Banner promoting anonymous crime reporting with a phone and contact number 1 800 TIPS (8477), featuring the Crime Stoppers logo and a QR code for submitting tips.

← Back

Your message to the BLOGMASTER was sent

The BU household has been following the rise of blockchain technology with great interest. Obviously it is technology at a nascent stage and it is the venture capitalists and early adopters who have the  task of ‘selling’ a new payment mechanism to the population.

The BU household will continue to monitor the progress of the technology and wish Rawdon Adams every success who is the newly appointed CEO of Bitt.com. We have a lot of respect for Rawdon, the BU family should recall he has contributed to the BU forum in the past. He joins Marla Dukharan at Bitt.com where another person we have a lot of respect was recently added to the team to lead the charge.

The Barbados directorate should take note that the OECS sub-region has signed up with Bitt.com to pilot the technology.

The following article extracted from Coindesk.com.

 

Barbados Underground

Bitt, the blockchain payments startup backed by Overstock’s Medici Ventures, has announced the hiring of a new chief executive officer.

The new CEO, Rawdon Adams, takes the helm of the Barbados-based startup just months after it unveiled an ambitious plan to develop a pan-Caribbean settlement network built with blockchain tech. The plan, Bitt said in May, is to create a way to better connect a region with more than a dozen governments, each with their own currency systems.

The startup has also worked with the Central Bank of Barbados on pilot blockchain initiatives.

The appointment of Adams adds heft to the startup’s regional plans. Rawdon is the son of Tom Adams, who served as the country’s prime minister between 1976 and 1985. Tom Adams, in turn, was the son of Sir Grantley Herbert Adams, the first and only prime minister of the former West Indies Federation.

According to LinkedIn, Rawdon previously worked as an analyst for GE Medical Systems and founded market arbitrage software startup ArbMaker in 2008.

Jonathan Johnson, president of Medici Ventures, said in a statement:

“Rawdon is the perfect leader to grow and scale Bitt to the next level and bring to fruition Bitt’s initial vision in the Caribbean.”

Overstock, through Medici, invested $4 million in Bitt in April of last year.

Editor’s Note: This report has been updated for clarity.

 

The leader in blockchain news, CoinDesk is an independent media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. Have breaking news or a story tip to send to our journalists? Contact us at news@coindesk.com

.


Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

203 responses to “Rawdon Adams Returns to the Barbados Space to Spearhead Bitt Inc”

  1. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “Hoes/strippers: money first..”
    I am told that in East Africa the prostitutes prefer that you pay them in the digital currency m-pesa because then they are not as vulnerable to being mugged while carrying cash.”

    PLT…lol, we will have to send Lawson to East Africa for now and hope he gets out with his skin..

    http://ow.ly/wXtL30fxHUQ

    Fortune on bitcoin and block chain

    http://ow.ly/zA6D30fxHZa

    Jamie Dimon and Warren Buffett etc on bitcoin and block chain.

    Everyone yammering on the best way they can see themselves exploiting it, I always read between their lines.

  2. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Most agree that block chain rocks and an alternative currency is need to coexist with hard cash.

    The downside as seen by Ben Bernanke on bitcoin.

    “What do you think about bitcoin?

    It’s interesting from a technological point of view. We’re in a world where the payments system is evolving quickly and new approaches to managing payments are proliferating, and some of the ideas around bitcoin will no doubt be useful in doing that.

    But I think bitcoin itself has some serious problems. The first is that it hasn’t shown to be a stable source of value. Its price has been highly volatile and it hasn’t yet established itself as a widely accepted transactions medium.

    Bitcoin_price_Bitcoin_price_chartbuilder
    But the real serious problem that it has is it’s anonymity, which is a feature, and is also a bug, in that it has become in some cases a vehicle for illicit transactions, drug selling or terrorist financing or whatever. And you know, governments are not happy to let that activity happen, so I suspect that there will be oversight of transactions done in bitcoin or similar currencies and that will reduce the appeal.”

