Behind the Idea: Totem Accounting

Behind the Idea: Totem Accounting

Chris D'Costa is the Founder of Totem Accounting, a fintech startup building a novel blockchain-based peer-to-peer accounting and book-keeping network. He is known as a cryptocurrency early adopter and advocate having founded the Belgian Bitcoin Association industry body in 2013 and is a Lifetime Member of the Bitcoin Foundation. He has given talks at universities and conferences and regularly appears in panels and discussion forums. What has been the traditional company response to financial technology innovations nationally? As someone who has had many large international corporations as clients, my experience is that there is often enthusiasm for new technology at first, followed by a reluctance to invest in change – particularly inside the finance functions. This resistance has to be put in context, however. Finance is the heart of a business and if something goes wrong it can have grave consequences for both company and shareholders. How has this changed over the past few years? A new breed of senior management has arrived that is much more open to change and new technology. Millennials as managers are now moving business forward because they have a different appetite for change. They see that getting an advantage on the competition starts