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Since the announcement by Prime Minister Mia Mottley announcing the launch of a pilot project with FinTech company Bitt Inc,  there has been a growing concern among the savvy segment of the population about the project.

There is the Heraclitus cliché that ‘the only thing that is constant is change‘. Commonsense therefore informs a view that technology will continue to be used by humankind to interact with the ecosystem for as long as we exist. The challenge however for Barbados is effectively managing the timing of the adoption of new technologies to optimally support efforts to maintain a quality of life for Barbadians.

The blogmaster holds no brief for government’s arrangement with Bitt Inc. Often times provocative positions taken by the blogmaster to canvas and ferret information on topical issues – especially those where there is heavy fog – is misunderstood. It is a hazard of what we do and have no issues with it.

Subject matter experts in the IT field endorse the disruptive impact the use of technology driven solutions will continue to have on the the central bank controlled fiat system.  A system that is tired and has been manipulated to the point of minus-utility in the opinion of the blogmaster.

What are a few key concerns about the project?

  1. lack of a legislative environment to safeguard the integrity of the market
  2. security issues
  3. SMEs say Barbados need mobile/online payment solutions, not a digital currency
  4. Bitt Inc does not have a robust IT/governance platform to certify with best in class FIs to be a disruptor
  5. Barbados is an immature cybersecurity space operating without a ‘sanctioned’ roadmap’

Several commenters continue to conflate the issues while responding to the Bitt Inc Barbados government pilot partnership.  The pilot arrangement which promotes a digital currency should not be confused with other concerns about cryptocurrency, Bitcoin and Blockchain technology for example. Clearly there is a need for public education. There is also a responsibility for individuals to educate themselves about the important issues.

In the public interest Barbados Underground reblogs the following LinkedIn article by Niel Harper, a Barbados Consultant qualified in the area of Internet Security and whose expertise is sought after internationally.

 

Why Bitcoin Will Not Solve the Caribbean’s Financial Inclusion Woes

Posted on by 70 comments

The article was shared by Niel Harper, Managing Director, Octave Consulting | Program Lead, Internet Society | VP, TEN Habitat | WEF Young Global Leader What is Bitcoin? Is it electronic money? There’s a deluge of hype around Bitcoin and blockchain technologies right now, and policymakers and regulators in the Caribbean are doing their best to wrap their heads around

Read more

 

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277 responses to “More Information Needed About Government’s Partnership with Bitt Inc”

  1. nineofnine Avatar
    nineofnine

    What if, the plan behind the scenes is to use Bitt as the predominant payment platform (PPP) of the CARIBBEAN SINGLE MARKET and ECONOMY (CSME), and as Bitt website promotes the facility to BUY/trade?? Bitcoin, puts BITCOIN FOUNDATION on a relatively “secure” springboard to advance the Crypto in the region.

    A possibility..

  2. David Avatar
    David

    @Wily

    Just to reinforce the ignorance of the blogmaster.

    At various times, the pound sterling was commodity money or bank notes backed by silver or gold, but it is currently fiat money, backed only by the economy in the areas where it is accepted. The pound sterling is the world’s oldest currency still in use and which has been in continuous use since its inception.
    Pound sterling – Wikipedia
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pound_sterling

  3. David Avatar
    David

    @sirFuzy

    Chris Halsall is the best person to answer if he is following the discussion. A rate base approach is used by utilities to determine rates with approval by the oversight body.

  4. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @Plt
    MPeas is a platform in Africa. but unlike that part of Africa Bajans are non-“un-banked”. we have well established commercial bank and the credit union movement is well established and trusted.
    Parents often set up CU or Bank accounts for the children and many CUs have junior membership programmes etc

    The drivers for the “mPesa” as not the same in Bdos . Thus mMoney will have a harder time establishing it worth and necessity in the bajan environment thus inertia. So comes the push fron GoB. But this is not some thing the GOB does usually ; and will raise questions.

  5. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “Yes of course… I thought everyone understood this.”

    But the most important people..Bitt’s TARGET MARKET…the majority population they all look down on….still don’t know this, they heard those two jokers Abed and Gale talk about Bitcoins for about a year or more, all over the news and social media…never once heard anything about any mMoney…so it is understandable that their target market is STILL associating Bitt with bitcoins….

    No one bothered to tell them about Plan B….mMoney..but want their money..lol

  6. Guest Avatar
    Guest

    Let us hope, for the sake of our country and the ordinary joe, that the bankers join together and present a proposal outlining how the current debit card system could be adapted to facilitate 100% electronic payments, including the use of mobile systems, and effectively collect GoB revenue from all sources in real time. We have to pray to save the GoB from itself.

