David G.W Birch is an author, advisor, and commentator on digital financial services. He is a global ambassador for Consult Hyperion (the secure electronic transactions consultancy that he helped to found), a technology fellow at the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation (the London-based think tank) and a visiting professor at the University of Surrey Business School. He is an internationally recognized thought leader in digital identity and digital money; was named one of the global top 15 favorite sources of business information by Wired magazine and one of the top 10 most influential voices in banking by Financial Brand; created one of the top 25 “must read” financial IT blogs; was found by PR Daily to be one of the top 10 Twitter accounts followed by innovators, along with Bill Gates and Richard Branson; and was rated Europe’s most influential commentator on emerging payments by Total Payments. His latest book “Before Babylon, Beyond Bitcoin: From money we understand to money that understands us” was published in June 2017 with a foreword from Andrew Haldane, chief economist at the Bank of England.