David Birch

David Birch is one of fintech’s most incisive and influential thinkers, known for making sense of how money, identity, and software intersect. With a background in physics and a decades-long career advising banks, startups, and governments, Birch is uniquely positioned to translate deep technical complexity into strategic foresight.

David Birch founded his advisory practice, 15Mb Ltd., after decades with Consult Hyperion, where he helped global institutions navigate secure digital transactions long before “fintech” became a buzzword. Today, as Global Ambassador for Consult Hyperion and Non-Executive Chairman of Digiseq, he remains a trusted voice on the future of payments, digital ID, and token economies.

A prolific author, David Birch’s writing explores the hidden architecture of modern finance, tracing how identity, software, and trust reshape the way money moves. His books from Identity is the New Money (2014) to The Currency Cold War (2020) and Money in the Metaverse (2024), are less about predicting the future than about exposing the forces that shape it, whether geopolitical, technological, or cultural. With a clear-eyed and often contrarian voice, David Birch challenges conventional thinking. He sees digital currency not as a technical upgrade but as a fundamental shift in power; and identity systems not as bureaucratic tools but as levers of inclusion and control. His work is read by policymakers, technologists and financial strategists for the way it reframes familiar debates with precision, wit and urgency.

A regular contributor to Forbes and Financial World, and a long-time columnist for The Guardian, David Birch’s commentaries are often both playful and provocative. He has appeared on the BBC, Sky, and international outlets as a media commentator. His blog (once among the top 25 must-reads in financial IT) was followed by innovators ranging from Bill Gates to startup founders.

Birch has served on advisory boards of companies such as Au10tix, Tillo, and PaymentWorks, and is a Senior Research Fellow at King’s College London, as well as Digital Fellow at the University of Exeter.