  3. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    PLT…see what I mean about the world’s financial shapers, they are all over block chain, cause they see the endless possibilities for them.

    “Dimon’s company was one of 86 corporate firms to play a role in forming The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, an open-source blockchain initiative. The idea of the EEA is for big banks and tech companies to come together and build business-ready versions of the software behind Ethereum, a decentralized computing network based on digital currency.

    • At yesterday’s conference, Dimon was careful to distinguish between cryptocurrencies and the blockchain because, well, J.P. Morgan has actually built its own blockchain on top of Ethereum.”


  4. Alien

    We need to find out more. At this stage Bitt.com is an incorporated entity and liable for taxes. Agree that taxpayers money should not be ‘given’ away. However if one reads the auditor general reports or similar across the region millions of dollars are frittered away on projects that pass the traditional smell test.


  5. Take the local wholesale and retail businesses that use a lot of the foreign exchange to import useless consumer products. What do they do to help attract foreign exchange, except recommend that the IMF be contracted to provide more for consumption?

  6. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    No one should invest their money in bitcoins unless they understand what really happens during the process, no matter who is presented to them as bait……to reel them in.

    Hal would make a great guinea pig, he can relate to the BU folk how wealthy he gets off bitcoins.

  7. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Re Block chain…it is easier to understand if you look at it as a multi-use, multi-tasking platform.

    Blockchain is the underpinning technology that maintains the Bitcoin transaction ledger.

    Bitcoin transactions are stored and transferred using a distributed ledger on a peer-to-peer network that is open, public and anonymous.

    Those are the simplest descriptions.


  8. LOL @ David
    Bush Tea has done more than caution, he has also tossed the baby with the bathwater.
    ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
    Well said David, ….

    Except it is not a ‘baby’ mixed with bathwater that Bushie wants to throw out…, but a set of jobby mixed with lots of pee.

    Consider that our NCO Sargeant is leading a team in battle …and things are looking dread, …with Stinkliar firing artillery taxes; We-Jonsing cracking heads- left, right, and centre, …and Froon hiding under a desk fast asleep…. while Mia waiting in the wings to bite…

    Suddenly, Enuff comes up with his ‘brilliant’ suggestion that “Tom Adam’s son gotta new shiny computer game” dat could generate enuff money to make us all rich as shiite…

    ..alright den!!!
    As Man David…. would you listen to Enuff – and engage the Raudon fella …?
    …or to Bushie and follow de Sarge with ‘duck and cover’?

    …boss, Bushie would not only “toss out” Rawdon and the shiite water, but throw them in Stinkliar’s direction ….to try to gain some offensive advantage yuh….

    After all…
    What does it profit a brass bowl to gain nuff bit coins …and lose his donkey?


  9. @Hal
    Rawdon has an impeccable pedigree, he grew up in a home with lots of books and important people coming to dinner and cocktail parties and having intelligent conversations. It is in his DNA o be our political leader; it is he who would lead us out of this economic and social mess.
    +++++++++++++
    Ypu can take the boy of Barbados but yuh can’t take Barbados outta the boy, I would expect that argument about antecedents up to 1960 but not in the 21st century.
    Exhibit 1 to counteract that argument GW Bush.


  10. @Bush Tea

    You are bringing a red herring position because the thrust of the blog is about blockchain technology. All agree that it is at a nascent stage of development and all who adopt at this stage are engaging in above average risk taking. It does not mean that it will fail.

    To keep referring to enuff’s comment is not relevant to the discussion at all. How bad can Rawdon do compared to Denis Lowe, Michael Carrington and the lot in parliament anyway.


  11. Exhibit #2
    A certain man who went through a good school, wandered in wilderness of the mudda country for 40 years …and remains a brass bowl of the Denis Kellman class…….


  12. What is the possibility that the real reason for Rawdon Adams’ return to Barbados is ultimately to lead the BLP into the upcoming elections?


  13. Do you think they chose Rawdon for his good looks? It is mainly the familial connection.

    Get real or pull to the curb…


  14. Have you taken the time to read the man’s bio? What good looks what!

    https://fr.linkedin.com/in/rjhadams


  15. … and would such a plan lead to a 3rd faction within the BLP or would he fit into one of the existing factions?