  7. David Avatar
    David

    You have been reading the blogmaster’s offerings? If the pilots go well there is a healthy chance the ECCB and the Central Bank will lead the region to validate mMoney as a cross border currency.Mia has started to legacy build. Watch muh …lol.

  8. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    This society is based on trust. Undermine that trust and we usher in the failed state, which Hal is looking forward to. But some people like it so ,don’t we?

  9. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @TheOGazerts September 23, 2018 3:47 PM
    “Why should Baje use mMoney and not his credit card?”
    Baje has the choice to use mMoney or his card; neither of them costs him. However the merchant pays less to accept mMoney than she does to accept either credit card or debit card payments. This difference in costs to the merchant means that many more merchants can accept electronic payments, particularly small Black merchants.

    Will the bank at some time want to charge Baje for transfer of money to mMoney (as if it was an ATM card).
    Yes, probably. The banks put stumbling blocks in the way because they make a lot of money off of credit card and debit card transactions that they don’t want to give up if people switch to using mMoney.

    What the hell does Overstock know that we don’t know?
    It is unlikely that they know anything that we don’t know. They are not a highly respected company, either for their business model or for their technology. Their business model is fatally threatened by Amazon, who are also much more capable on the technology side. Overstock is frantically trying to reinvent themselves as a crypto company as a way of boosting their stock price because they are clearly doomed as an internet retailer. Bitt is one of their minor investments in a strategy that is more informed by greed and attracting gullible Chinese investors than by savvy business insight.

    https://money.cnn.com/2018/08/10/technology/overstock-blockchain-bitcoin-investment-earnings/index.html

    https://cointelegraph.com/news/overstock-shares-surge-following-tzero-investment-announcement

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeldelcastillo/2018/08/09/chinese-private-equity-firm-to-invest-270-million-in-overstock-blockchain-subsidiary/#328ab22d7361

  10. David Avatar
    David

    @Guest

    Jeremy addressed this issue today. The big issue is that the banks charge high rates for services that has the effect of killing business activity and two use old lumbering legacy systems which are not geared to support affordable products and services. in developed countries he advised this is the technology being pushed and preferred..

  11. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @WARU September 23, 2018 4:03 PM
    “…the majority population they all look down on….still don’t know this, they heard those two jokers Abed and Gale talk about Bitcoins…”
    +++++++++++++
    This is exactly what I told Adams and Dukharan on Brass Tacks this afternoon. I told them that their marketing was “incompetent.” I told them that no-one gives a damn about the details of how it works with crypto or whatever just as no-one has a clue how debit cards or wire transfers work; they just work. I told them to stop spouting jargon about crypto and digital currency and all… just tell people that mMoney is a mobile payment system that is fast convenient and secure. Adams did not deny that their marketing had failed, the entire program was a testament to that failure, but I don’t think he listened to me either.

  12. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ David BU

    Even silver and gold are fiat money.It is the say-so by governments and societies that make them, at that time, money. Why not titanium?Why not platinum? It is the social contract that make them the medium of exchange and the store of value.

  13. TheOGazerts Avatar
    TheOGazerts

    @PLT
    Some good responses, but the Overstock question remained unanswered.

  14. Truth will set you Free Avatar
    Truth will set you Free

    I live in the most developed country in the world and most people don’t use Mmoney or any similar type App to pay their bills etc or merchants for accepting payments.

    Like Hants in Canada the primary choice of payment is Credit card, debit card, and checks.

    So Jeremy Stephens is talking out his ass and misleading the Bajan Public.

    I am in the USA and have worked in the Financial Services sector.

  15. Vincent Codrington Avatar
    Vincent Codrington

    @ PLT at 4:17 PM

    And what if mMoney is not fast,nor convenient nor safe? I do not think they were ready with their marketing strategy. Somebody or something forced the issue .

  16. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @TheOGazerts September 23, 2018 4:22 PM
    Overstock has been flinging money in many directions to morph into a crypto company. Bitt is the tiniest of these speculative investments. tZero and Medici are where 100 times more of their money is going. They do not know what they are doing in the crypto space; they are just as blind as everybody else. Abed’s talents are not technical… he is a salesman like his dad. He sold Patrick Byrne on the idea of investing in Bitt and Byrne sent a relatively small investment his way in part, probably, to diversify the regulatory environments in which he was pursuing his crypto strategies.

