The transformation of the automotive industry

In a new episode of La Plaça en Territori 17 we analyze how a key industry is adapting in the fight against climate change and in the creation of wealth. The director of 11 Onze District, Gemma Vallet explains how this sector is transforming.

The automobile industry carries the stigma of being one of the most polluting on the planet but, in turn, it is also one of the most important for the economies of many countries. That is why it is imperative that the industry transform. In a context of constant global warming and with an economy that is hanging by a thread, it is necessary to drastically reduce the ecological footprint while trying to avoid major damage to the economy. Is this possible? Currently it is very uncertain.

In this episode of Radio Cardedeu’s La Plaça en el Territori 17, the director of 11Onze District Gemma Vallet analyzes the electrification of the automobile industry. “By 2028, internationally, it is estimated that 17 million electric vehicles will be sold,” says Vallet. As Gemma Vallet explains, despite the drop in car sales resulting from the economic crisis and the pandemic, “in Europe in 2022, 12% of vehicles were already electric.”

Among the pending challenges for the industry, Vallet includes the need to improve the network of available plugs and lower the price of the final product. “Currently the industry is passing on the increase in production costs,” said Vallet, and this fact is becoming a barrier to entry for many users. In this sense, the attached conversation also points to other innovative mobility alternatives, such as San Francisco, which is bringing goods to the city center via cable cars.

If you want to listen to this episode of La Plaça in Territori 17, it is available on 11OTV and in this article.

A diferència de les divises fiat, el Bitcoin és una moneda digital descentralitzada que no està sotmesa al control d’un govern o banc central. El seu valor no està definit per una entitat, sinó que es deriva de la confiança del consumidor. Però en què es fonamenta aquesta confiança?

Tot i les diferències, les criptomonedes com el Bitcoin comparteixen algunes similituds amb les monedes fiduciàries tradicionals a les quals tots estem acostumats. Per tant, és important entendre què dona valor als diners fiat abans d’analitzar per què hi ha un gran nombre de persones que veuen al bitcoin com un dipòsit de valor.

Lluny queda un sistema monetari segons el qual el valor de les divises està sostingut per la seva convertibilitat a l’or. D’ençà que el president Richard Nixon va reunir el seu equip a Camp David per anunciar que suspenia la convertibilitat del dòlar amb l’or. El dòlar va passar de ser una moneda que basava el seu valor en l’existència d’una contrapartida en or, a ser una moneda fiduciària, diners fiat, amb un valor que deriva de la relació entre l’oferta i la demanda i l’estabilitat del govern emissor. 

Així doncs, els governs i els bancs centrals poden crear diners per ampliar la seva oferta monetària i estimular la despesa a través de mecanismes econòmics sense preocupar-se de tenir suficients reserves d’or, almenys això és la teoria. Per tant, tot i que aquestes monedes fiduciàries no estan sostingudes per actius tangibles, el seu valor és causat per la confiança col·lectiva en les divises. Com a contrapartida, les polítiques monetàries dels governs i banc centrals, així com l’evolució de l’economia poden fer fluctuar aquesta confiança i el valor de la moneda. 

Descentralització, seguretat i oferta limitada

L’ecosistema monetari del Bitcoin està totalment descentralitzat, és a dir, cap autoritat central regula la base monetària, eliminant la necessitat d’intermediaris i atorgant als usuaris més control sobre les seves transaccions financeres. En eliminar les autoritats centrals, es democratitza la creació de moneda, donant més poder i llibertat a la comunitat d’usuaris.

La creació de Bitcoins segueix unes regles detallades en un protocol molt estricte que es basa en la tecnologia blockchain. Aquesta tecnologia de cadena de blocs utilitza algoritmes criptogràfics i la fa més segures que les monedes físiques i altament immune a crisis. A més, si l’usuari vol fer una transferència o un pagament, té total llibertat, ni el banc, ni VISA, ni Mastercard l’han d’autoritzar. Aquestes característiques i el fet milers de comerciants ja accepten Bitcoin com a pagament per béns i serveis, li han donat un valor d’utilitat.

Per altra banda, des de la seva introducció, es va establir un límit màxim de 21 milions de monedes que es poden minar, la qual cosa introduïa un element d’escassetat intrínsec que també contribueix a donar-li valor, quan tenim en compte la relació entre preu i escassetat. És per això que molta gent considera el Bitcoin com a reserva de valor, tot i la seva volatilitat. La regulació global dels criptoactius i la competència amb altres monedes digitals marcaran el futur del Bitcoin, però en última instància, serà la confiança de la gent el que assegurarà, o no, la seva existència.             