  16. @ David
    Unfortunately, it is you who is missing the KEY point..

    …and that point is that – neither this, nor ANY OTHER fancy technology – CAN address the problems that are on the verge of leading to our destruction – because it DOES NOT ADDRESS root of those problems.

    To put out a fire, you need to deal with the fuel, the temperature and, or the oxygen availability.
    Someone coming up with a computerised thermometer to address a fire – is like being presented with a shiite baby in shiite water….

    …on the other matter, Bushie gets a kick out of hammering enuff
    – whether he is guilty or not…
    Eventually he will confess, and be confined….
    #Enuffisfairgame


  17. @Alien

    It depends, would Mia step aside if Rawdon is offered as a compromise candidate?


  18. @Bush Tea

    Let us agree to disagree if for no other reason blockchain and cryptocurrency has a long way to go to demonstrate advantages versus FIAT.


  19. Do you think enuff and ‘Ha’ really care about bio. ‘It is in his DNA o be our political leader”.

    The man is already crowned as king. The imaginations of Alien may soon be our reality..

    His face trumps his bio,

  20. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    “Do you think they chose Rawdon for his good looks? It is mainly the familial connection.”

    Indeed, what good looks what, he is at the least bilingual…at the most multi lingual…with vast experience in finances thrown in, he looks unsettlingly like is father…

    ……but I see too many problems ahead either way…something is off.

    Bajans only hope to save themselves is split vote and coalition party of government…no majority votes….in 2017 it has become too colonial and destructive.


  21. Jesus, let me end… too much Koolaid

    If I was Mia, he would have a fight on his hands. I hope she has some foot soldiers who would assist her…


  22. If Rawdon returns to Barbados and is able to command the leadership of the party he will have to demonstrate political acumen to do so. He will be judged and the party by how the process- if it unfolds- is managed.


  23. you guys are looking for the WRONG PERSON TO BE YOUR SAVIOUR…………..THE MILK DONE SPILT IT RUNNING ALL CROSS THE FLOOR

  24. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    And this is truly frightening…the whole thing is too easy to manipulate…and a jewish Russian like this one will gobble up every one in his path…..

    …..Barbados is way too vulnerable for this level of CON.

    “The Security and Exchange Commission today has charged both a diamond and a real estate initial coin offering scheme with defrauding investors.

    REcoin, which promoted itself as the first cryptocurrency-backed real estate company and DRC World, a diamond company, are owned by businessman Maksim Zaslavskiy. The SEC accuses Zaslavskiy of selling unregistered securities and coins that don’t exist to unsuspecting investors, according to a statement from the SEC.

    Zaslavskiy allegedly told these investors they could expect “sizeable returns” from each operation, all the while misstating how their money would be invested and misrepresenting how much had already been invested, according to the SEC.

    The U.S. government has since obtained an emergency court order to freeze Zaslavskiy’s and his companies assets.

    Though these appear to be the first initial coin offerings, or ICO’s, to come under fire for fraud, they certainly won’t be the last. The SEC has even recently warned the public about ICO’s by issuing an investor alert in July, telling potential investors to be wary of unsolicited offers and unbelievable claims such as high returns.

    “Investors should be wary of companies touting ICOs as a way to generate outsized returns,” SEC spokesperson Andrew M. Calamari said in the statement out today. “As alleged in our complaint, Zaslavskiy lured investors with false promises of sizeable returns from novel technology.”

  25. Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger. Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences Observing Blogger.

    Dont mind Hal…Adams cant save Barbados…the whole system needs an overhaul, it has to be a combined effort outside the two party system of the continuation of a well maintained, obedient slave society. …..

    ….it has to be radical. …and retrofitted specifically to benefit the majority population.


  26. I have as much interest in Bitcoin as I have in Derivatives which is to say none at all but who am I?

    This whole enterprise reminds me of Hans Christian Anderson allegory (The Emperor’s new clothes)


  27. @ Sargeant
    …and when Bushman and NCOs agree,
    …de dog done dead.


