
- A privacy impact assessment should be conducted and provided to the oversight body in the early design, development and update stages of a digital identity system as the project and solution evolve;
- The privacy implications of identity ecosystem design, functions and information flows should be transparent to all users of the system;
See: Modernizing Privacy Law in Canada – Striking the Right Balance
- Digital identification should not be used for information or services that could be offered to individuals on an anonymous basis and systems should support anonymous and pseudonymous transactions wherever appropriate;
- Systems should not create central databases;
- The principle of minimizing personal information must be applied at all stages of the digital identity process: only necessary information should be collected, used, disclosed or retained.Footnote 2 The collection or use of particularly intimate, sensitive and permanent information such as biometric data should be considered only if it is demonstrated that other less intrusive means would not achieve the intended purpose;
- Personal information in an identity ecosystem should not be used for purposes other than assessing and verifying identity or other authorized purpose(s) necessary to provide the service. Ecosystems must not allow tracking or tracing of credential use for other purposes;
- The security of personal information should be proportional with its sensitivity, the context and the degree to which it could be desired by malicious actors;
- Digital identity information must be secure from tampering, unauthorized duplication and use;
- Systems should be capable of being assessed and audited, and of being subject to independent oversight;
- Digital identity systems should provide options and alternatives in order to ensure fair and equitable access to government services for all.
Individual Rights and Remedies
- Individual participation in a digital identity ecosystem should be voluntary and optional;
- Individuals should be able to choose alternative forms of identification and these forms should be reasonably convenient and accessible;
- Clear and informed consent of the individual should be the basis for exchanging personal information between services;
- Individuals should be in control of their personal information;
See: Canada to Launch ‘Digital Ambition 2022’ Public Consultation For Digital ID Framework of Federal Public Services
- Redress to an independent body with adequate resources and powers should be provided for individuals in the event of rights violations.
Governance and oversight
- Governments should be open and transparent about the defined purposes of the digital identity systems, what personal information will be used, how and by whom;
- Governments should provide for express lawful authority, prohibitions, penalties and redress;
- Where necessary, existing privacy laws should be strengthened to support digital governance and uphold the principle of do no harm;
- Governments should establish clear accountability mechanisms to meet transparency and privacy obligations, including providing authority and resources for regulators to exercise adequate oversight and impose appropriate penalties for non-compliance.
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View the resolution --> 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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First Chair of the OSC Under New Structure, Heather Zordel, Resigns
Financial Post | Denise Paglinawan | Oct 25, 2022
Heather Zordel, the chair of the Ontario Securities Commission, has resigned less than a year after her appointment to the role.
- Why so sudden?
- Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy accepted Zordel’s resignation on Oct. 21, a ministry spokesperson confirmed this week. No reason was given for her departure.
- In an email statement, Zordel said her decision to resign was due to personal reasons and workload, adding that she wished the OSC board and tribunal members and all the staff continued success. She said she had worked for the OSC for three and a half years “during a period when significant changes were made to the organization, including the separation of the tribunal.”
See: Conrad Black: Controversy Over the Nomination of Heather Zordel as New Non-Executive Chair at the OSC
- Heather Zordel's appointment:
- The Ontario government appointed Zordel as chair of the OSC board in March for a two-year term. She was the first chair of the provincial securities regulator under its new structure, in which the roles of chair and chief executive were split into distinct positions.
- The division of the agency’s adjudicative and regulatory enforcement roles came after a 10-month review by the province’s Capital Markets Modernization Task Force, which made more than 70 recommendations to reform the OSC in 2021.
- The Globe and Mail reported that Zordel’s ascent to non-executive chair prompted two former part-time commissioners, Lorie Haber and Craig Hayman, to resign in protest and that a majority of part-time commissioners Zordel had served with had earlier opposed her renewal.
- The Ontario government appointed Zordel as chair of the OSC board in March for a two-year term. She was the first chair of the provincial securities regulator under its new structure, in which the roles of chair and chief executive were split into distinct positions.
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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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Matt Levine: The Crypto Story
Bloomberg | Matt Levine | Oct 25, 2022
Introduction
- There was a moment not so long ago when I thought, “What if I’ve had this crypto thing all wrong?”
- I’m a doubting normie who, if I’m being honest, hasn’t always understood this alternate universe that’s been percolating and expanding for more than a decade now. If you’re a disciple, this new dimension is the future.
See: IIROC Approves Coinsquare Registration – A First in Canadian Crypto
- If you’re a skeptic, this upside-down world is just a modern Ponzi scheme that’s going to end badly—and the recent “crypto winter” is evidence of its long-overdue ending.
- But crypto has dug itself into finance, into technology, and into our heads. And if crypto isn’t going away, we’d better attempt to understand it. Which is why we asked the finest finance writer around, Matt Levine of Bloomberg Opinion, to write a cover-to-cover issue of Bloomberg Businessweek.
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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