  17. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    No one is going to trust this especially if later down the road…bitcoins are snuck back in unawares to the people, this was a badly conceptualized long con….but let’s see how many people buy into it.

  18. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Vincent Codrington September 23, 2018 4:32 PM
    I first used mMoney in mid December 2017. In the tech world 10 months old does not qualify as a new product.

  19. David Avatar
    David

    More importantly the product design has been in existence for many years.

  20. WARU Avatar
    WARU

    “Adams did not deny that their marketing had failed, the entire program was a testament to that failure, but I don’t think he listened to me either.”

    They are not going to listen…they are still living in La La land thinking they can sell the majority population anything and they have no choice but to buy because a senator or a minister said so…big mistake.

    These people/leaders have no vision and clearly have no empathy, sympathy or feelings for what the majority population..over 200K people were subjected to re 10 years of corruption from their companeros in DLP.

  21. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Truth will set you Free September 23, 2018 4:30 PM
    You need to look beyond North America. The USA are no longer leaders in financial technology. In Canada I can send any amount of money to anyone from my computer or phone if I simply know their email address, no matter what bank or credit union they use. If we had that in the Caribbean mobile payments would not be necessary.

    Look at China which is way ahead of North America. Mobile payments, Alipay & Wechat Pay, are a dominant part of the economy there.

  22. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ Guest September 23, 2018 4:04 PM

    Let us hope, for the sake of our country and the ordinary joe, that the bankers join together and present a proposal outlining how the current debit card system could be adapted to facilitate 100% electronic payments, including the use of mobile systems, and effectively collect GoB revenue from all sources in real time. We have to pray to save the GoB from itself.

    Why not let the profits from transaction fees flow to us. Therefore i would prefer the CU movement on such a venture. The average joe has more to gain from such, and from an ownership perspective many hands on deck not just a certain few.

  23. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    @ David September 23, 2018 4:04 PM
    “You have been reading the blogmaster’s offerings? If the pilots go well there is a healthy chance the ECCB and the Central Bank will lead the region to validate mMoney as a cross border currency.Mia has started to legacy build. Watch muh “
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

    Does that “Central bank” refer also to the Trinidad & Tobago Central Bank?
    What are the ramifications arising from the pending closure of the Trinidad oil refinery?

    Since Barbados will not be sourcing its finished petroleum products from Trinidad, wouldn’t the new sourcing refinery expect to be paid in real hard currency, i.e. US$?

  24. David Avatar
    David

    @Miller

    Has anyone suggested that mMoney will supplant the established currency?

  25. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ PLT,

    Is there some form of depositor insurance offered by the bank?

    It seems mMoney doesn’t offer that deposit insurance protection?

  26. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @sirfuzzy September 23, 2018 4:46 PM
    mMoney does not offer deposit insurance, however Bitt keeps all the money that people put into mMoney in a separate bank account that they keep their own money, and that bank account or accounts would be covered by standard bank deposit insurance.

  27. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    A small correction, Adams stated that the money is kept in a ‘segregated account’ and is currently audited by KMG. However Bitt Inc has been asking the FSC to hurry up and regulate. H mentioned that pay day loan outfits and a few others are currently not regulated in Barbados.

  28. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Vincent Codrington September 23, 2018 4:32 PM
    If mMoney is not fast, convenient and safe it will fail in the marketplace. There is no reason for an individual to keep more money in their mMoney wallet than in their physical wallet (I currently have $10 in my mMoney wallet) so a complete collapse of the system should not be catastrophic for any reasonable user. Nevertheless Bitt assures me that if they go bust my money will not be affected because it is in separate bank accounts that their creditors cannot claim under bankruptcy laws. That is no reason to keep a lot of money in your mMoney wallet.

  29. Wily Coyote Avatar
    Wily Coyote

    @David

    “full faith and credit”

    True the USA(Regan) and several other sound financial countries have abandoned using the so called GOLD STANDARD to back their currencies and instead rely on the countries GDP to establish their credit worthiness. You quote the British Pound, yes it’s been a major world accepted currency for several decades, ask yourself WHY. The £ is backed by creditable GDP as well as several thousand tons of the the yellow mineral. Now ask yourself what’s the Barbados $ worth based on the countries GDP credit worthiness and no GOLD RESERVES. The term FUC. ALL comes to mind.

    Barbados $ however is backed, by your defenition on by the worthless US $. So Barbados keeping it’s RESERVES in US WORTHLESS PAPER says what. PS, what happened to Barbados GOLD RESERVES when USA went off the gold standard ?

