Auxilion, a leading provider of digitally transformative IT services and solutions, has announced the results of a survey which reveals that the thing office workers miss most about the office is socialising and interacting with colleagues (53%).

This was followed by separation between work life and home life (40%), routine (35%), getting out of the house/apartment (34%) and the sense of team (28%).

The survey, conducted by Censuswide and involving around 1,000 office workers in Ireland, found that some 39% of office workers say the pandemic has had a negative impact on their company culture.

Wexford ranked the highest county in this regard, with 55% of office workers from this area saying the pandemic has had a negative impact on same. This was followed by Kilkenny (53%), Laois (52%), Cavan (50%) and Meath (50%).

Despite this, just over a fifth (21%) of all survey respondents would like to be in the office full time going forward. The highest demand for a return to the office was among workers from Monaghan (56%), Kerry (35%) and Louth (32%).

The Auxilion study also revealed the biggest challenges for office workers when working from home. These are less separation of personal and work lives (42%), being unable to talk to colleagues face-to-face (40%), loneliness/isolation (39%), a lack of motivation (30%) and non-work distractions (30%).

To break this down generationally, Gen Z respondents say the biggest challenge when working from home is lack of motivation (44%). Meanwhile, Millennials find loneliness/isolation (40%) the most difficult aspect and Gen X say it’s being unable to chat to colleagues face-to-face (46%).

For the Boomer generation, the top challenges were non-work distractions, lack of suitable technology/equipment and loneliness/isolation (36% respectively).

Furthermore, the research found that almost a fifth (18%) of those surveyed took a career break to look after children, parents, or other dependent relatives during the pandemic. In fact, almost half (47%) of Gen Z respondents took a career break for this reason.

Niamh Cray, Head of People and Talent at Auxilion, said: “Hybrid work is still a new concept and one that many Irish companies still have to figure out in terms of best practice. Employers have to be mindful that a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work, with some thriving at home and others craving a return to the office.

“Organisations need to get the balance and their approach right. While greater flexibility is a major benefit for people, businesses must ensure that this doesn’t have an impact on the ability of people to be collaborative, interactive and productive – or jeopardise work/life balance.

“Putting the practical tools and well-thought-out strategies in place to empower workers will be the way forward and will help to create the new workplace. For example, more effective communication tools might be needed or flexible start times could prove beneficial.

“Listening to people is also key and understanding their challenges, whilst helping to overcome them, will also help to rejuvenate company culture. In fact, you could say that these challenges are opportunities to make the employee experience even better than before.”

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UNESCO ’s Alexander Leicht, Chief of the Section of Education for Sustainable Development says Global Education must transform itself to address the climate crisis. On any given day, over 1 billion children head to school. The United Nations has called Climate Change the biggest threat modern humans have ever faced. Climate education for all students is a crucial strategy in tackling our environmental crisis.

Unesco and Climate Change

Alexander Leicht tells youth climate activist Sofia Lana in a NET ZERO exclusive that addressing climate change is about “rethinking everything we do, changing our lifestyles and the way we think and act.” He stresses the urgent need for climate change to be “a core curriculum in schools across the world,” emphasizing that “education must fundamentally transform itself to address the climate crisis. We need a multidisciplinary cross curriculum integration of climate change and sustainability that teaches students how to become climate activists who can engage in the political process to push for better legislation.”

NET ZERO is an acclaimed new video and podcast series that features 24 young climate activists from the Protect Our Planet (POP) Movement, in association with Planet Classroom, who ask global environmental thought leaders the key questions as to how their nations are progressing towards their 2050 Net Zero pledges since their commitments at COP26.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

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Several Africans continue to live in poverty with minimal access to financial opportunities, quality education or good jobs. Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange and blockchain ecosystem, has taken its efforts to Cameroon and Francophone Africa at large to bridge this gap – as it enables greater financial accessibility for Africans, provides blockchain education as well as guidance on acquiring new skills and avoiding scams in the financial world.

Here are some of the steps Binance has taken to equip French-speaking Africans:

1. Education

Binance is committed to equipping crypto beginners with resources for lifelong financial and career development. The company has hosted multiple events to educate enthusiasts about the opportunities within the crypto space and how to make a living from these. The company is unwavering in ensuring that crypto enthusiasts are well equipped with all the right information and do not fall prey to bad actors or scams.

