I’ve noticed recently that whenever I’ve mentioned to anyone about this www.commfailure.com site or my techie, Bermuda-focused column pieces at Bermuda’s Bernews website at https://bernews.com/tag/chrisgarrodcolumns, I’ve followed that comment with something along the lines of “…and jeez, I need to write again because it’s been ages and they may be a bit out of date.”
So why is that?
Well, I was busy at work in the last half of 2020. This was me working from home during this current COVID infected pandemic. It would be nice to think, “couldn’t you have taken at least 30 minutes from your day…
A poster outside of the Beacon Theatre, New York. May 3, 2017
The difficulty of being someone who loves the music of Ryan Adams.
This was not an easy post to write.
Down in a Hole
Ryan Adams. Despite everything, I love his music.
He is likely a mercurial creative genius, as The New York Times reported on February 13, 2019.
It is, however, still taking me a while to digest what else he is. There’s a lot of stuff about, well, Ryan being an unbelievably cruel asshole. He impacted the trajectory of female artists such as Phoebe Bridgers (who…
A quick snapshot of my past, present, and now future concerns in our post-COVID-19 world
John Lennon once said that “Across the Universe” had probably the best lyrics he’s ever written — probably “poetry.”
“Nothing’s gonna change my world.” It runs and runs and runs… nothing is gonna change or ruin him. His being and the way he was at that moment in time. At that time, his happiness.
One morning, I was listening to my usual Beatles playlist while working from home, that song queued and then played. I sat there, listening, and the lyric absorbed me in a way it probably never had ever before. …
After less than two years, the Island’s core digital asset laws are being amended.
Bermuda’s new Digital Asset Issuance Act 2020, which became effective on May 6th, 2020, comes soon after the introduction in 2018 of two fundamental pieces of Fintech legislation.
First, we had what is commonly called Bermuda’s “ICO legislation”, amending the island’s companies’ laws to allow the issuance of digital assets to the public.
Second, we introduced digital asset business legislation, the Digital Asset Business Act 2018 [DABA], creating a framework for the regulation of Bermuda-based digital asset businesses.
The ICO legislation provided that any issuance of, say, coins or tokens to the public required that the proposed offering document related…
and parties weren’t meant to last.
It was a vivid memory that will be with me forever.
Thursday, April 21st 2016.
I was sitting at some gate at the Baltimore/Washington airport, having just passed security and waiting to board the American Airlines Eagle flight to jet my wife and me to JFK and to then take us, eventually, home.
My wife was looking at her iPhone. I was sitting there, facing the Baltimore to JFK gate entrance, and then my wife turned to me and said: “Prince is dead.”
I looked at her and just asked: “Oh, what prince?”
“Prince.”
I looked at her, and she…
Lana Del Rey has made one of the most astonishing albums this decade
I still don’t really know who Norman Rockwell is, other than briefly Googling him, reading about him being an author, painter and illustrator… and that was pretty much as far as I got.
I’m not sure I care.
I think I’ve listened to Lana Del Rey’s Norman Fucking Rockwell! so many times since it was released at the end of August, the algorithms which helped Spotify identify my favourite songs of the year gave up all hope at the beginning of December 2019. Forget it. Ok, we know. You love the album so let’s just include everything. …
Bermuda has worked to be a major player in a Fintech revolution. Is it?
Fintech and Bermuda. I’m sure you have all read many articles over the last few years and seen much press regarding the rise of Fintech vehicles forming on the Island. They haven’t formed at a rampant rate, but growth has been slow and steady.
As digital assets have become more widespread and the word “crypto” more widely understood (or at least, less feared), it comes as no surprise to see more countries regulating companies carrying out offerings of digital assets (coins and tokens) and/or those who…
Ok. What should you do? Other than exercise which I don’t do.
I want to read. I want to write. I want to learn how to play the guitar and possibly the piano; figure out how to use my camera; stop slicing when I play golf. I wouldn’t mind someone showing me how not to get to killed so quickly playing Fortnite. And there are some many TV shows I need to binge-watch.
But I am now realizing I can’t do all of the above. Its taken me a while to figure that out.
I have three guitars and two…
When did you last hear someone say that? If I had to guess, for most people, perhaps 2 or 3 years ago. Perhaps at a cafe, in a taxi?
But it is unbelievably rare now.
Taking Bermuda, where I live, as an example. Bermuda’s oldest bank, The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Limited, announced two weeks ago that it had to take the unfortunate action of allowing 30 employees to take early retirement, making 11 employees redundant and closing retail banking services (“walk-in’s”) and drive-thru teller services at one of its branches.
A look into how a 21 sq mile island opened its doors to digital asset business
It’s called The Digital Asset Business Act 2018, which doesn’t really sound that interesting, I suppose.
But, yes, it is.
The Act introduced the concept of digital asset businesses setting up and being regulated in Bermuda. Creating a new regulatory approach, while also one which is very much founded on the Island’s existing, successful (re)insurance industry.
Basically, the Act is trying to achieve what the Island’s Insurance Act did in 1978: the establishment of an entirely new sector of Bermuda’s economy. …
Chris Garrod
Blogging about stuff like digital transformation and music. AI, blockchain, crypto, fintech. Sometimes other random stuff.