  28. @Sargeant, you actually took @Hal seriously. His was a complete LOL comment. Adams’ ability to lead poltically will ultimately be judged on his ambition in that arena.

    He has done the hard yards of making himself marketable with an impressive CV and clearly his pedigree is a plus but for anyone to spew that dynastic drivel to suggest that we are going to anoint him in some birthright role of leader is nonsense.

    But that’s the amusing aspect of life. We rail against the so called elites like those mentioned by PLT above – Bush, Clinton et al- but giving half a chance we endeavour to achieve the same do-do.

    I wish Adams well. If the man has the ambition poltically then so be it…one can only hope he has the integrity and self-less demeanour that great politicians need.

    @David, there are moments in life which are almost too perfectly positioned. This is one such.

    The scion of a Caribbean political familly colussus returns to lead a cutting edge technology business enterprise just at the time of a possible sea change moment on the Bajan political landscape.

    Adams is wonderfully placed to dominate news feeds… for his business first n foremost… even as the BLP can attempt to bask in the name recognition publicity as well.

    But do pause….this would also be a perfect time for the DLP dark arts oppo research machinery to link him by innuendo with a full bore on the unsavory aspects of the Tom Adams legacy…women, drugs and self inflicted wounds play even better in today’s social media era…. (may even be a good thing,😊).

    Isn’t life grand!

  29. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    Sargeant at 1 :57 PM

    I wonder if Bitcoin has the same downside risks as Derivatives. I know for sure that the same psychology that drove the admiration of the Emperors new robe is driving Bitcoin. But let us see how it unfurls.


  30. Sargeant September 30, 2017 at 1:07 PM #

    My apologies to the blog. I forgot that Barbadians, like Americans, do not appear to do irony. I was simply paraphrasing what David of BU said a few weeks ago.
    I think it would be ridiculous, and perverse, to even consider Rawdon to be leader of the political party which was led by his father and grandfather, and a future prime minister, just on the basis of his background.
    In a meritocratic society, he must prove his worth, and so far he has not. I am sure she is an intelligent man, but a middle manager in the UK civil service is not a great achievement, nor do we get Nobel Laureates being fund managers.
    Barbadians would be going back in time to even consider him as a potential leader.
    As to cryptocurrency, I suggest that people should proceed with caution. The 2008 crisis, like the many economic crises since the 1970s, has led to great financial engineering and innovation. The cryptcurrency may be one. But, at present, it is not.
    Individual have to make their own career decisions, but let us consider someone who is the lead regional economist for a global bank, while at the same time undertaking further academic studies. All brilliant.
    But to pack that in to join what is at best a speculative enterprise seems rather odd to me. The great advantage of working for a big global bank is that if you had a good idea, for example digital currency, then you make a presentation to your line manager who would look at it and escalate it up the line. If the company likes it they would put their multi-billion dollar balance sheet behind it. For that you will benefit enormously.
    Of course, I wish them well, but a digital currency is highly speculative. How about regulation? How did Bittcoin get regulatory permission, what loops did they have to jump through, and who were the experts who took them through the process? This looks like a car crash waiting to happen.
    Again my apologies for trying irony in the blog. I won’t do it again.


  31. Bernard,
    What are the downside risks of derivatives?


  32. @Bernard

    What is it a young bright former Chief Economist of RBC like yourself is seeing that your are not?

    What is it that the Governor of the OECS central bank Timothy N. J. Antoine is seeing that your are not?

    @Sargeant

    What is it a bright bilingual Rawdon Adams with a rich CV is seeing that your are not?


  33. But gentlemen what do you mean ‘let’s see how it unfolds’ vrs derivatives. There are many, many millionaires and a few billionaires minted in last 20 years because of the derivative finance ‘finesse’.

    I am sure all here also know that several early Bitcoin adopters also made boat loads of millions with the spike in that stock price.

    Theye are big money finance plays, plain n simple.

