This Is The Future: 24/7/365

This is the way the world is going to be…24/7/365.

You can do business all of the time.

Well, you say, there are just some things that do not lend themselves to doing business 24/7/365.

My suggestion is to keep looking at what you do and keep asking the question about serving customers in one way or another, 24/7/365.

It is easy to see financial firms moving to this outcome.

But, I think that to be realistic, you need to look at everything you do, business-wise, within this time frame.

This comes clear in the world that FTX is operating in.

FTX is a cryptocurrency exchange, located in the Bahamas. FTX also operates FTX.US as a separate exchange available to U.S. residents.

FTX has over one million users and its trading volume averages $10 billion daily.

And, FTX is pushing regulators to allow it to operate in the area of leveraged futures contracts for cryptocurrencies, with machines that would make margin calls in 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week trade.

The emphasis here is on what can now be done with technology and not, specifically, what flows through it.

Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried co-founded FTX in May 2019 and has been the brains and energy behind the growth of the company.

He has been somewhat unusual in the crypto-space because of his efforts to invite regulators to dialogue about how their oversight might be obtained and how a dialogue might be encouraged so as to accelerate the cooperation of FTX and the regulators.

Regulators seem to be taking this offer seriously, but carefully.

Rostin Behnam, Chair of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which regulates derivatives markets, has addressed this issue.

While pledging to be “careful, patient and deliberative with this request”, Behnam also expressed public admiration for the ideas behind Bankman-Fried’s argument.

“The request represents an innovative proposal that deserves careful consideration.”

Behnam concluded that “It has never been, nor should it ever be our job to choose winners or losers in the industry.”

“Only the market and the customer can do that.”

So, the process continues.

This Is The Future

The bottom line to this discussion, as far as I am concerned, is that the technology is there to produce an environment where business is done 24/7/365.

Don Wilson, Chief Executive of DRW, one of the world’s biggest derivatives traders, says that his group has been “trading this way for some time in the crypto space.“

Mr. Wilson admits that he has grown to “like this 24/7 action.”

And, so do many others.

This is the thing about the technology. It is growing and spreading, not only locally but globally.

This is something business leaders must keep in mind. And, they must not keep thinking that these advances will be off in the future.

The way the world is working now, business leaders must accept the fact that time pacing, the implementation of the latest technology, is in the three-to-four year range.

Mr. Bankman-Fried started FTX only three years ago.

And, leadership in this space generally is coming from the younger.

Mr. Bankman-Fried is only 30 years old.

And, FTX now has an estimated $32 billion valuation, based on its January 2022 funding.

FTX plans to lead futures markets in the United States into the 21st century.

And, there are others right behind him, trying to do the same thing.

The Point

This is a global phenomenon.

Business leaders must accept this fact.

Investors must accept this fact.

This is where the world is going.

China is taking this point to the extreme. China is building massive databases to provide the information needed to discover the new, produce the new, and then do it all over again.

Chinese leaders have taken a note from history.

Information grows and spreads.

So, make it easier for innovators to find the information they need to go on to the next generation.

That is what Mr. Bankman-Fried is doing.

Yes, it puts people out of a job, but that is why a country also needs to provide the information and training to get the unemployed back in the market.

Yes, information grows and spreads. Information is just growing and spreading faster than it has ever done before.