Since the launch of the Binance Masterclass Education Series , the company has educated over 541,000 Africans about cryptocurrency. Some of these events have been held both offline and online for French-speaking Africans.

Séverin Kouam, one of the attendees at the Binance event in Yaounde, Cameroon which was hosted on December 4, 2021, said: “I entered the cryptocurrency field by chance six months ago on the advice of a friend. But until now, I still didn’t master the workings of this technology. So this training is very welcome since it allows me to better understand how it works, the benefits but most importantly the risks involved in cryptocurrency so that I don’t get fooled while investing my money.”

The company also recently hosted its first offline meetup event in Cote D’Ivoire and launched a Crypto Academy, a monthly training program across 4 countries: Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast and Togo for a start.

This academy is in collaboration with 7 partners as the crypto exchange regularly collaborates with local businesses to train and support Africans, as well as empower businesses.

2. Provision of Financial Opportunities

Through regular skills training and the services provided, Binance is creating new job opportunities for Cameroonians – and many are being brought out of poverty and learning new skills in order to remain employable globally.

The company constantly shows Africans the multitude of career options available in the crypto and blockchain space by hosting boot camps and hackathons where students get to work on real-time projects where they apply the skills they have gained. Some of these students have gone on to become employed in the workforce, build their own companies, start crypto trading and so much more. Binance gives Africans the opportunity to gain meaningful employment, thereby enabling them to be self-reliant and possibly employers of labour.

The company has also provided career and income opportunities right from its platform. For example, users who signed up and were accepted for Binance P2P Merchant Program are now able to provide liquidity for buyers or sellers on the platform, thereby making a living from the comfort of their homes. Merchants complete multiple trades per day and make profits on each trade.

Binance P2P is a safe platform to conduct crypto trades with a robust security framework to ensure users enjoy a safe and secure crypto experience.

One of the Binance P2P Merchants, George said: “I decided to become a Binance P2P merchant after reading up on their mode of operations. I saw how much safer it was when my first trade on the platform was so smooth and fast.” He added, “I have been able to add a car to my garage, and eventually, I’ll be able to get an even better car — all thanks to Binance.”

3. Ensuring Security & User Protection

Binance’s top priority is user safety, as is evident from all their activities and interaction with the community. Across the board, the crypto exchange regularly puts protective measures in plac...

Unfortunately, we must think of surviving a toxic workplace. It is reality for some. To survive is to continue to exist despite the difficulty. How can we do this?

Remember the toxicity existed before you joined the organisation. It has nothing to do with who you are or your talents and skills.

How to Survive a Toxic Workplace

Then assess what or who is toxic, and what they do to make work life awful. Think of the actions that led you to conclude that toxicity is present. What is the impact on you of these behaviours? Impact is not always dependent on the severity and intensity of the action. Two minor negative comments a day can have the same effect as being shouted at.

Second, how do you respond -loudly or quietly? Taking assertive action uses energy, as does staying silent and suffering. What is the cost in terms of your emotional wellbeing? Would you like to change or is it best to continue as is?

You could resign and leave. If so, be very sure that you part on your own terms and that you don’t go to another toxic place.

If you can change, think about whether you want to use the internal justice system or talk to a senior manager. Remember, resolution is unlikely to be immediate. Sometimes, just being more assertive is enough, especially if you persist. If you consider it is best to keep to your current approach, then look after yourself.

Gather your strengths

Working in toxicity can make us forget our assets. Especially when someone bullies or harasses us. Take some time to write a list of your valuable and strong qualities. Look at it each morning and think of how you can use them that day.

Remind yourself that you have more power than you think. Awful circumstances can make us feel insignificant and we can, without knowing it, give in. How can you use your strength more even if the very senior are the toxic people?

‘No can make you feel inferior without your consent.’

Eleanor Roosevelt, First Lady

Living well

Awfulness depletes. Toxicity can make us forget all our healthy living habits and even revert to unhealthy ones. Because of the tremendous amount of pressure on our thinking and emotions caused by stress.

Look at how you are living. How many healthy habits are you using to eat well, stay hydrated, and sleep? How much are you looking after your physical and mental health? Your

personal relationships- how are you letting them support you? And your work persona? What is positive?

Where do you need to make changes? Develop a plan, ensure you introduce change slowly and surely with plenty of reminders to help you be the new you and not revert.

