BIS's "Innovation": Just More Centralized Digital Money? - Crypto World Reacts

Okay, so the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) is shuffling deck chairs again. Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli is the new "head" of their Innovation Hub, starting in 2026. Five-year term. Sounds impressive, right? Like they're actually *doing* something. Bank for Int’l Settlements names IMF digital money expert as new Innovation Hub head - Global Government Fintech

BIS Innovation Hub: Same Elites, New Window Dressing?

The Illusion of Progress Let's be real. The BIS "Innovation Hub." It's got seven locations, 26 projects underway, 31 completed as of January 2025. Numbers, numbers, numbers. What does it *mean*? What tangible difference are they making to, you know, actual people? Mancini-Griffoli comes from the IMF. Before that, the Swiss National Bank. Goldman Sachs. Boston Consulting Group. Silicon Valley startup. The guy's resume is a freakin' Jackson Pollock painting – splattered with elite institutions. Does this scream "innovator" to you? It screams "establishment lifer" to me. And who did he replace? Cecilia Skingsley, who bailed to become some county governor in Stockholm. A county governor! That's where the real innovation is happening, apparently. Not at the BIS. Then there's Andréa Maechler, the deputy general manager, holding down the fort until Mancini-Griffoli deigns to show up. She's another SNB and IMF alum. It's like they're playing musical chairs with the same five people.

html "Fintech 3.0": More Like Fintech BS, Am I Right?

Hong Kong's "Fintech 3.0" – Really? Meanwhile, over in Hong Kong, the HKMA is patting itself on the back for "Fintech 2030." Forty initiatives! DART – data, AI, resilience, tokenisation. Give me a break. It's alphabet soup designed to sound futuristic. Hong Kong Monetary Authority presents four-pillar ‘Fintech 2030’ strategy - Global Government Fintech Eddie Yue, HKMA chief executive, says they're entering "Fintech 3.0," where technology is "embedded in daily life, powered by trust, transparency, and intelligence." Trust? Transparency? In *finance*? Has this guy met the same financial industry I have? They're launching "Project Ensemble" to "empower real-value transactions and incubate innovative tokenisation use cases." Sounds like a solution looking for a problem. What real-world problems are they actually solving? Are they making banking cheaper for the average person? Are they stopping money laundering? Are they preventing the next financial crisis? I'm not seeing it. Oh, offcourse, there's the BIS connection: "Project Noor", a BIS Innovation Hub initiative prototyping an explainable AI tool. Explainable AI? That's the best they've got? How about AI that actually *works*, instead of needing to be explained? Or maybe they should focus on the "AI" explaining itself taking my job... And let's not forget the HKMA's history: "Fintech 2025," a "fintech promotion roadmap," a "RegTech roadmap." Roadmaps on roadmaps. Where are we going with all these roadmaps? Straight into a ditch, probably. Hong Kong FinTech Week has grown to over 37,000 participants. That's a lot of people drinking tiny coffees and pretending to understand blockchain. So What's The Point? What's the point of all this "innovation"? Is it making our lives better? Is it making the financial system more stable? Or is it just a bunch of bureaucrats and consultants patting themselves on the back while the world burns? I'm leaning towards the latter. All this hubbub for another five years of what, exactly? More reports? More conferences? More pointless "projects"? This Is Just Musical Chairs For Elites