    Oh BTW I need not mention the many, many people were also left as poor as the proverbial church mouse from the derivative play, do I!

    As the Blogmaster highlighted, there will always be winners and losers with these big risks.

    So frankly the real news is that the big maguffy China said no to the Bitcoin play in their locales…that certainly put a crimp in the soaring stock price just as ’08 chilled derivative fever… but investors are still emboldened and both will continue to make millionaires….

    …and paupers, too.

    Frankly, the ONLY reason there is so much ‘public’ ventilation of these arcane subjects is the social media platforms…they will both continue apace and continue to blossom !


  34. IRONY SHITE
    SAY WHAT YOU MEAN………AND MEAN WHAT YOU SAY
    K I S S KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!


  35. @Hal
    My apologies to the blog. I forgot that Barbadians, like Americans, do not appear to do irony
    +++++++++++
    We do understand and appreciate Irony, Sarcasm and Wit, the only issue is source of same. Some writers are blessed with an ability to portray each or all in their output, I don’t see you as one of those and hence I took you at your word.

    This is not about me or the blog this is about you trying to be a smart aleck and save face after you took one of Miller’s posts literally and he tore a verbal strip off your behind when you responded negatively.

    Carryon smartly.


  36. @Sargeant

    What is it a bright bilingual Rawdon Adams with a rich CV is seeing that your are not?

    Sargeant, this is the kind of silliness that passes as intelligent discourse. Just as obscenities, vulgarities, outright fiction and other nonsense pass as scoring debating points. As a little boy this is the kind of nonsense that we heard on political platforms which got cheap laughs. It has now been transferred to social media.
    In Britain we tolerate a buffoon like Boris Johnson because we went to Eton and Oxford, where he read classics. A great qualification.
    How can being bilingual be a qualification to be a political leader? Roy Hodgson, the former England football manager and current manager of Crystal Palace speaks six languages. Should he be prime minister?
    @Sargeant, disruptive technologies often emerge as winners, but in the initial stages we must proceed with caution.


  37. @Dee Word

    Agree with most of this comment. If he has political aspirations he will have to demonstrate the savvy to conquer the Paynes et al of this world.


  38. Bushtea

    You never cease to amaze me. You were ready to organise Grenville’s coronation. Now I am promoting Rawdon Adams as an asset to Cabinet and progress in Barbados, you’re accusing me of “redmanitis” and “lastnameitis”. FYI, am basing my comment on the man’s professional track record, not his surname or “redness”. Furthermore I haven’t said anything about Bitt. One of our biggest problems, which is so often evidenced here on BU, is our self-aggrandising and hubristic attitude. I often marvel at how so many talk, talk, talk and talk ’bout everything and don’t know one shiiite. Cut and paste, hear and repeat, complacency and arrogance–apt descriptions of Bajans. #whothecapfit#comethrurawdon

  39. Bernard Codrington. Avatar
    Bernard Codrington.

    @ David at 2:37 PM

    You must know by now that I prefer not to discuss persons only issues. Therefore all three of your questions are rhetorical as far as I am concerned and are none of my business. We see what we want to see and we know only what we want to know.
    My suggestion to the BU household is to tread with caution. All money is Fiat money. The Government and all the players in the market determine what is legal tender and what is negotiable. In the final analysis it is the taxpayers who foot the bill .Governments and their regulators must be satisfied that the downside risks do not outweigh the upside risks.

    In the video above it is all about trust.


  40. @Bernard

    When you say trust what do yo mean? Like how we are trusting this government that has expanded the monetary base 6:1 in the last 5 years?

    Yes the questions are rhetorical to make a point which you are smart enough to glean.


  41. Avatar Capital
    Overstock=Medici=t0.com
    Alphapoint
    We need our financial analyst Ha to put it together and give us the full story…

  42. Talking Loud Saying Nothing Avatar
    Talking Loud Saying Nothing

    @ Hal,

    LOL. You got the boys on here real upset with your British humour – congratulations. I wonder if GP’s comments at 2.41 are laced with irony or is he a tad upset?