Toxicity depletes. We can control and manage how much it affects us.

Anna Eliatamby, clinical psychologist, workplace well-being expert and editor: Healthy Leadership and Organisations: Beyond The Shadow Side. £14.99.

More about Irish Tech News

Irish Tech News are Ireland’s No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland’s No.1 Tech Podcast too.

You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here:

If you’d like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at [email protected] now to discuss.

Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at [email protected] now to find out more about how we can help you reach our audience.

You can also find and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.

On the show this week we have Filipe Pereira and Mario Frade from Crowdclass, a web3 protocol for online education using the power of blockchain, tokenization, composability and the metaverse to create new monetization models for online educators, and better learning environments for students to grow and develop.

Crowdclass are the third of ten founding teams forming the Launchpool Web3 Techstars Accelerator Class of 2022 that we’ve got on the show over the next few months.

In this episode, we talk to Filipe and Mario about how the crisscrossing of their lives and careers with that of their co-founder (and CTO) Bruno Costa has resulted in the funding of Crowdclass, the shortcomings of the online education experience today for learners, teachers and content creators, the longer-term vision for Crowdclass, and how Crowdclass will get to market in 2022.

This episode of MoneyNeverSleeps is sponsored by Philip Lee, one of Ireland’s fastest-growing corporate law firms and expert advisors at the heart of the Dublin and London start-up, fintech and crypto communities.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Filipe Pereira on driving his passion for education into web3:

“When I finished college, I founded a small startup delivering non-formal education, training and workshops for youth – it was called GetSkilled – that’s how my passion for education started.”

“Later on, I moved into the corporate world as a consultant and trainer for a couple of years for KPMG, but then I felt the need to go back to the startup world with Hillgate in London.

“When I moved back to Portugal, I continued to work on startups. I was leading sales at Prodsmart where I scaled the team and revenue up to $1 million ARR. At some point in all of this, I started to get more and more curious about the world of crypto and web3, and I moved into Bepro.

“Bepro is a web3 protocol for decentralized software development, and I was the Head of Ecosystem. That role brought me deep down the rabbit hole of web3. At some point in all of this, I met up with Mario and Bruno again and laid the foundation for getting started on our own project.

Mario Frade on his reunion with Filipe Pereira and Bruno Costa to found Crowdclass together:

“During my 10 years in marketing and sales, I always did quite a bit of corporate training inside these companies [such as Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Carlsberg] and also for other institutions and companies. I also had some strong connections to universities and did a bit of lecturing.”

“A few months after Filipe and I started talking again last year, I was quitting my job to move back to Iceland, and we started talking about web3. I already had some knowledge of web3, but he deepened my knowledge and we jumped into [Crowdclass with Bruno].”

Mario Frade on what’s making Crowdclass possible:

“We’re at the stage of our careers where we could do this, and we all wanted to do this at the same time. We all have this education backbone inside of us and we all wanted to do something in web3. We suddenly had this opportunity to blend three things together: the deep education backbone from the past, this web3 knowledge and our business and marketing knowledge.

“I think it was the combination of these things plus the right levels of availability and maturity of the technologies, alongside the market interest that made a lot of sense for us to bet on Crowdclass now. Also, online education took a big leap during Covid in terms of its importance to society. There was a big mix of societal, environmental and personal factors that point to Crowdclass as the right thing for us to do now, and for us to try to make the world a better place in our own way.”

Filipe Pereira on Crowdclass’ main goal and intended outcomes:

“We’re not the typical web3 native project, because we are trying to address real-world problems using web 3 as a backbone, and those problems exist in the online learning world. Our main goal is to build an e-learning ecosystem unlocking the world’s learning potential an...

Rethink Ireland has announced the opening of a €750,000 fund to support not-for-profit organisations, including charities and social enterprises, improving health outcomes in the larger Munster region.

The one-year Impact Fund will invest in up to 10 innovative projects that are promoting healthy lives and well-being for all across Munster. Up to five awards will be made to projects and/or organisations that use music, creativity, or the arts to enhance the physical and mental health of their communities.

The Impact Fund for Munster

The Impact Fund for Munster is backed by a number of local donors including the Parkes Family Limerick, The Sunflower Charitable Foundation, Community Foundation for Ireland, and several private donors, with match funding from the Department of Rural and Community Development via the Dormant Accounts Fund.

