Historical Perspectives
on the Future of Digital Money

Bloomberg
The Wall Street Journal
Financial Times
Cointelegraph

FourWinds Research

We are historians, founders, and angel investors advising a select number of clients working in finance, technology, web3, and cryptocurrency.

We believe that the history of financial and monetary innovation has much to offer to the projects, foundations, and companies at today’s technological frontier. We aim to produce thoughtful, evidence-based research that brings to bear the methods and insights of history to the problems of designing, adapting, and scaling today’s financial technologies.

Our services include presentations, active participation at meetings and conferences, as well as situation-driven research reports on key developments and historical trends.

Leadership

Niall Ferguson

Managing Partner

Niall is one of the world's leading financial historians and an influential commentator on contemporary politics and economics. He has published sixteen books, including Paper and Iron: Hamburg Business and German Politics in the Era of Inflation, 1897–1927, The House of Rothschild: Money's Prophets: 1798-1848, The House of Rothschild: The World's Banker: 1849-1999, The Cash Nexus: Money and Power in the Modern World, 1700-2000, and The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World.

His many prizes and awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013).

Manny Rincon-Cruz

Partner

Manny is a financial historian of Chinese central banking, as well as the founder of Poolside, an automated market making protocol for liquid staking, and Buttonwood, a tranche-backed stablecoin protocol project.

He holds an A.B. from Harvard in philosophy and mathematical logic, as well as an A.M. from Harvard in East Asian Studies, where he won the Joseph Fletcher Memorial Award for best thesis. He was previously studying a PhD at Stanford.

He is also a Trustee for Eco and an advisor to Blocktower Capital, Ampleforth, and Dyad. He is fluent in Mandarin and Spanish.

Our Locations

Palo Alto, California
London, United Kingdom
Taipei, Taiwan

Selected Work

Contact us or stay up to date on our external publications and appearances.
*We will respond to business inquiries within 24 hours.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
You've successfully subscribed to our newsletter!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.