Happy new year! It has been little news over the last few weeks as everyone has gone into vacation mode. But the topic that never sleeps is Web3. Over the last month, there has been a ton of debate and conversation about the web as we know it today vs. web3. Many voices have raised doubts about web3. Here are some of the more interesting articles on this topic that we’ve come across:

Fred Wilson summarizes probably the biggest advantage of Web3 in one sentence: 

Not to be the devil’s advocate here, but this sounds a lot like the original promise of PSD2: That the bank with the best UX would win since everyone could switch banking providers as they liked. The result (so far) has not been the revolution we were promised, and banks feared, years ago. The main reason might not be technical limitations, but rather that most people don’t like change or don’t care enough.

One of the differences between the PSD2 rush in Fintech a couple of years ago and Web3 today is the amount of money Venture Capital is pouring into the space at the moment and all of the talents that are switching jobs. It’s safe to say that you can’t have this much talent spend all day thinking and working on web3 and have nothing coming from it. But it’s still going to be difficult:

Here in Norway, Kari Due-Andresen, Chief Economist and Head of Research at Akershus Eiendom, and Liv Freihow, Chief Communications and Public Affairs Officer in Norwegian Block Exchange have written that we should stop looking at the crypto phenomenon as something dangerous that must be banned. Norway is uniquely positioned to develop decentralized financial solutions, and blockchain technology has a lot to offer us.

Jon Ramvi, CEO of Symfoni AS, explains how blockchain technology can automate registers and bureaucracy and deliver products at a new level of abstraction. Symfoni is currently working with the Brønnøysund Register Centre to take the shareholder book to the blockchain as the first country in the world. For Kode24, Ramvi also explains why cryptocurrencies are a necessary evil for blockchains.

The Financial Supervisory Authority of Norway reports that DNB may have overestimated borrowers’ ability to pay and must end their practice of offering more financing than the customer applies for. You can read their whole audit report here.

My understanding of this report is that if you are providing a loan to a customer you need to collect data via (at least) samtykkebasert lånesøknad (SBL), the debt register, and additionally collect information about interest, outstanding debt, and remaining repayment period for the loans that are not in the debt register. This includes, among other car loans and mortgages. The remaining repayment period and interest is information that is rather hard to find for users and highlights the immediate need for getting all customer loans into the debt register, and not just unsecured debt.

Another problematic aspect of this report is the Financial Supervisory Authorities’ hard line on ending the practice of offering financing beyond what the customer is applying for. I agree that it’s a good business practice to dictate that the bank’s offer must be arranged according to the customer’s borrowing needs, but what if the customer needs to loan more than they initially have? Based on the last few reports I’ve read, it’s starting to be impossible for banks to digitally meet and guide customers into applying for more loans if they already have a loan.

For the last couple of issues, we’ve linked to 2022 trends and 2021 years in reviews as we’ve come across them. But Spacecadet, a marketing (?) VC has collected a bunch of them: Graphic design trends, Economist emerging technologies, Forrester predictions, Programmatic trends, PWC AI-predictions for 2022, World economic forums top 10 emerging technologies, you name it. Head over to their site for all the reports.

CSS-tricks has also done the same with their “2021 Roundup of Web Research”.

We have an e-sport team in Stacc, but apparently, the real future of e-sport is spreadsheets and Microsoft Excel. The Financial Modeling World Cup was held last year, and the final was broadcast live. You can follow the two-and-a-half-hour replay here on YouTube.

Remember, if you’re enjoying this content, please do tell all your (fintech) friends to hit the subscribe button! If you have some feedback you can always just hit reply!

Marius Hauken, partner Stacc X