#94: The future of money: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), crypto and why financial innovation is key with Eva Pascoe

Eva Pascoe is a digital leader who has pioneered the Internet, e-payments, ecommerce fashion solutions and CRM. Eva is co-founder of a non-profit digital think-tank Cybersalon.org, she also co-founded the world's first Internet cafe called 'Cyberia Internet Cafe' in 1994. And she developed fashion web shops for (including) Topshop, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Racing Green and Burton. After a successful Crowdcube fundraising campaign in January 2017, Eva joined Bluebella as a non-executive director, overseeing the brand's digital acquisition and international ecommerce strategy. Since 2013 her ecommerce consultancy The Retail Practice has been advising the largest pan-European lingerie brand Hunkemoller. In her role as Charity Trustee for Trading Group, Eva has also advised one of the largest UK military charities, Help4Heroes, supporting the charity team since 2013 in their online trading activities on digital acquisition, CRM and transition to new e-commerce platform. She has co-authored  digital retail policy papers on Re-imagining The High Street and a new policy for West End of London in her “Surf and Turf” contribution to a recent  publication commissioned by the Centre for London and New West End Company. She regularly speaks at key retail industry events run by the Retail Institute and runs a weekly digital innovations blog The Retail Bytes. Eva is also an active angel investor with a focus on female founders. She is also a mentor at Block Dojo, the global blockchain incubator. We cover the following in our conversation: The future of money What are CBCDs? How does this differ to cryptocurrencies? Why is government, around the world, looking into CBDCs? What are the issues vs the benefits? Plans to introduce the digital pound. A multi-currency world: can CBDCs and crypto co-exist? London: the emerging crypto hub Where will CBDCs and the crypto market be in 5-7 years? ***