Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, Richard Turrin, reviewed

An important and fascinating new book by Richard Turrin, who has been doing a great job of explaining what is happening in China from his unique perspective and location. This is a book that needed to be written, and is delivered by someone who is well informed and the right person to write it. You can buy the book here.

Cashless: China’s Digital Currency Revolution, Richard Turrin, reviewed

There is a touching dedication at the beginning of the book to his mother, who, like so many parents, inspired the next generation to read. The foreword clearly illustrates why this book is timely and an important read. Turrin is also quick to point out that China’s move towards a cashless society has not happened over night, but is rather the result of a long planned strategy. Their crackdowns on bitcoin mining for example seem to be less about a lack of faith in digital currencies, but rather the desire to ensure that their population are using the ‘right’, digital currencies from the government’s perspective.

Turrin also powerfully makes the point too, that, regardless of how you feel about China, it’s move into this space is something that will be extremely significant for the west. In many other books we are currently reviewing, including The Rule of the Robots by Martin Ford, the point is made again and again, that, due to the amount of mobile first and mobile only transactions, payments and many many more services happening in China within their own digital ecosystems.

There is already a plethora of data, and AI empowered learning, and with it the insights and power to move to a cashless and digital only currency. China is significant, influential and their actions are something to be watched and learned from, or ignored at your peril.

Turrin has written this book for a variety of different types of readers, and offers suggestions about which chapters to read first, depending on where you are coming from and your own particular areas of expertise. He wrote much of the book during the global pandemic and acknowledges that he often had to revise text and ideas based upon the rapid changes taking place in the world. At the same time he also illustrates that Wuhan’s ability to survive a lockdown was massively under estimated by non Chinese based journalists.

This was because a digital and cashless payment system was in place, thereby easily enabling people to get around lockdown circumstances and still order and pay for their necessary food and other purchases. In the rest of the world the pandemic lockdown restrictions nudged many businesses into a more digital facing method of operating. In China however the barriers were already much much lower.

The decade Turrin spent in Shanghai is one of the reasons why this book is such a compelling read, and made him perfectly positioned to write this book. We really enjoyed reading it, and would deeply recommend that you do also if you want to see where the world is heading in terms of cashless, digital payments.

More about the book

China is changing the very nature of money and borrowing heavily from cryptocurrency to cement its role as the world’s financial technology leader.

Cashless is written by the best-selling author of Innovation Lab Excellence, an award-winning expert in fintech innovation, career banker, and technology expert who has experienced China’s cashless revolution firsthand as a former US resident living in China. It reveals how:

? China’s digital currency can help you better predict and navigate the cashless future coming to the US—and the world

? Your company may be tempted to use China’s digital currency to make cross-border payments

? The EU, UK, Japan, and India are developing digital currencies

? Digital payment will change our relationship with money and promote financial inclusion

Cashless shows you the future. It offers a comprehensive analysis of China’s digital payment systems so that you can better prepare for the rise of digital currencies.

It is a must-read for all business leaders and professionals looking for a decided competitive advantage.

More about Richard Turrin

Rich Turrin is the international best-selling author of “Cashless – China’s Digital Currency Revolution” and “Innovation Lab Excellence” and an award-winning executive with more than 20 years of experience in fintech innovation.

Rich spent the past decade in Shanghai, where he experienced China going “cashless”
first hand. This and his lifelong love of finance provided the inspiration for his book,
“Cashless.” He now focuses on writing and helping Western companies navigate
China’s fast-paced tech marketplace. He also provides commentary on China’s fintech
marketplace to international media including print and TV appearances on the Wall
Street Journal, South China Morning Post and CGTV’s Global Business. Known for his
candor and amusing quips, Rich is able to make complex concepts easy for his
audience to understand.

He previously headed fintech for IBM Cognitive Studios Singapore (IBM’s Innovation
Lab) and headed IBM China’s financial risk team. He led his China team to win the
prestigious “Risk Technology Product of the Year” award for his unique hybrid-cloud
solution to calculating risk in China’s heavily regulated financial space.
Before joining IBM, Rich was a banker for almost 20 years and a serial innovator
throughout his career.

Innovating and designing new fixed-income products, he saw
firsthand how technology, finance, and regulation all come together to impact
innovation. He focuses on thinking “out of the box” and uses his rich finance and
technology experience to make fintech and its impact tangible for his clients and
readers.

Learn more: RichTurrin.com

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