11Onze Recomana Bitvavo, les criptomonedes de manera fàcil, segura i a baix preu.

Avui dia ja podem accedir a les nostres finances, a les aplicacions o a dades personals sense necessitat d’ensenyar el document d’identitat en paper. A 11Onze analitzem com la digitalització de la identitat pot ajudar a reduir les desigualtats i millorar la qualitat de vida de la ciutadania d’arreu del món.

Un dels avantatges més celebrats de la digitalització és el fet de simplificar tràmits amb l’administració que impliquen una inversió de temps i diners important. Ara, ja podem aconseguir el padró sense haver-nos de desplaçar a l’Ajuntament; podem fer la declaració de la renda, amb assessorament inclòs, sense sortir de casa; o bé obtenir un certificat oficial, tot i viure en un poble, sense necessitat d’anar a la sucursal d’una gran ciutat. Aquest és un nou escenari de gestions en línia que gràcies a la identificació digital ens aporta agilitat i seguretat.

Aquesta utopia que, a poc a poc, esdevé la nostra quotidianitat, pot portar beneficis significatius a escala social, tant per a la ciutadania com per a l’administració, com ara reduir el frau o aconseguir un empoderament econòmic més inclusiu. Tot això, però, només s’aconseguirà si aquesta tecnologia es fa servir correctament.

El primer gran repte, identificar la població

Segons dades del Banc Mundial, de les 7.600 milions de persones que hi ha al món, gairebé 1.000 milions no tenen cap mena d’identificació reconeguda legalment. Els 6.000 milions restants es reparteixen entre aquelles persones que, tot i tenir identificació legal, no disposen de mecanismes per fer-la servir en l’àmbit digital i aquells que viuen en països on la identificació digital ja és una realitat, com és el cas de Catalunya.

A escala global, fer tràmits administratius o tributaris en línia no és tan habitual com a molts de nosaltres ens pot semblar, i això obre un altre debat: si oferir nous canals digitals implica més oportunitats i facilitats per a la ciutadania, la falta d’accés comporta més desigualtats? Tant els canals de comunicació com els processos administratius han adoptat la via digital com a punt de referència, i en tot aquest procés la tecnologia ha deixat enrere totes aquelles persones que prefereixen els canals tradicionals, sigui per desconeixement o per falta de recursos. Una dificultat afegida per accedir a bens i serveis que amplia la desigualtat social i suposa posar en risc el lliure accés als recursos públics.

Beneficis i riscos de la identificació digital es contraposen i, com en tot balanç, l’opció que pesa més és la que pot afavorir a més ciutadania, contribuir a la millora social i servir com a eina d’evolució, no només com a substitut d’antics mètodes. En aquest punt, les entitats i organismes que treballen amb col·lectius en situació de vulnerabilitat estan guanyant protagonisme.

iSocial: innovació tecnològica en l’àmbit social

ONG i entitats socials han fet un pas endavant en la lluita social i han introduït la innovació tecnològica en un sector que fins ara se n’havia mantingut al marge. És el cas de la fundació iSocial, orientada a oferir solucions innovadores per a la lluita social. La fundació ha creat Refugee Aid App, una aplicació pensada per al col·lectiu migrant a Europa que té dificultats en el procés d’acollida.

Gràcies a l’aplicació, anomenada RefAid, es posa en contacte persones que necessiten un suport i entitats que en presten, la majoria de les quals són ONG internacionals. Actualment, ja està disponible a 14 països, entre els quals encara no hi ha l’Estat espanyol. La mateixa empresa també ha tret al mercat Lifespots, una aplicació orientada a escala local, però amb la mateixa finalitat: facilitar els canals d’ajuda comunitària.

Una de les preocupacions per a les persones que han de migrar és la por a ser retornats al país d’origen. En aquest sentit, l’aplicació ofereix la seguretat que aquestes dades només es compartiran entre organitzacions socials i amb la finalitat de garantir l’article 14 de la Declaració Universal dels Drets Humans, que protegeix “el dret a buscar asil i a gaudir d’aquest a qualsevol país”.

La identificació digital s’obre camí

Un altre exemple és Protection People app (PPa), una plataforma també impulsada per iSocial i orientada a identificar digitalment les persones en situació administrativa irregular, que són prop de 1.000 milions arreu del món. Persones migrades, que viuen en situacions d’extrema vulnerabilitat o que han patit desastres naturals o humanitaris poden trobar-se en aquesta situació. Per acompanyar-les, aquesta aplicació els ofereix coordinació amb altres ONG per detectar necessitats i obrir nous camins, gràcies a les dades biomètriques (dactilar, facial i patró de venes del palmell de la mà, que no varien amb els anys) i a l’informe vital que l’acompanya. 

Identificar persones de forma 100% digital ja és una realitat i, en part, és gràcies a aplicacions que aconsegueixen fer, en qüestió d’hores, tràmits que els governs tarden mesos o, fins i tot, anys a completar. La innovació tecnològica en l’àmbit social obre un nou escenari per combatre la desigualtat social i aportar seguretat i facilitats a la ciutadania d’arreu del món.

11Onze s’està convertint en un fenomen com a primera comunitat fintech de Catalunya. Ara, llança la primera versió d’El Canut, la super app d’11Onze, per a Android i Apple. Des d’El Canut es pot obrir el primer compte universal al territori català.

L’impacte del canvi climàtic en el medi ambient, l’economia i la societat és cada vegada més evident. Per entendre i fer front a aquest fenomen els científics es basen en complexes models de predicció que són crucials per valorar els riscos de l’escalfament global. 

Les projeccions climàtiques són essencials per tal d’avaluar els efectes de l’escalfament global i els riscos que en resulten. Així, els models de predicció del canvi climàtic són simulacions tècniques de la futura evolució del clima a la Terra que s’obtenen mitjançant l’execució i estudi de models numèrics. Aquestes simulacions es poden fer en un àmbit global o regional i es basen en les lleis de la física, la química, la biologia i la dinàmica atmosfèrica.

Els models climàtics globals (MCG) els realitzen l’equip de tècnics i científics del Grup Intergovernamental sobre el Canvi Climàtic (GICC) amb seu a Ginebra i que depèn de les Nacions Unides. Es tracta d’un organisme multinacional que investiga les causes i efectes del canvi climàtic arreu del món i s’encarrega a portar a terme les negociacions relatives als diferents escenaris que es preveuen, com es va fer en el marc del Protocol de Kyoto.

Tot i que a l’Estat espanyol l’Agència Estatal de Meteorologia (AEMET) s’ocupa de les projeccions climàtiques regionalitzades, des de 2008 el Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya (SMC) ha realitzat diversos estudis -conjuntament amb el Barcelona Supercomputing Center- per tal d’elaborar projeccions regionalitzades del clima per al segle XXI al nostre territori.

La metodologia dels models de predicció

Amb el fi d’aconseguir una simulació fiable, els diferents models de predicció requereixen tantes dades d’entrada com sigui possible: concentració de gasos d’efecte hivernacle o aerosols a l’atmosfera, radiació solar, emissions de gasos contaminants i altres factors que poden influir en el clima.

Un cop introduïdes el conjunt de condicions inicials basades en dades observades, els models numèrics i equacions fonamentals que governen les dinàmiques de fluids, de conservació d’energia i d’altres relacionades amb la interacció entre l’atmosfera, els oceans i la superfície terrestre, ens poden indicar el comportament futur del sistema climàtic si es desenvolupen certs escenaris.

Aquests escenaris defineixen trajectòries que representen concentracions de gasos amb efecte d’hivernacle i aerosols, és a dir que tenen un origen principalment antropogènic i, per tant, depenen en gran manera del nostre comportament i decisions polítiques globals. 

Fiabilitat dels models climàtics

Primer de tot, cal tenir en compte que, a diferència d’una previsió meteorològica, els models climàtics no pretenen fer prediccions molt precises i a petita escala del que passarà en els pròxims dies, sinó que tenen com a objectiu projectar els canvis climàtics al llarg dels anys o dècades, però en cap cas estan pensats per fer una previsió del temps que farà en un futur.

És a dir, aquestes simulacions diàries s’interpreten estadísticament per produir projeccions climàtiques, donant lloc a estudis sobre la probabilitat que s’observin unes condicions meteorològiques particulars en el futur. I en aquest sentit, un estudi sobre la fiabilitat de 17 models climàtics que es remunten a principis de la dècada de 1970, va arribar a la conclusió que la majoria dels models van ser efectius en predir les temperatures de les dècades següents.

