Taavet Hinrikus Quotes

"People bought bitcoin because they thought it would be worth more tomorrow. And a lot of people got lucky. But we're not seeing real people use bitcoin. And we don't know what problem it solves. Now, blockchain, I think, is a genius advancement in technology."

"The world is getting smaller thanks to technology."

"Financial services have always been about trust. Perhaps the biggest barrier to entry has been getting new customers to trust an unknown brand or service, and that's particularly true with digital disruptors who lack a physical presence on the local high street."

"'Big' problems are overwhelming, but when we distil them down to their simplest forms, then the solutions become simple, too."

"Creating a new country from scratch has given Estonia the license to imagine what a country could be."

"Securing and attracting the best talent is an obsession in the tech industry for good reason. It's your main asset; it's your edge."

"Scaling a business at speed can feel like an out of control roller-coaster."

"Talent is a complex subject: from the education our kids get in kindergarten and beyond to the re-skilling of some parts of the workforce; from the opportunities available for research to how we attract the best people to work in our companies."

"For Estonia, joining Europe meant our potential as a country increased - not decreased - because of that connectedness."

"Competition and variety in financial services are always good things."

"Historically, people have flocked to Silicon Valley because of the belief that that's where the latest innovation is happening. It's a snowball effect."

"The world is becoming more global. More than ever, people are proactively deciding where to live, where to study, where to work. Sometimes it's out of necessity, sometimes it's out of choice."

"Being a 'global citizen' is not something reserved for the global elite anymore. Thanks to the democratising power of technology, it's not a trend determined by privilege or even age but by attitude."

"At TransferWise, we started out as - and continue as - idealists. We start with what we can do to make things better and how we can solve problems, focusing on what people need. It turns out you can focus on building the best service and be successful as business."

"Sometimes, companies are better placed than politicians and governments to make change happen. That doesn't mean that they should not be held to account and follow international rules. But with the right motivation, they can be the force for change."

"To be a global business, you need access to the best talent from around the world - fix this, everything else falls into place. Whether it's homegrown or imported, we don't mind where it comes from - we just want the best."

"People need the financial sector to be safe; people also need the financial sector to go through a massive phase of innovation. That means delivering on the positive rhetoric, like around settlement accounts, not allowing Open Banking to be diluted, and leading the way on AML."

"International money transfer is a massive consumer rip-off. Banks and companies like Western Union have gotten away with it for too long."

"While in two very different sectors, both Skype and TransferWise were born out of frustration."

"I was pretty vocal about being anti-Brexit before the referendum vote."

"Without immigration, nations would stagnate. It is key for innovation and for economic growth."

"Climate change, migration... they transcend national borders and require an international response."

"We're living in a world where international governance is failing to overcome borders, but technology is succeeding in removing them."

"When a new hire is afraid to roll up their sleeves and get things done, it's a clear sign it's not going to work out."

"A preoccupation with job title is an immediate giveaway that someone's priorities are not in line with the company's."

"The financial crisis of 2008 created a seismic shift in the dynamics of trust in financial services. FinTech would have happened without the global financial crisis - but it would have taken much longer."

"The growth of FinTech has been driven by adoption across age groups, but the demand from the millennial generation to innovate and think about financial services differently has been a catalyst for change."

"With a smartphone, we have a supercomputer in our pocket and are always connected. The way we bank is changing as part of this macro trend."

"Celebrity-spotting is pretty standard at Davos. It's one of the things that makes it easy to criticise."

"There's most definitely a Davos bubble. You're in a small Alpine town that, for just four days in January, sees its population tripled with world leaders, CEOs, media, police, the army... and a whole bunch of people who aren't invited but just come to hang out."