  43. Rawdon has an impeccable pedigree, he grew up in a home with lots of books and important people coming to dinner and cocktail parties and having intelligent conversations. It is in his DNA o be our political leader; it is he who would lead us out of this economic and social mess

    @ Hal, we are a monarchy in name only. What tawdry Messianic sycophancy is this? My children also qualify by these criteria…apart from the cocktail parties that is!


  44. Are some here getting ahead of themselves? The man may have no political ambition he may just want to live in the tropics and make some money. If Adams has any political aspirations he will have to get his hands dirty and enter the ring, there will be no coronation for “son of”.

    If he wants to follow in his father’s footsteps and lead the Party that is a bridge too far at this time. Mia has endured the slings and arrows of political hell for far too long to allow the golden chalice of PM to slip through her hands to an upstart no matter if he is covered with royal jelly.

    Some people wish for a Joshua, they may get an Aaron.

  45. millertheanunnaki Avatar

    @ Hal Austin September 30, 2017 at 2:35 PM

    Sorry Hal, sorry to be on your case once again.

    Let me apologize for being that uselessly bad PGCE qualified ‘teacher’ who was so harsh on you in the myriad attempts to get you to appreciate the literary value of the techniques of irony and its devilish ‘child’ called sarcasm.

    We are much too glad you have arrived at that milestone of literary appreciation which has been a rather long, hard and difficult achievement on your part. But we understand and you ought to know firsthand that FE is full of overly ‘mature’ students (like the shallow Hals of this American world) whose brains are more like sieves than sponges.

    But enough of the apologetic ribbing given to you!

    We will get serious in putting you on the spot by querying your niggling reluctance to throw your commonsensical support and intellectual capital behind this cutting-edge technology about to undermine the ‘traditionally’ conservative big world of finance in which you profess to be a guru.

    Shouldn’t the technology- for which you have reservations (and justifiably so given your background)- although existing in the nascent form of electronic banking be embraced as the ‘pervasive’ hand maiden in your brave brand new world of economics in which the backward Bajan economists have not even heard about?

    How come you were so keen to dismiss the old-fashioned management of the foreign reserves of Barbados but are somewhat reluctant to embrace the kind of technology that would be necessary to underpin your proposal to turn the Bajan foreign reserves into financial “micro-chips” to gamble in the electronic casinos of the international financial markets in cyberspace?


  46. @Jeff

    Careful now, Hal posted that it was “Irony”


  47. Jeff,
    I honestly thought better of you.


  48. Talking Loud Saying Nothing September 30, 2017 at 3:40 PM #

    I wonder if GP’s comments at 2.41 are laced with irony or is he a tad upset?
    NO IRONY SIR. NOR AM I UPsET SIR

    BUT I LIKE PEOPLE TO SPEAK PLAINLY AND MEAN WHAT THEY SAY AND SAY WHAT THEY MEAN……….THATS WHAT I TRY TO DO

    AS YOU KNOW HAL IS A MEMBER OF THE LOWEST OF THE EQUINOIDS
    ONE OF THOSE WHO THINKS THAT SPENDING MANY YEARs IN BRITAIN MAKES ONE automatically WISER THAN SOLOMON

    IT SEEMS HOWEVER THAT HE IS OTHER WISE…..more like Solomon’s on Rehaboam

    HOW CAN ONE WRITE AND SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THIS BOVINE EXCREMENT BELOW?

    “Rawdon has an impeccable pedigree, he grew up in a home with lots of books and important people coming to dinner and cocktail parties and having intelligent conversations. It is in his DNA to be our political leader; it is he who would lead us out of this economic and social mess”


  49. Sargeant September 30, 2017 at 3:53 PM #

    re Some people wish for a Joshua, they may get an Aaron.

    LOL Sarge. Didnt know you were a Theologian too. Or did that teach that story the only Sunday you went to Sunday school? Murdah Or you went to Fumble’ church in St Philip?

The blogmaster invites you to join the discussion.

Trending

Discover more from Barbados Underground

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading