I went to a bootcamp. Outside of the daily work routine with its unknowns, it was a chance to expand the mental horizon and think big. It was a two day training to learn about the payments industry evolution and understand the motivation of the various stakeholders from private to public entities to governments.
More important to me than the actual curriculum was the intense dialog from the 30 odd participants that brought insight to any point of view presented with respect to markets. Markets that accept different forms of payment tender to facilitate a transaction.
The world we live in is full of transactions. Whether buying a sweater online, or a burger or coffee at the local restaurant, a train ticket or plane ticket, or redeeming loyalty currency to get that free trip to the Bahamas. Value is exchanged each time a buyer and seller come together.
It is now commonplace to see various payment marks at the cash register when making a payment in the so called developed economies but the internet brought this choice to all parts of the planet especially if the seller was based in one of these countries. Offering value online comes with choice at the checkout page because they want your transaction.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and countless others are all part of this packaged brand value available to purchase 24x7. Credit card please. Debit will do just fine.
Now the world is looking to evaluate another new entrant in the form of digitized bits of code called Bitcoin.
Personally having done some reading on the subject I liken it to the dawn of email when paper mail was the norm. People failed to grasp the significance of an electronically connected world.
This might just be a logical evolution of payments as we know it today. It is fraught with many challenges least of which is the Volatility in its Perceived Value. It flucutates wildly in part due to very small market size that guarantees its validity. Federal governments see it as a threat and that poses immense risk to it alike someone trading other banned or illegal substances as a proxy for sovereign fiat.
This is a fascinating subject more for its implications rather than the science of creating a totally intangible digital currency through a math algorithm. India in some ways alike other corrupt nations that fail to impose rule of law around use of their own national currencies, will benefit because people can exchange value anonymously to exchange commodities or property or other high value items discounting the Indian Rupee.
A country's currency is only as valuable as the people that actively use it. The fact that the INR has depereciated in the global trade is a testament in part to its use largely within the country of a billion but that too only where it is accounted for in part and not the entire transaction.
A fairly complicated subject at the end of the day, the best moments were when some of the attendees discussed the new food trucks and holes in walls that were ready to offer a new type of coffee or Ethiopian food in the hood - some also take Bitcoin.
More important to me than the actual curriculum was the intense dialog from the 30 odd participants that brought insight to any point of view presented with respect to markets. Markets that accept different forms of payment tender to facilitate a transaction.
The world we live in is full of transactions. Whether buying a sweater online, or a burger or coffee at the local restaurant, a train ticket or plane ticket, or redeeming loyalty currency to get that free trip to the Bahamas. Value is exchanged each time a buyer and seller come together.
It is now commonplace to see various payment marks at the cash register when making a payment in the so called developed economies but the internet brought this choice to all parts of the planet especially if the seller was based in one of these countries. Offering value online comes with choice at the checkout page because they want your transaction.
Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and countless others are all part of this packaged brand value available to purchase 24x7. Credit card please. Debit will do just fine.
Now the world is looking to evaluate another new entrant in the form of digitized bits of code called Bitcoin.
Personally having done some reading on the subject I liken it to the dawn of email when paper mail was the norm. People failed to grasp the significance of an electronically connected world.
This might just be a logical evolution of payments as we know it today. It is fraught with many challenges least of which is the Volatility in its Perceived Value. It flucutates wildly in part due to very small market size that guarantees its validity. Federal governments see it as a threat and that poses immense risk to it alike someone trading other banned or illegal substances as a proxy for sovereign fiat.
This is a fascinating subject more for its implications rather than the science of creating a totally intangible digital currency through a math algorithm. India in some ways alike other corrupt nations that fail to impose rule of law around use of their own national currencies, will benefit because people can exchange value anonymously to exchange commodities or property or other high value items discounting the Indian Rupee.
A country's currency is only as valuable as the people that actively use it. The fact that the INR has depereciated in the global trade is a testament in part to its use largely within the country of a billion but that too only where it is accounted for in part and not the entire transaction.
A fairly complicated subject at the end of the day, the best moments were when some of the attendees discussed the new food trucks and holes in walls that were ready to offer a new type of coffee or Ethiopian food in the hood - some also take Bitcoin.
cashless gets a new meaning.
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