Finextra Research
Sign in
Sign up
  • News
    • Latest news
    • Company updates
    • Long reads
  • TV
  • Research
  • Events
    • All
    • Conferences
    • Webinars
    • Popular
  • Community
    • Community latest
    • Latest expert opinions
    • Groups
    • Search members
  • Jobs
  • APIs
Sign in
Sign up
  • News
    • Back
    • News
    • Latest news
    • Company updates
    • Long reads
  • TV
  • Research
  • Events
    • Back
    • Events
    • All
    • Conferences
    • Webinars
    • Popular
  • Community
    • Back
    • Community
    • Community latest
    • Latest expert opinions
    • Groups
    • Search members
  • Jobs
  • APIs
  • payments
  • markets
  • retail
  • wholesale
  • wealth
  • regulation
  • crime
  • crypto
  • sustainable
  • startups
  • devops
  • identity
  • security
  • cloud
  • ai

Community

  • Your feed
  • Latest expert opinions
  • Groups

Join the Community

23,527
Expert opinions
41,382
Total members
362
New members (last 30 days)
189
New opinions (last 30 days)
29,142
Total comments
Join Sign in
Follow Unfollow

Russell Bell

Director
Fastbase Ltd
Member since
03 Jun 2013
Location
Wellington
Followers
1
Following
0
Opinions
0
Long reads
0
Followed by John Sims, Martha Boyle and 5 others you follow
View Russell Bell's full profile

Russell's comments

clear
NextGen Nordics: Green bitcoin mining farm planned in Sweden

That anybody can say nuclear energy is 100% clean energy, that's some breathtaking massaging of the message.  When Chernobyl is in the news even.  The nuclear industry's marketing slogan should be something like "it's 100% clean, until it isn't, but you know, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs ...sometimes a lot of eggs"

14 Mar 2022 02:38 Read comment

Citi to sack unvaccinated staff at the end of the month

The vaccinated Citi employees don't necessarily believe vaccination is needed for a safe workplace.  The pressure is simply too much for a great many people, and they don't want to fight, they don't want to face the consequences of not getting vaxed.

Many vaccinated people acknowledge that vaccination has no impact on transmission.  And many don't personally see un-vaccinated poeple as any kind of risk, judging by their willingness to socialise with un-vaxed individuals in contexts where there's no official prohibition from doing so.

If pressed to justify the coercion, some vaccinated people offer the explanation that the un-vaxed are more likely to fill hospital beds when they get sick with covid.  A belief that's disputed by the medical profession, reputable and sizeable chunks of it.

11 Jan 2022 03:53 Read comment

Bitcoin may 'break down altogether' - BIS chief

Mr Fox agrees the sky is falling, hopes panicky chooks will follow him into his den so he'll soon be supping on yummy chicken, it's an old story.  Bitcoin isn't facing a 51% attack, and it reaches it's maximum supply in the year 2140, so that's somebody elses problem as far as I'm concerned, you too unless you expect to live another 120 years.  Only worth worrying about if you were literally born yesterday.

01 Feb 2021 02:11 Read comment

Moven 'bank in a box' platform to come with bitcoin built in

no

13 Jan 2021 01:34 Read comment

Bank of England called to account over £50 billion in missing banknotes

Yes the title is misleading.  Responsibility for production and distribution of cash may indeed be fragmented, and authorities may be failing to ensure ATMs are available and fees low or zero.  But publishing reports about who uses and holds cash, that's different.

Depend on it the conclusion of these reports will be "cash is only used by criminals" when in reality most cash use is legitimate, only a fraction is criminal, and most of the proceeds of criminal activity are held in bank accounts, only a fraction in cash, the same as the legitimate economy.

The "material implication" is that cash is a spanner in the works of negative interest rates, an obstacle to confiscation.

