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September 22, 2023

Podcast: QED's Amias Gerety guest hosts Fintech Beat

Fintech Beat is a podcast hosted by Chris Brummer, Georgetown Law Professor. QED's Amias Gerety is an occasional co-host of Fintech Beat.  

The show is structured as a conversation at the convergence of finance, innovation and policy, where, as Chris says, "the future of finance is now."

Chris and I are old friends and the truth is that doing a podcast is a lot of work, so I jumped at the chance to help out and do a ~monthly~ podcast on topics that I think are missing in the dialogue. Some of my favorite themes try to pull back the current on the realities of fintech — what does it take to build a business, make good product decisions, convince customers and the market to value your team's effort. I also love to make guests talk about the past as much as the future — how did we get here, whose shoulders are we standing on, why might an innovative business model work now if previous iterations failed.  

The Future of identity

Sept. 22, 2023

Portabl CEO Nate Soffio explains how reliant we are on others to construct our digital identities and the possibility of restoring consumer control of our data and our identities in a digital world.

Why investors (still) love SaaS

Sept. 3, 2023

SaaStr CEO Jason M. Lemkin demystifies everything you need to know about SaaS, and the joys of recurring revenue.


What is (Good and Bad about) Embedded Finance?

April 5, 2023

Mike Hinkley, founder of the Growth Equity Interview Guide and formerly of Airbnb, joins the podcast to take a deep dive into the problems and opportunities of embedded finance.

Is this crisis (really) like 2008?

March 24, 2023

Amias Gerety, former Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, discusses what’s new, and what’s different, in the SVB and Credit Suisse banking turmoil.

Product Market Fit

March 9, 2023

Ayo Omojola, head of product for Carbon Health and former product lead for Cash App, explains the engineering of new fintech experiences.

After the Asteroid: What’s next for Fintech in 2023?

January 10, 2023


Steve McLaughlin, the founder and CEO FT Partners, talks about what to look out for in fintech in 2023 and beyond.


The Vanishing Fintech IPO

December 27, 2022

Jigar Patel, Morgan Stanley's Fintech Chief, joins the show to talk about the present, and future, of fintech in public markets.

Karen Webster, CEO of Pyments.com, joins the Beat

November 1, 2022

Co-host Amias Gerety asks Karen Webster about her origin story, and the future of media.

What Fintechs and Regulators Have in Common

October 7, 2022
Jo Ann Barefoot joins co-host Amias Gerety to explain the necessity of taking policy, and innovation, seriously.  You can check out Jo Ann’s podcast, The Barefoot Innovation Podcast, here.

Richard Bookstaber on Fintech, Diversification and the Volatility Paradox

July 21, 2022
Richard Bookstaber, author of the End of Theory and Demons of Our Own Design, Demystifies Fintech Market Volatility.

The “How” of the Global Economy

July 6, 2022

Author of “The Field Guide to Global Payments, Sophia Goldberg, joins Amias Gerety to answer the age old question: Are payments companies getting paid too much (or too little) for the value they provide?  


Market Swings, Software-Based Investing–and Community Banking

June 16, 2022

Amias Gerety interviews M1 CEO Brian Barnes on relationship investing and automation in the fintech economy.

John Hope Bryant on Entrepreneurialism and Financial Literacy

April 26, 2022

John Hope Bryant, the famed American financial literacy entrepreneur and businessman, joins the podcast with QED's Amias Gerety to talk about Black Wealth, Entrepreneurs, and Financial Literacy.

Fintech Beat is a podcast hosted by Chris Brummer, Georgetown Law Professor. QED's Amias Gerety is an occasional co-host of Fintech Beat.  

The show is structured as a conversation at the convergence of finance, innovation and policy, where, as Chris says, "the future of finance is now."

Chris and I are old friends and the truth is that doing a podcast is a lot of work, so I jumped at the chance to help out and do a ~monthly~ podcast on topics that I think are missing in the dialogue. Some of my favorite themes try to pull back the current on the realities of fintech — what does it take to build a business, make good product decisions, convince customers and the market to value your team's effort. I also love to make guests talk about the past as much as the future — how did we get here, whose shoulders are we standing on, why might an innovative business model work now if previous iterations failed.  

The Future of identity

Sept. 22, 2023

Portabl CEO Nate Soffio explains how reliant we are on others to construct our digital identities and the possibility of restoring consumer control of our data and our identities in a digital world.

Why investors (still) love SaaS

Sept. 3, 2023

SaaStr CEO Jason M. Lemkin demystifies everything you need to know about SaaS, and the joys of recurring revenue.


