The Transformation Caused by the Emergence of the Internet.

This article is written by Nardine B. M’barek, a Contributor Author at Startup Turkey.

Chris Skinner is an independent commentator on the financial markets and FinTech through his blog, thefinanser.com. He is Chair of the European networking forum The Financial Services Club and Nordic Finance Innovation, as well as being a Non-Executive Director of the Fintech consultancy firm 11:FS. He joined us during Startup Turkey 2016, and delivered a speech that he called ‘ 2016: The year banks disrupt FinTech’.

Mr. Chris Skinner is the former economics’ advisor to the US President and the White House, he is also the owner of the online blog the Finanser.com, and has always been writing on his blog articles concerning the FinTech industry that are related to the economy and to the industry in general. It is however not only about FinTech, but about the internet and how it is changing the world currently, and that is the reason why Startup Turkey and startups, in general, are so important. 

The reason why Mr. Skinner is so interested in FinTech is not only because he owns a blog in which he posts articles related to the industry, but also since he is the author of numerous books concerning banking and the future of digital services; including his book called Digital Bank: Strategies to Launch or Become a Digital Bank. 

The book is mainly about how banking has been build during the past three centuries, from the physical distribution of paper money in a world that is supported by humans and buildings, moving to this new world that represents the digital versions of banks and money, and the use of data as a currency of high value focused on software and service, and the global internet value. 

The challenge is the banking sector is how to make a swift turn from the physical thinking and the unlimited reliance on human beings to the digital thinking; which is really difficult because to create a digital foundation that has always made humans on top, without making mistakes while eliminating all sorts of old physical thinking and mindset, counters building a physical foundation with the internet being on top, it does not really work. 

For the interchanging of value through data, knowing that value is no longer currency and money, it is ideas and minutes on the network, and everything that you want it to be; Bitcoins for instance. That is what another book of his, called The Value Web, is about “how FinTech companies are using embedded ships for the internet of things supported by Blockchain to create an internet of value that is immediate and free, and that really challenges the traditional financial companies” as Mr. Skinner describes it. 

The main issues nowadays are the exchange of value towards the internet, and actually moving financial services to the internet, and the fact that it challenges the 300-year-old system that we have built in the past. 

According to Mr. Skinner, the Value Web is the representative of a third-age revolution in the network, which is basically what all startups are about. Thanks to the internet, we are now connected globally, one to one, each person is able to initiate a conversation and start a relationship with any other person in the world through that network that we created. The fact that 7 Billion people are able to connect to each other immediately, and in a very easy way is a revolution in itself, and is a fundamental transformation.

https://vimeo.com/157701085