Evidentment, més enllà d’una aproximació, és difícil que un model de predicció climàtica sigui 100% correcte, però els models van millorant a mesura que avança la tecnologia i la comunitat científica té plena confiança en què aquestes simulacions són la millor eina que tenim per fer front al canvi climàtic. En tot cas, i independentment de la seva eficàcia, sabem que tenim la capacitat de reduir la quantitat de gasos d’efecte d’hivernacle que emetem al nostre planeta, i no tenim cap motiu per no fer-ho.

Si vols descobrir com beure la millor aigua, estalviar diners i ajudar al planeta, entra a Imprescindibles 11Onze.

At a time when the planet is calling for responsibility and common sense, consumption has also entered a new phase. Buying new products is no longer the only option. More and more people are choosing to extend the useful life of everything that already exists, and this has given rise to a trend that is not only here to stay, but is changing the culture of consumption: recommerce.

The concept is simple but powerful: selling and buying second-hand products through digital platforms. The goal? To reduce waste, reuse what is still useful, and avoid the overproduction that fuels the traditional consumption model. It is the practical version of the three famous Rs of the circular economy: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

This change in habits, which until a few years ago was considered minority or alternative, has spread strongly among consumers who want to save money and at the same time have a positive impact on the environment. To this end, a digital ecosystem of platforms has emerged that facilitate the sale and purchase of second-hand items in a fast, secure and affordable way. Here are some highlights:

• One of the major drivers of this revolution is Back Market, a platform specialising in refurbished technology. Smartphones, laptops, cameras, small appliances… everything passes through the hands of professionals who ensure it is in good working order before putting it up for sale. In addition, the platform itself acts as a guarantee, offering a rigorous and responsive after-sales service. It is a smart way to buy the latest technology at much more affordable prices without generating more electronic waste.
• For those who want to sell what they no longer use — or find bargains on all kinds of products — Wallapop remains one of the most popular options. This app has positioned itself as a kind of digital second-hand market, where proximity and direct contact between buyers and sellers facilitates logistics. From furniture to sports equipment, video games and children’s clothing, it is a window onto responsible and practical consumption.
• Another platform to consider is Letgo, which stands out for incorporating artificial intelligence technology. This functionality allows objects to be recognised from an image, automatically categorised and quickly published. The result is a very smooth and efficient user experience, especially useful for those who want to sell without complications.
• In the field of mobility, Coches.net has become a benchmark. This app not only allows you to buy and sell second-hand cars, but also new vehicles, motorhomes, and vans. The added value is the guarantee offered by many of the professional sellers on the platform, which generates trust and reduces risks in such a sensitive transaction as the purchase of a vehicle.
• Clothing, one of the major sources of mass consumption and pollution, also has its own specific platforms. Vinted is a fashion buying and selling community that works like a social network: people sell their clothes with photos or videos, and can follow each other. It is a fresh and fun way to give a second life to clothes we no longer use, while also renewing our wardrobe without falling into the spiral of consumption driven by fast fashion.
• We cannot forget Milanuncios, a classic classified ad site that has successfully adapted to the digital world. With a wide variety of offerings that go beyond objects—jobs, housing, services—it remains a very useful platform for all kinds of transactions, especially in more rural areas or for people looking for more traditional options.
• And when it comes to specific niches, an app like Bkie shows just how far personalisation can go within recommerce. Dedicated exclusively to the sale of bicycles and cycling equipment, it has created its own loyal and active community. With cycling on the rise, this app has managed to capture the needs of a demanding group of users who are looking for quality, good prices and trust between users.

This new way of consuming not only has environmental and economic benefits. It also changes the relationship we have with objects, makes us more aware of their value and educates us in a more mature culture of consumption, based less on novelty and more on responsible use.

Buying second-hand today is no longer synonymous with necessity, but with awareness. And recommerce is a powerful tool for making that change a reality. Through these apps, we can shop better, sell what we don’t use and actively contribute to a more sustainable, humane and efficient economy. So next time you think about buying something new, ask yourself first: do I really require it new? The answer may surprise you… and the planet will thank you for it.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

The lights go out and tens of thousands of people fix their eyes on a stage in San Jose, in the heart of Silicon Valley. When Jensen Huang appears, dressed in his inseparable black leather jacket, the audience welcomes him as if he were a rock star. This is no exaggeration. The announcements he will make over the following hours may alter the investment plans of the world’s most powerful companies, change market expectations and determine the speed at which artificial intelligence will advance.