What is (Good and Bad about) Embedded Finance?

April 5, 2023

Mike Hinkley, founder of the Growth Equity Interview Guide and formerly of Airbnb, joins the podcast to take a deep dive into the problems and opportunities of embedded finance.

Is this crisis (really) like 2008?

March 24, 2023

Amias Gerety, former Acting Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions, discusses what’s new, and what’s different, in the SVB and Credit Suisse banking turmoil.

Product Market Fit

March 9, 2023

Ayo Omojola, head of product for Carbon Health and former product lead for Cash App, explains the engineering of new fintech experiences.

After the Asteroid: What’s next for Fintech in 2023?

January 10, 2023


Steve McLaughlin, the founder and CEO FT Partners, talks about what to look out for in fintech in 2023 and beyond.


The Vanishing Fintech IPO

December 27, 2022

Jigar Patel, Morgan Stanley's Fintech Chief, joins the show to talk about the present, and future, of fintech in public markets.

Karen Webster, CEO of Pyments.com, joins the Beat

November 1, 2022

Co-host Amias Gerety asks Karen Webster about her origin story, and the future of media.

What Fintechs and Regulators Have in Common

October 7, 2022
Jo Ann Barefoot joins co-host Amias Gerety to explain the necessity of taking policy, and innovation, seriously.  You can check out Jo Ann’s podcast, The Barefoot Innovation Podcast, here.

Richard Bookstaber on Fintech, Diversification and the Volatility Paradox

July 21, 2022
Richard Bookstaber, author of the End of Theory and Demons of Our Own Design, Demystifies Fintech Market Volatility.

The “How” of the Global Economy

July 6, 2022

Author of “The Field Guide to Global Payments, Sophia Goldberg, joins Amias Gerety to answer the age old question: Are payments companies getting paid too much (or too little) for the value they provide?  


Market Swings, Software-Based Investing–and Community Banking

June 16, 2022

Amias Gerety interviews M1 CEO Brian Barnes on relationship investing and automation in the fintech economy.

John Hope Bryant on Entrepreneurialism and Financial Literacy

April 26, 2022

John Hope Bryant, the famed American financial literacy entrepreneur and businessman, joins the podcast with QED's Amias Gerety to talk about Black Wealth, Entrepreneurs, and Financial Literacy.

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01

Settlement Collapse

Value transfer moves from days - corresponding banking, T+1 securities - to seconds. Working capital tied up in float is released.

02

Cost Collapse

Marginal transaction cost approaches zero: fractions of a cent, versus 1-6% on card and corresponding rails.

03

Programmability

Money becomes an object that carries logic - escrow, splits, rebates, compliance - executed by code, not back offices.

Pure infrastructure with no revenue accrual

Layer-1 chains and general-purpose middleware — outside our circle of competence and typically outside our stage.

Speculative asset creation

NFT platforms, memecoins, prediction markets styled as products — mapping to none of the five functions; structurally uninvestable for us.

Three structural truths cut across all five functions.

(a)

Regulated-first wins

The 2020/21 cycle proved permissionless purity does not survive contact with real financial regulation. GENIUS, MiCA, CLARITY and the UK/Singapore regimes are producing founders who start from “how do we get licensed” and build backwards — precisely the founder profile QED has always preferred.
(b)

Incumbents upgraded, not disintermediated

JPMorgan, Citi, Bank of America and Wells Fargo are jointly building a tokenized-deposit network; Visa launched a stablecoin platform in July 2026; 140+ businesses signed an open stablecoin standard. Banks migrate — and new-generation infrastructure companies own the picks and shovels of that migration.
(c)

Emerging markets feel it first

Every function improves most where the fiat experience is worst: cross-border payments, dollar access, investment product availability, working-capital finance. Those are exactly the geographies where QED has fintech ventures’ deepest footprint. Our geographic distribution is not incidental to the tokenization thesis — it is the thesis.

Trade & working-capital finance

Finkargo( LatAm import finance) and OatFi(B2B working-capital infrastructure) sit directly on flows whose logical settlement layer is stablecoin.

Collateralized digital-asset lending

Tokenized Treasuries, equities and stablecoin holdings as instant, programmable collateral.

On-chain private credt

Maple, Centrifuge and emerging institutional protocols - credit funds migrating to programmable rails.

Why QED is advanced

Credit is QED's craft: distinguishing lending businesses from fintechs pretending to be one, charge-offs earned from charge-offs deferred. On-chain credit is a straight-line extension, not a stretch.