Minister of State with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities Joe O’Brien TD said: “I am delighted to launch the Impact Fund for Munster, which is supported by my Department and several private donors. By recognising that mental and physical health conditions are equally important, and often connected, and that wellness is crucially important to building thriving communities, the Impact Fund for Munster will make a valuable difference to the lives of many people living in the region.”

Rethink Ireland Investment

Pádraic Vallely, Senior Philanthropy & Development Manager at Rethink Ireland said: “Ensuring that health innovations receive the backing they need has been part of Rethink Ireland’s core focus since we began. With the support of our generous donors and the Government of Ireland, we have invested €16.3 million in health projects since 2016, supporting 96 innovations in this area and helping us to reach more than 116,000 people.”

“Through the Impact Fund for Munster, we aim to enhance the physical and mental health of communities across the province and, ultimately, help to save lives in the process. We would like to thank the Government of Ireland and the multiple donors to this fund who believe in the power of philanthropy and supporting innovative not-for-profits.”

The Sunflower Charitable Foundation, Donors to the Fund said: “We believe that philanthropy has the power to help solve inequities in our society and make a difference in our communities. Living in Munster ourselves, we’re passionate about supporting the region and championing the many incredible social innovations that operate here, day in, day out. We are delighted to be able to contribute to the Impact Fund for Munster and look forward to seeing the amazing Awardees that come through this process.”

Application

Eligible projects are invited to apply to the €750,000 Impact Fund before 1 pm on Tuesday, 14 June 2022 at the Rethink Ireland website:/

The news comes ahead of European Mental Health Awareness Week, which will take place from 9 May until 13 May.

Alongside cash grants, successful applicants will secure a place on Rethink Ireland’s accelerator programme and access a bespoke non-financial supports package that uses expert consultants to help strengthen and scale awarded projects.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) hosted a visit today by An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Leo Varadkar TD at its Global Delivery Centre in Letterkenny, Co. Donegal in Ireland. One of the North West’s largest employers, TCS briefed Minister Varadkar and other visiting guests from IDA Ireland on its plans to further cement this Centre as a strategic hub to provide digital transformation, IT, and business services to clients in Ireland and across the world.

During a brief tour of the state-of-the-art facilities at the TCS Letterkenny Global Delivery Centre, Minister Varadkar visited the newly opened digital innovation lab where TCS’ solution architects and designers will work closely with clients to ideate and build compelling customer experiences. TCS managers briefed the Minister on the company’s continued commitment to this Centre and future investment plans. These include building a cloud experience hub and a cyber security threat management centre as part of a collaborative ecosystem to build and extend clients’ cyber resilience.

Earlier this year, TCS teamed up with the Atlantic Technological University (ATU) Donegal, Letterkenny to run TCS HackQuest Ireland 2022, an ethical hacking challenge event for students. The Tánaiste today heard that this educational partnership to engage with young talent has led to up to 20 graduates in the TCS cybersecurity recruitment selection process, with the first ten starting work in June. With TCS continuing to grow strongly, further career opportunities are expected to open at the Letterkenny Centre, particularly in digital technologies, providing a much-needed boost to local employment and to the local economy.

Following his tour, Minister Varadkar spoke to the TCS team and thanked them for their important contribution to both the national and local economy and to the community at large.

Speaking on his visit to the TCS facility at Letterkenny, An Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD said: “It was a real pleasure to visit Tata Consultancy Services this morning and meet with the team who have made a phenomenal contribution to Donegal, growing to be one of the North West’s largest employers. The success of the company is a testament to the incredible talent of the team here and their ability to remain agile and innovative in what is a really competitive global industry. It was great to meet so many of those that have made such success possible and I wish the team all the very best for the future.”

Deepak Chaudhari, Country Head, TCS Ireland said: “We are delighted to be part of the community at Letterkenny and contribute to its economic development. Our highly talented team at the Letterkenny Centre has seamlessly integrated with our global delivery network, winning assignments from clients all over the world across multiple industry segments and driving our business expansion. We believe this Centre is a great touch point for Irish enterprises to engage with TCS for their growth and transformation journeys.”