  30. millertheanunnaki Avatar
    millertheanunnaki

    David September 23, 2018 4:44 PM
    “Has anyone suggested that mMoney will supplant the established currency?”

    For intra-regional (Caricom) trade what would be that currency of exchange for settling “cross-boarder” transactions?

    BDS$?, EC$? TT$? Guy$? Jam$?

    Or would it be the good old Uncle Sam Greenback in which we all trust and tied to in some way; whether fixed or floating?

  31. Truth will set you Free Avatar
    Truth will set you Free

    @peterlawerencethompson

    Look at China which is way ahead of North America. Mobile payments, Alipay & Wechat Pay, are a dominant part of the economy there
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    GDP per capita PPP in China averaged 6479.38 USD from 1990 until 2017

    GDP per capita in the United States averaged 35243.47 USD from 1960 until 2017,

    You want to compare a mango to a breadfruit.

    In China an Engineer at Apple makes around US$6500 annually same job in US over US$100,000

    Most people people in China of it’s more than a Billion earn according to CNN’s online global wage calculator, which uses data from the International Labor Organization, the average annual salary of a worker in China’s private sector was 28,752 yuan (about $4,755), or 38% of the global average. That’s roughly the same as a cleaner in Thailand, according to CNN’s data.

    The U.S Bureau of the Census has the annual real median personal income at $31,099 in 2016

    And your feedback is China is more advanced than the USA.

    Is that the reason why there are many hundreds of thousands illegal Chinese in the USA and not vice versa.

    You must be living in Cuckoo land with your BS argument.

  32. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Truth will set you Free September 23, 2018 5:32 PM
    I said China is “way ahead of North America” in mobile payments, not richer. Pay attention, please. GDP per capita is a bizarre way to measure an economy’s suitability for mobile payment technology but I will humour you:
    GDP per capita in China in 2017 was US$7,329
    GDP per capita in Barbados in 2017 was US$16,978
    GDP per capita in the USA in 2017 was US$53,129

    So you can clearly see that Barbados is much closer to China in GDP per capita than it is to the USA.

    The important point is that mobile payment technology is needed here because the banks have refused to implement financial technology that is well developed and pervasive in those banks Canadian home territory. Any of Royal Bank, Scotiabank, or CIBC could have implemented the Interac payment system which runs debit cards as well as email based money transfer for individuals here since they have decades of experience with it in Canada. The network was launched in 1984 through the nonprofit Interac Association and Interac payments surpassed cash payments way back in 2001. I’ve been using Interac email transfers for over 20 years, but the banks here refused to implement it.

  33. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @PLT

    Africa is the leading continent in mobile payments – ahead of the US and China.

  34. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Hal Austin September 23, 2018 6:05 PM
    Africa leads by earliest system implementation, China leads by transaction value.

  35. Truth will set you Free Avatar
    Truth will set you Free

    @peterlawerencethompson

    Thieves are pickpocketing wallet apps in China

    Paying for Starbucks using WeChat in China.

    The QR code rules supreme in China. You can pay for almost anything with it: street food, toilet paper, a lobster dinner, a foot massage. You can even use it to socialize. At networking sessions, it’s not uncommon to scan someone’s WeChat QR code instead of giving them your business card.

    But after an incident last week involving fraudulent QR codes and US$13 million of stolen money, the security of China’s most popular offline-to-online tool is coming under fresh scrutiny.

    “Some criminals paste their own QR codes over the original ones to illicitly obtain money, as ordinary consumers simply cannot tell the difference,” wrote China Daily, a state-owned English media site, in an op-ed.

    “That is why we are powerless to prevent QR codes from being used for fraudulent activities, and that is precisely why the enterprises using QR codes should assume their share of the responsibility for protection.”

    Users have to scan a QR code to unlock bikes from Mobike, a Chinese bike sharing startup. Photo credit: Tech in Asia.
    This isn’t the first time that QR codes have been used for malicious purposes in China. Essentially a link, QR codes can be used to infect smartphones with viruses, which then let the fraudster steal money from a victim’s mobile wallet, such as Alipay. Methods are sometimes even more direct — unsuspecting victims, expecting the payment to go to a shopkeeper or a service provider, will be tricked into transferring money via QR code.

    Unsuspecting victims will be tricked into transferring money via QR code.
    More recently, a spate of scams have been linked to the country’s bike-sharing craze. Users normally can scan a code to unlock rental bikes; by attaching their own QR code to the bike, fraudsters can fool bike riders into transferring US$43 — the same amount as Mobike’s required deposit — to their account.