Jensen Huang is the founder and chief executive officer of Nvidia, a company that, not so long ago, was known mainly among video game enthusiasts. Today, its annual GTC conference brings together more than 30,000 developers, researchers and executives, and has become a kind of global summit of the new digital economy. When Huang presents a processor architecture, he is not announcing a more powerful graphics card. He is showing the infrastructure on which Meta, Microsoft, Google, Amazon or OpenAI will try to build their businesses over the coming years.

This is the great paradox of artificial intelligence: the richest companies in history compete fiercely against one another, yet all of them depend, to a greater or lesser extent, on the same supplier. Nvidia has managed to place itself at the centre of a technological bottleneck that allows it to set the pace for the entire industry. Now, its best customers are trying to escape this dependence while continuing to buy billions of dollars worth of microchips from it.

Nvidia does not sell microchips: it sells time

Nvidia’s rise cannot be understood merely by looking at the performance of its processors. For years, the company sensed that graphics processing units, the well-known GPUs, could be used for far more than generating video game images. Their ability to perform thousands of calculations in parallel made them particularly useful for training neural networks and artificial intelligence models.

The company did not limit itself to manufacturing the hardware. It also created CUDA, a programming platform that allows developers to use GPUs for advanced computing tasks. Over the years, universities, laboratories and companies adopted this ecosystem until it became a de facto standard. This is why leaving Nvidia is not as simple as replacing one component with another: it involves adapting programs, libraries, teams and data centres that have been designed for years around its technology.

This combination of microchips, software, networks and complete systems has turned Nvidia into much more than a semiconductor manufacturer. When a company gains access to a new generation of accelerators before its competitors, it is not simply buying greater computing capacity. It is buying months of advantage.

In a sector where launching an artificial intelligence model six months earlier can mean attracting millions of users, this difference has extraordinary value. Nvidia, therefore, does not merely sell silicon. It sells speed, scale and time. And time is probably the most expensive commodity in Silicon Valley.

Zuckerberg’s dilemma

Mark Zuckerberg knows very well the risk of depending on third-party platforms. For years, Meta’s business has been shaped by Apple and Google’s operating systems, which control the phones used to access Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. When Apple changed its privacy rules, Meta saw how a decision made outside its own headquarters could profoundly affect its advertising model.

Artificial intelligence threatened to repeat the same story, but on an even larger scale.

Meta manages services used daily by billions of people. Every Instagram recommendation, every advertisement selected by Facebook and every future response generated by Meta AI require computing power. An individual query may seem insignificant, but when multiplied across a global community, the result is a colossal demand for electricity, data centres and processors.

If Meta wants to integrate intelligent assistants into WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook, training a large model is not enough. It must then run it continuously for billions of users. This phase, known as inference, may end up accounting for an enormous share of the total cost of artificial intelligence.

This is where dependence on Nvidia becomes a strategic problem. If the supply of processors is insufficient, if deliveries are delayed or if the price of the infrastructure rises, Meta does not fully control the timetable of its own technological revolution.

Its response has been to develop the MTIA family of chips, standing for Meta Training and Inference Accelerator. This is not a new independent microchip company, but an in-house silicon programme integrated into Meta’s infrastructure strategy. The objective is to design accelerators tailored to specific tasks, such as ranking content, generating recommendations and running artificial intelligence services more efficiently. Meta plans to deploy several new generations of MTIA and has strengthened its collaboration with companies such as Broadcom and Arm to accelerate their development.

This does not mean that Zuckerberg is breaking with Nvidia. Meta insists that it will follow a portfolio strategy, combining its own chips with hardware from various suppliers. In fact, the company has also announced agreements to diversify its infrastructure with AMD. The aim is not to achieve absolute independence, but to prevent its entire future from depending on a single gateway.

Silicon valley’s war of independence

Meta is not the only company trying to reduce the toll imposed by Nvidia. Google has been using its TPUs for years to train and run models. Amazon has developed Trainium and Inferentia for its cloud customers. Microsoft is working on Maia accelerators, while Tesla has devoted resources to the Dojo platform. Apple had already demonstrated that designing its own processors could allow it to leave Intel behind and exercise greater control over the evolution of its products.