07 Dec 2020 02:13 Read comment

Coinbase offers exit packages for staffers unhappy with no-politics stance

The bulk of the payments industry is an aspect of the traditional banking & financial sector.  Not a bunch of disruptive outsiders.  The sector as a whole has huge influence with regulators and uses that influence to raise barriers to entry and squash potential competition.  Genuine outsiders don't stand a chance.  Anti-competitive behaviour, that's a relevant moral issue for the industry.

If Coinbase operates in a competitive market, there's nothing wrong with them setting out to make money.  Nothing wrong with a company saying "our goal is to make money for our shareholders and we do that by giving value to customers."  Pretending to care isn't caring.  Refusing to pretend is an act of integrity.

The companies that are the biggest advocates of social activism are by and large companies with reason to be ashamed; companies that exploit a monopoly of one sort or another, are perpetually insecure about public perception, so are constantly looking to white-wash (or green-wash) their image.  Companies that don't say to their customers "choose to trust us, here's why" but rather "you have no choice but to trust us."

12 Oct 2020 22:32 Read comment

Coinbase offers exit packages for staffers unhappy with no-politics stance

I wasn't suggesting Armstrong was an example of a bad employer, quite the opposite, he's doing the right thing, discouraging his staff from social/political proselytism in the workplace, and declaring that his company won't represent any particular package of beliefs.  An employer should keep out of social & political issues, unless they're relevant to the industry, e.g. you'd expect to hear statements from a mining company about such things as explosive hazards and heavy-metal water runoff.  Though words are just words, you'd hope the public and media, and the courts, would judge companies by their actions rather than their words.

11 Oct 2020 21:03 Read comment

Coinbase offers exit packages for staffers unhappy with no-politics stance

I'd be a bad employer if I told my staff what moral & political views I expected them to hold.  I'd make a hypocrite of myself; inevitably I'd choose expedient, popular views, not views derived from personal convictions.  Sometimes the fashionable views would coincide with my own beliefs but not always. Maybe not even often.

I'd encourage and retain not just people who shared these views, but also hypocrites and liars, people willing to say anything to advance their careers.

I'd lose talented people.  I'd lose not just people who opposed those views, but also people who believe the personal and professional domains should remain separate.  People whose moral compass is strong and who don't want to be told by someone else - especially not their employer - that it should point east or west or north or south.

01 Oct 2020 21:21 Read comment

Coinbase offers exit packages for staffers unhappy with no-politics stance

Armstrong believes he's making a principled stance, clearly.  Smart business if he's right in believing a good portion of his staff and customers share his view.

Is the generous severence given if people are quitting for this reason only, or for any reason ?

01 Oct 2020 02:18 Read comment

Mastercard to add merchant logos to financial app records

So it's similar to gravatar.com except for businesses not people.  Though gravatar lets anyone query the image (per email address) whereas ethoca.com appears to be upload-only, you can't query another business's logo unless you're a card issuer.

01 Oct 2020 01:45 Read comment

  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 10
ShowHide similar members

Similar members

Trevor Jenkins

Trevor Jenkins
Director at Maylands Consulting Ltd

Follow Unfollow
Aravind Madala

Aravind Madala
Director at Cognizant

Follow Unfollow
Alexandros Vagianos

Alexandros Vagianos
Director at Pancreta Bank S.A.

Follow Unfollow
Bogdan Marin

Bogdan Marin
director at bcr

Follow Unfollow
Shereen Michelle Vallauthan

Shereen Michelle Vallauthan
Director at CIMB Bank

Follow Unfollow

Welcome to Finextra. We use cookies to help us to deliver our services. You may change your preferences at our Cookie Centre.

Please read our Privacy Policy.

Accept
Finextra

Finextra

  • About

Community

  • Rules
  • Contact the community team

News

  • Guidance
  • Contact the news desk

Sales

  • Media pack
  • Contact the sales team

Get involved

  • Finextra Live@
  • Webinars
  • Finextra TV
  • Research
  • Finextra.jobs

Events

  • Sustainable Finance Live
  • NextGen Nordics
  • EBAday
  • NextGen:AI
Join the community Register for news alerts
Apple App Store Google App Store

© Finextra Research 2025

Terms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Centre