    As tech startups in other markets, such as India, prepare to roll out their own QR code solutions, taking a defensive and proactive approach towards protecting users will be paramount. (Tech in Asia has reached out to Mobike for comment and has not yet heard back.)

    “Early on, when QR codes just came out, Alipay had concerns around phishing and viruses,” an Ant Financial spokesperson tells Tech in Asia. In response, the Alibaba spin-off company developed identity verification and encryption software for its mobile wallet, she says, declining to share specific details about how the technology works.

    In addition, Ant Financial has had to educate the shopkeepers and businesses that use Alipay. “We’ll tell them that they have to be alert and make sure that other people aren’t changing the QR codes [in their shops],” she says. Likewise, the app has push notifications to alert users of suspicious or risky behavior, like when a screenshot of your payment QR code is taken.

    Human error

    Photo credit: Antonio Tajuelo.
    However, there are limits to protective software. If users aren’t educated properly, fraudsters may be able to work around cybersecurity fixes via fake QR codes and phishing schemes. That’s true of URLs too — except, in the case of a QR code, it’s difficult to discern its legitimacy by looking at it.

    “From a cybersecurity point of view, the QR code […] does not have inherent security flaws but is subject to malicious abuses,” Charles Zhang, associate professor and director of the Cybersecurity Lab at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, tells Tech in Asia.

    More education is needed to raise user awareness, much like what we do for cigarette packages.
    He compares it to HTTP, a protocol used in many web browsers to communicate data. Though web browsers and web users have evolved to “embrace the concept of cybersecurity,” the protocol itself remains largely unchanged, he says. Thus, the responsibility of QR code security belongs to companies, such as those that generate and read QR codes. These codes should be signed digitally, and scanners should be designed to scrutinize QR codes more carefully.

    But users have to become savvier as well.

    “Since QR [codes] are cryptic, they give an illusion of being secure to mass users,” says Charles. “More education is, of course, needed to raise the awareness, much like what we do for cigarette packages.”

    As a case in point, last September, a man in northeastern China had about US$100 stolen from him at a train station. According to his report, a young man had asked him for cash, promising to immediately transfer the same amount via Alipay. When the transfer failed, the fraudster blamed the internet connection, and said he would complete the payment later. Sometimes, no matter how robust your technology is, you can’t prevent human error.

    Currency converted from Chinese yuan. Rate: US$1 = RMB 6.91.

    Originally posted on Tech in Asia in March

    https://hackernoon.com/thieves-are-pickpocketing-wallet-apps-in-china-e64711c2bccc

  36. David Avatar
    David

    Senator Adams mentioned SWIFT being hacked on this morning’s program. All man made systems can be hacked. It is about the size of the risk exposure that can be tolerated versus the reward.

    SWIFT is

    Reuters) – SWIFT, the global messaging system used to move trillions of dollars each day, warned banks on Wednesday that the threat of digital heists is on the rise as hackers use increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques to launch new attacks.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cyber-heist-warning/swift-warns-banks-on-cyber-heists-as-hack-sophistication-grows-idUSKBN1DT012

  37. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Truth will set you Free September 23, 2018 6:17 PM

    All completely true.

    I got robbed of cash at knife point last year in Jamaica.

    Interac email transfer in Canada has phishing attacks.
    http://interac.ca/en/almost-one-quarter-of-canadians-have-clicked-on-a-phishing-link.html

    Paypal is plagued by a variety of scams.
    https://thetechieguy.com/5-paypal-scams-you-should-be-aware-of/

    Scammers have been targeting credit card users for decades and they still cause many millions in losses; they use all sorts of tricks, from phony phone calls and emails to credit card skimmers and Wi-Fi hotspots.
    https://www.businessinsider.com/credit-card-fraud-scam-what-to-do-2018-8

    The point is that ALL payment systems have problems with scammers, including cash. This is no reason to sabotage innovation which can help Black small businesses in Barbados.

  38. Truth will set you Free Avatar
    Truth will set you Free

    That is why the USA Regulators don’t allow most of these types of Apps because of the increased risks.

    Which is why I called BS on the argument that China is more advanced than the USA.

  39. pieceuhderockyeahright Avatar
    pieceuhderockyeahright

    It is noteworthy that another person her recognized that Jeremy Stephens is a RH brimler

    Talks nuff and know diddly squat.