They have all reached a similar conclusion: when a technology becomes the core of the business, fully delegating control over it is dangerous.

This strategy does not necessarily involve building a direct competitor to Nvidia’s most advanced processors. GPUs are highly flexible tools, capable of handling a wide variety of models and applications. By contrast, a customised chip can be optimised to perform a few repetitive functions more cheaply and efficiently.

The comparison is similar to the difference between a Swiss Army knife and an industrial tool designed to perform the same movement repeatedly. The knife is useful in many situations; the specialised tool can be far superior when the same task must be repeated billions of times. This is why Nvidia may continue to dominate the training of the most demanding models while its customers gradually take certain workloads away from it. The risk for the company is not that Meta, Google or Amazon will stop buying its processors tomorrow, but that they will learn to reserve them only for the tasks in which they are truly indispensable.

TSMC, the factory that sustains the revolution

The story becomes even more complicated when we discover that Nvidia is not completely independent either. The company designs its processors, but it does not have the factories needed to produce them on a large scale. This responsibility falls mainly on TSMC, the Taiwanese giant that also manufactures microchips for Apple, AMD, Qualcomm and hundreds of other customers.

TSMC is the world’s leading specialist in contract manufacturing. Its advantage comes from decades of experience, enormous investment and an extraordinary ability to manufacture increasingly smaller structures without sacrificing performance or reliability. In 2025, advanced processes of seven nanometres or less already accounted for 74% of its wafer revenue, a figure that shows the extent to which the company has placed itself at the centre of the most sophisticated technology. That same year, it manufactured more than 12,000 different products for 534 customers.

This concentration explains why Taiwan has an importance that far exceeds its territorial size. A serious disruption to TSMC’s factories would not affect Nvidia alone. It would shake the production of phones, computers, cars, telecommunications equipment and data centres throughout the world.

People often speak of Taiwan’s “silicon shield”: the idea that TSMC’s importance offers the island a certain degree of geopolitical protection because no major power can afford to let its production disappear. But a shield can also be a vulnerability. The more the world depends on a small number of factories, the more devastating the consequences of a conflict or blockade may be.

ASML, the company that manufactures the impossible

There is yet another level of dependence. To produce the most advanced microchips, TSMC needs machines that can be supplied by only one Dutch company: ASML.

These machines use extreme ultraviolet lithography, known as EUV, to project microscopic patterns onto silicon wafers. They operate with light at a wavelength of 13.5 nanometres, close to that of X-rays, and make it possible to manufacture the circuits that power the most modern generations of processors. ASML’s new platforms are already designed to support the production of two-nanometre chips and, in some cases, even smaller ones.

The process is so complex that it seems to come straight out of science fiction. To generate the necessary light, the machine fires laser pulses at tiny droplets of tin until they are transformed into plasma. A system of extraordinarily precise mirrors then directs this light to print the shapes of the circuit.

ASML does not manufacture the digital brains of the 21st century. It manufactures the tool without which nobody could build them. This position has turned it into a central player in the technological rivalry between the United States and China, because controlling access to advanced lithography is, in part, equivalent to controlling who can manufacture the processors of the future.

The chain is thus laid bare with complete clarity: Meta needs accelerators to deploy its artificial intelligence; Nvidia designs many of the most powerful ones; TSMC manufactures them, and ASML provides the machines that make this manufacturing possible. The companies that appear to dominate the digital world are themselves dependent on a narrow, costly and geographically vulnerable industrial network.

Power no longer comes from beneath the ground

During the 20th century, the great powers competed for oil wells, mines, ports and maritime routes. The 21st century has not eliminated those struggles, but it has added a new strategic resource: computing capacity.

This power is not extracted directly from the earth. It is manufactured in cleanrooms where a microscopic particle can ruin a multimillion-dollar production run, inside machines that operate with a level of precision that is difficult to imagine and through a supply chain that crosses continents.

The battle between Meta and Nvidia is, therefore, only one part of a much deeper transformation. Zuckerberg does not intend to destroy Nvidia, but to regain enough autonomy to set his own pace. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and the other giants are pursuing the same objective.

Nvidia remains the great winner of the artificial intelligence boom. But its success also contains the seed of the main challenge it will have to face: the more power it accumulates, the more incentives it gives its customers to look for a way out. The microchip war will not merely decide who manufactures the fastest processor. It will decide who controls the cost, the speed and access to the infrastructure that is redefining the global economy. And none of the major technology companies seems willing to leave this power indefinitely in the hands of a single man wearing a black leather jacket.