Strong business growth has led to an ongoing recruitment drive to find the right talent to fill open positions. According to Andrea McBride, Head of the TCS Letterkenny Global Delivery Centre, “The establishment and growth of TCS’ business in Letterkenny opens huge opportunities for local talent to pursue exciting career opportunities in one of the world’s fastest growing IT businesses and help some of the world’s largest corporations solve their business problems. We are working closely with local education and training partners to prepare tomorrow’s workforce to take advantage of these opportunities.”

Denis Curran, Head of Regions, Property and Enterprise Development at IDA Ireland said: “Tata Consultancy Services is a leading employer in the North West Region. The company is creating high value employment opportunities across a variety of technology disciplines including digital transformation, cyber security and...

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) research shows financial institutions can improve consumer financial well-being by using behavioural insights to encourage saving habits. CCPC has launched findings from its successful behavioural research trial on consumer saving habits. The research was carried out in response to an identified need to encourage short-term saving habits among Irish consumers to increase financial resilience against unexpected financial shocks.

CCPC shows financial institutions can improve consumer financial well-being

Designed and analysed by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)’s Behavioural Research Unit and facilitated by the Bank of Ireland in a research trial with real consumers, the findings clearly show a positive increase in savings behaviours when behavioural insights are incorporated into savings product design and marketing materials. The CCPC has used the findings to develop a guide for financial providers on how they can encourage short-term saving habits and improve the financial well-being of their customers.

‘First of its kind’ behavioural research in Ireland

This behavioural study represents the first trial of its kind in Ireland and one of the first in Europe. Developed as a large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) with real consumers, the study examined the effects of behavioural science interventions on whether consumers open a savings account and engage in precautionary saving. The results of the behavioural research demonstrated how altering savings application forms with ‘pledge tools’, interactive calculators and using infographics about financial shocks can support consumers in developing positive short-term savings habits, which is an important part of financial well-being.

Behavioural interventions boost savings account uptake by 25%

The research shows that by applying behavioural science to customer communications and the design of application forms, a financial provider can increase the uptake of savings accounts by over 25%. The ESRI’s research report also records the greatest benefit among customers on lower incomes, who are most vulnerable to the negative effects of unexpected expenses and financial shocks.

Future ‘financial shocks’ shown as key savings motivator for Financial Institutions

As part of the behavioural research trial, customers were sent marketing emails with consumer-friendly infographics that illustrated financial shock statistics, for example; “6 in 10 people face an unexpected expense each year”. Customers who received these emails were 20% more likely to open a savings account than those who received standard marketing materials. The study’s financial shock emails and digital ads saw a “click-through” rate increase of almost 10%.

Additional evidence-based findings showed:

The majority of customers decide to use optional interactive calculators to calculate their total savings target, the date they wanted to reach their goal and how much they wanted to save each month. Customers who opened a savings account were 10% more likely to have used the calculator than those who started a savings account application form, but didn’t complete it.

Reframing ‘rainy day fund’ messaging to ‘unexpected expenses’ in the behaviourally-informed savings account application form, positively influenced consumer behaviour when setting specific savings goals.

Flexible commitments through ‘pledge tools’ offered customers the chance to make pre-commitments to withdraw only for specific reasons (e.g. a car breakdown). International evidence shows flexible commitments to be more appealing to customers than fixed withdrawal restrictions. Trial participants who opened a savings account were over 2.5 times more likely to have used the optional pledge tool than those who started the application, but didn’t complete it. Full findings from the ESRI behavioural research report can be found here.

Jeremy Godfrey, Chairperson of the CCPC said: “Every y...

On this Podcast, Diana Paiva is joined by Entrepreneur, Andrew Thorton. He talks about his book Putting the Heart back into Business, in which he advises how business owners can lead their businesses in the best way. He values the importance of a healthy environment between employers and employees, and he mentioned that business leaders shouldn’t only care about profit. He also explains sustainability in companies.

Putting the Heart Back into Business, with Andrew Thorton

About Andrew Thornton

Andrew Thornton is an entrepreneur, speaker, author and advisor and coach to business leaders who see that businesses can be a force for good in society.

Along with his partner Eudora, he developed the heart way of doing business in his award-winning London supermarket, Thornton’s Budgens. Together they founded Heart in Business, whose purpose is ‘to uncover the authentic leader in us all, trusting that profit will follow’. He lives, writes, speaks and coaches the principles of Heart in Business on a daily basis.

