blockchain | 06880

Henry Ford said, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said ‘faster horses.'”

Annelise Osborne uses this quote in her new book, “From Hoodies to Suits: Innovating Digital Assets for Traditional Finance.”

The Westport fintech writer and executive isn’t referring to the Model T, but to blockchain.

But a century later, the concept is the same: Most people have no idea how to innovate or what new ideas mean for their lives.

They better pay attention. Otherwise, they will be hit by a car or a concept they don’t understand.

Osborne took a winding road to his book on blockchain, published last week by Wiley. She grew up in the Marshall Islands (where her father worked in the missile industry). After William & Mary and Columbia Business School, you began your career in New York.

He has worked in financial services (including as a senior vice president at Moody’s, where he managed the commercial mortgage-backed securities oversight team, responsible for monitoring ratings on $400 billion in bonds), and has served on numerous corporate boards .

Osborne has been chief business officer of Kadena, a blockchain company, since April.

After COVID, she moved to Westport. Like the Marshall Islands, it’s on the water. It has great schools for her 3 teenage boys (and, she happily says, a public golf course).

She is involved with Homes with Hope, rescue dogs, and Startup Westport. The city’s public/private tech entrepreneur group is a perfect fit.

Osborne has gotten to know many of Westport’s most creative minds (many of whom are women). They, in turn, are interested in what she knows about blockchain.

A way to visualize the blockchain. Annelise Osborne offers another way, with words.

Explaining how and why finance is becoming interconnected is the goal of his new book. Blockchain, he says, is a $2.6 trillion market “created by (people in) hoodies. But (people in) suits need to understand how and why it matters.”

Blockchain can save investment firms such as Templeton, JP Morgan and KKR huge sums, Osborne says, through operational efficiencies. In fact, they already have.

And with baby boomers passing trillions of dollars in assets to (mostly) Gen Z—many of whom are getting their investment insights from “finfluencers,” who understand blockchain technology and seek out nontraditional types of companies to invest in—it’s fitting for causes. to understand what hoodies are doing and thinking.

Osborne notes that the lines between the two groups are blurring. When Mark Zuckerberg recently testified before Congress, he abandoned his signature look for a more conservative one.

Osborne calls his book “a Michael Lewis-style read.” It’s full of stories that even people who struggle with blockchain can understand.

Annelise Osborne (holding book), with (from left) Doug Bross, Zac Mathias and Marion Jones, at this month’s launch party at Mexicue.

This being Westport — a town with lots of clothes and a growing number of hoodies — Osborne credits several locals in his book. They include Keith Styrcula, founder and CEO of Glasstower Digital; investment manager Ilka Gregory; Gregg Bell, senior vice president of the HBAR Foundation; and Patrick O’Kain, partner at RW3 Ventures.

The book created a bit of a buzz. He sold 75 in 10 minutes at a cryptocurrency conference in Austin. It sold out on Amazon and topped the charts in a couple of new release categories.

Osborne now sets off on a promotional tour of his book in financial capitals around the world.

What’s next? He’s eyeing even more efficiency in finance, including “programmable money.” Bonds can pay interest; watch out for automated margin calls.

You heard it here for the first time, from Annelise Osborne, a financial whiz from Westport who wears neither a hoodie nor a suit.

Fuente