    But wunna Bajans like dat especially you Lucille

    All uh wunna going get exposed soon

    Steupseee

  40. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @ruth will set you Free September 23, 2018 6:38 PM
    I NEVER said that “that China is more advanced than the USA…” I said that I said China is “way ahead of North America” in mobile payments… and that is a fact.

  41. David Avatar
    David

    What is it that he has said on the matter you hove labelled BS?

  42. NorthernObserver Avatar
    NorthernObserver

    @plt
    Why are the Cdn banks, who have had the technology for years, refusing to use it. It is just Bim or all the Caribbean?
    I read others, like Loveridge, complaining about bank fees. What are the banks charging for? Standard accounts? Credit cards?

  43. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @NorthernObserver September 23, 2018 6:55 PM
    The Canadian banks have refused to use their technology anywhere in the Caribbean. As to why, you’d have to ask them.

    The bank fees are high for standard accounts, credit cards, and everything else.

  44. Hal Austin Avatar
    Hal Austin

    @Truth Will Set You Free,

    There is a little game being played in Barbados, which is getting people singing from the same hymn sheet onto radio and television programmes and in print preaching to the public and saying the same things repeatedly. This general consensus then become the gospel. We are a poorer nation for it.
    In journalism – I mean proper journalism there is the concept of balance: which means in brief, getting people of diametrically opposed views on a programme and having them debate in a mature way. The outcome is the public is better informed. Of course, it is not the Bajan style. We prefer hysterical shouting.
    Even though you point out that there have been new developments (since 2008, there has been a robust debate about the content of economic courses in the UK and US, which people in Barbados seem not to hear about). One Oxford University academic journal devoted an entire issue to the debate about the new macroeconomics, the London School of Economics has set up a dedicated department to study these developments, and Manchester University has changed the content of its undergraduate course to include these developments. Has 2008 the ecosystem has changed.
    Good examples of this Bajan conservatism are the boring and intellectually silly arguments about foreign reserves, which dominates our thinking, and the hero-worshipping of economists with PhDs.
    The politicians dominate the public discussion because the academics are afraid to put their heads above the parapet. Politicians want a policy quick fix, while academics want to hold on to their jobs.
    Even here on BU we get a lot of shouting by people who have difficulty talking and walking, farless discussing the finer points of economics. There was no economist with a PhD in the Grantley Adams, Cummins, or 1961 Barrow governments, yet those were our golden years.

  45. Truth will set you Free Avatar
    Truth will set you Free

    @peterlawerencethompson

    This is no reason to sabotage innovation which can help Black small businesses in Barbados.
    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I

    The last time I checked the real financial beneficiary of Mmoney/Bitt Inc is definitely not going to be a black man so your argument is nonsense.

    Last time I checked the USA is a part of North America and have no problem being behind China in these types of Apps as you have outlined.

    That is why there are US Regulators of Banking and Financial Systems.

  46. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Speaking of black businesses
    Oblong head Kerrie symonds has a plan of his own
    One which would definitely put the taxi driver out of business
    Say Hello to Uber if he has his way

  47. peterlawrencethompson Avatar
    peterlawrencethompson

    @Truth will set you Free September 23, 2018 7:12 PM
    A functioning mobile payments system would be transformative for small scale Black entrepreneurs in Barbados. I spend my working life at a non-profit organization which works to help entrepreneurs develop and scale their businesses. I don’t give a flying f*ck about the fortunes of Bitt, but I’m deeply passionate about developing entrepreneurs in Barbados, particularly those who come from poor Black communities.

  48. David Avatar
    David

    @Peter

    Remember the word agenda was mentioned by the blogmaster in an earlier comment.
    Gabriel and the Naked Departure people do not get along.

    Enough said.

  49. Mariposa Avatar
    Mariposa

    Why wouldnt you PTL stop peddling this type of paperless moneyless scam
    isnt it bad enough that poor hard working bajans money are being gobbled up by predatory lenders like the IMF
    Where the hell is your sensitivity or you just don’t give a f..u.k

  50. sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore) Avatar
    sirfuzzy (i was a sheep some years ago; not a sheep anymore)

    @ millertheanunnaki September 23, 2018 5:18 PM

    David September 23, 2018 4:44 PM
    “Has anyone suggested that mMoney will supplant the established currency?”

    For intra-regional (Caricom) trade what would be that currency of exchange for settling “cross-boarder” transactions?

    BDS$?, EC$? TT$? Guy$? Jam$?

    +++++++++++++++++++++++++

    With the all back door diplomacy that china is doing in te region, whose is to say the settlement currency will not be RMB(China Yuan)?

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