Back to the finance future
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Opinion

Back to the finance future

October 21 was a monumental day in history. It was a day celebrated across the globe. A day that some had waited over 25 years for. It was Back to the Future Day.

Back to future, front end, doc brown

News outlets published lists of what the 1980s film franchise had speculated we would see in 2015. Some of its correct predictions were: video chat, biometric recognition and even the use of drones. Among the things that unfortunately have not come true (yet) were: flying cars, sleep-inducing alpha-rhythm generators, self-adjusting laces and accurate weather reports.

Writer/director Robert Zemeckis didn’t focus too much of his crystal ball onto the future of the finance industry when the film was released in 1989. He probably would not have predicted that US banks would have still been charging almost $5 each time you use an ATM, or that bank leaders could still be chairman of the board and chief executive of the firm.

And he certainly did not foresee the invention of blockchain. But that got us thinking: the technology behind bitcoin is so ahead of its time, and the identity of its inventor is still unknown. Is now the time to unmask Doc Brown as the brains behind it? 

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