He considers himself to be a ‘visionary heart surgeon’, having demonstrated that helping business leaders to open their hearts is the best way to build a sustainable and profitable business.

He was the co-founder of social enterprises The People’s Supermarket and Food from the Sky, and founder of the consultancy SRCG. Prior to that, he worked at Mars and Ogilvy & Mather.

He is co-author of “Putting the Heart back into Business”, which comes out in April 2022.

Holding a Masters degree in Marketing from University College Dublin, Andrew splits his time between London and the Allgäu region of South Germany. He has two sons and a daughter. He loves to ski, run, swim and cook and eat great food!

It is important to find things to celebrate during these unprecedented times we're living in. It's #bcorpMonth. Today we are sharing a bit about us and our fellow BCorp friends, @cotswoldfayre in this article. #Bthechange #forceforgood @BCorpUK

Andrew Thornton – Heart in Business (@heartinbusiness) March 17, 2020

About Diana Paiva

Diana is currently interning with Irish Tech News. She graduated from Birkbeck University, with a degree in modern languages and she is currently doing a master’s in Journalism at the University of Roehampton. She has an interest in technology, fashion, and the environment. Starting her master’s in journalism made her realise that she has a passion to report and write people’s stories. After graduation, her main priority is to find a job in communications or public relations. Diana Paiva is active on social media platforms, including Twitter, and LinkedIn.

See more podcasts here.

We look at this topical book by Brett Scott, you can see more about Cloudmoney: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets here.

Cloud money: Cash, Cards, Crypto and the War for our Wallets, reviewed

Brett Scott’s ideas and opinions have been quoted and popped up in some interesting places, and by interesting we mean with far-right libertarians and deep conspiracy theorists. Scott is not necessarily a fellow traveller with those types of ideologies, but, through his advocacy of us questioning, and not completely diving into a cashless world, his concepts have appealed to these groups.

In some ways you have to question if Scott’s goal, a push back against the move to a cashless society is a along the lines of shutting the stable door long long after the horse is out into the fields and far far away. There are some sections where he does articulate well the risks that can follow from an overly digitised and centrally controlled system of money.

He explains these well, but for many of us, if we consider the absence of metallic lumps jingling in our pockets, or even notes in our wallets, it has been a long time since many of us had cash on us. Otherwise it is increasingly common to have one coin to fit into the supermarket trolly, and one note just incase you are truly stuck somewhere that won’t take a cashless payment.

For Scott this may validate the concerns he is articulating, however at times we felt that in some parts of the book, the fright value was high, whereas the details about the risks were more thinly covered and discussed. This is certainly a thought provoking book, and he may well find the ideas described here also picked up by others with their own agendas to advance, but, at times it felt like his opinion may have been made up before he did the research or wrote the chapters. We may be wrong, but this could definitely be a good author to have on our podcast to further expand on his opinions and particular point of view!?

More about the book

Many of us rarely use cash these days. And the reach of corporations into our lives via cards and apps has never been greater. But what we’re told is natural and inevitable is actually the work of powerful interests: the great battle of our time is for ownership of the digital footprints that make up our lives.

Who benefits from a cashless society and who gets left behind? Is the end of cash the end of true privacy? And is a cashless future closer than we think?

Cloudmoney tells a revelatory story about the fusion of big finance and tech, which requires physical cash to be replaced by digital money or ‘cloudmoney’. Diving beneath the surface of the global financial system, Brett Scott uncovers a long-established lobbying infrastructure waging a covert war on cash, as banking and tech companies promote a cashless society under the banner of progress.

From marketing strategies against cash, to the weaponization of Covid-19 to advance fintech platforms, and the cryptocurrency rebels and fringe groups pushing back, Cloudmoney takes us to the frontlines of a war for our wallets that is also about our freedom.

More about Brett Scott here

Brett Scott is a campaigner, monetary anthropologist and former broker. He is the author of The Heretic’s Guide to Global Finance: Hacking the Future of Money, and has appeared in a wide range of TV shows, radio broadcasts and documentaries, including BBC World News and Sky News. He has written extensively on financial reform, digital finance, alternative currency, blockchain technology and the cashless society for publications like the Guardian, New Scientist, Huffington Post, Wired Magazine and CNN.com, and also publishes the Altered States of Monetary Consciousness newsletter. His Twitter is @suitpossum

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