On the latest episode of the Alan Turing Podcast in partnership with Boss Digital, we met with Nick Jones, Co-founder and CEO of Zumo, a cryptocurrency wallet and payment platform on a mission to bring cryptocurrency and decentralised finance to a mainstream audience.

Interview Highlights

“That formative experience of growing up significantly less well off than most of the people that I was around, and being aware of the stress and strain that put on people. I’ve always been fairly financially driven, not from a having stuff or a money-driven point of view, but about being able to have less stress, more time and more stability for my family. So that drove me. And I guess that drove this sense of dread or injustice for people who were born post-2008. In many countries around the world, the standard of living has actually gone down. Life expectancy has gone down. And there has been a concentration of wealth at the top, which makes me sound like some kind of radical left-winger, but this is just fact. Crypto and that world, for me, gives a chance for people from non financially privileged backgrounds to create financial wellbeing for themselves and level the playing field.”

Crypto and that world, for me, gives a chance for people from non financially privileged backgrounds to create financial wellbeing for themselves and level the playing field.

“Now we have an opportunity to drive financial inclusion by allowing people to be a part of this marketplace where they can earn money on the side… There are a lot of ways to lose money and be scammed, and that is the nature of what often happens with new technologies. So for us, for Zumo, it’s about making it as accessible, as unscary and as secure as possible. We’re not going to encourage you to send those funds to somewhere that you don’t want to and we’re going to ease you through that experience and make it as simple as possible for anybody to get into that space. We’re trying to educate people. ” 

Now we have an opportunity to drive financial inclusion by allowing people to be a part of this marketplace where they can earn money on the side.

“And now what we’re seeing is young people are not using traditional products to keep their money in. They are not saving in traditional savings accounts. They might be doing some stocks and shares trading but they are not thinking about pensions. They don’t believe in that stuff because they don’t believe that those big financial institutions have their best interests at heart. I think that gets more and more true the less and less trust there is in the traditional system in the market you are in… I think this whole peer-to-peer and community-driven idea, this is where a generation is looking to place their wealth. And our view is that the generation below them will reject that system entirely and look to have most of their wealth in this alternative and alongside system.”

 I think this whole peer-to-peer and community-driven idea, this is where a generation is looking to place their wealth. And our view is that the generation below them will reject that system entirely and look to have most of their wealth in this alternative and alongside system.

“We have been working on a net-zero strategy from the very start. It always amazes me when I speak to startups that aren’t doing that stuff because when you’ve got a company that’s sub-100 people, that’s the easiest time to do all of those little things that if everybody did we could make a huge difference.”