11Onze is Catalonia’s fintech community. Open an account by downloading the El Canut app for Android or iOS. Join the revolution.

Our relationship with financial institutions has changed a lot in recent years. Have you had a trusted manager for years and in the same branch? A person who accompanied you from the moment you opened your first account to the moment you took out your mortgage? The time when a customer could go to a branch and feel involved is long gone. 

The current situation is that the customer, in general, is deeply dissatisfied with the financial system. The system has evolved a lot in recent years and has not known how to (or wanted to) explain this change to the customer. Thus, year after year, the customer has only seen how the institution of which he or she was a part changed shape, colours and staff without really understanding what was going on. The new fintechs are picking up on this unease and are born precisely from the perspective of giving customers back what they lost years ago: a relationship of trust with the financial institution.

Digitalisation fosters a new interaction

We come from a society marked by social interaction, and the irruption of new technologies has revolutionised everything: another form of communication is possible, including with financial institutions. This change in mentality can be interpreted in many ways, but, if used correctly, the benefits can be manifold for customers and institutions.

To speak of financial digitalisation is to speak of fintech. In terms of communication, they have a lot to say. They are the first financial institutions to change the way they communicate with customers. They have brought about an entirely digital system of interaction, which has left traditional banking lagging behind.

At first glance, it may seem that many customers, especially those who were not born in the digital era, will not embrace this change, no matter how many advantages it brings them, and that they will therefore maintain face-to-face and direct service as their main means of contact. But to what extent can this be an advantage for them? 

A digital experience with human quality

The first thing a user looks for when accessing a financial institution is instant attention. No one wants to spend the morning standing in endless queues only to be dealt with in a matter of minutes. Every problem requires an investment of time on both sides. A fintech like 11Onze, which has already been born with digitalisation, will maintain this principle in all interactions with the user, who will have the tools to ask and get an answer to any query. Automatic chats have made it possible to improve the experience in this aspect, providing the user with information based on keywords. Some even go further and offer personal and human attention from these chats. Email or telephone support are the other two ways.

Another requirement is quick understanding, and this is where machines still have room for improvement. For most customers, receiving human telephone support will be more satisfactory than a call with a robot, where a lot of time can be wasted without getting any concrete answer. Although digital entities are working to improve in this aspect, it will be the fintechs with personalised customer service that will gain ground.

Along the same lines, branch service also allows users to have the certainty that they will be able to clear up any doubts they may have. This is a point that is not always satisfactorily resolved, as it requires an investment of time for the customer that not all institutions are currently willing to offer. If they do, it is not always with clarity and transparency.

In this sense, fintechs are still committed to personal and personalised attention, placing special emphasis on this second point. Being aware that each person has different needs and concerns and requires more or less time to acquire information. Respecting each person’s time is a key value that differentiates a good experience from a bad one, both in the digital environment and in person.

Finally, the last and most decisive factor that a customer looks for in an office is trust; knowing that there is a person who will inform us properly and will work for us with honesty and professionalism. But what if all the employees in the branch or in the entire institution were like your favourite manager, and what if they all looked after the customer’s needs and informed him or her honestly and professionally? Then a personal assignment would no longer be necessary, because the trust would not be with a single person but with an entity. This is the real change in the mindset of fintech.

Customer experience marks the future

In fintech, customer service time does not prevail, nor does customer allocation, sales pressure or the number of customers served. In fintech, attention is constant and permanent, from any channel or device. People prevail over products; their needs prevail over those of the entity; and work is done every day to evolve and improve this experience. To bring the financial world closer to users and offer them, for the first time, everything they may need at a single click. 

In short, a fintech means going back to the origins of financial institutions and offering the customer a relationship of trust based on respect and mutual benefit. A relationship to which all the technological advances and facilities that this can offer are added, and those face-to-face practices that, instead of making life easier for the customer, complicate it, are subtracted. Convenience is just a click away. Welcome to the new financial era.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!

The world is changing, and so is the way we pay. While in the past it was common to carry cash or go to the cashpoint, for young people these payment systems have become obsolete. 11Onze agent Mònica Cornudella explains how young people pay for their purchases.

The indispensable tool for all these payments, it is clear, is the mobile phone, and there are at least three methods that are quite common. All are characterised by being quicker, faster and commission-free, but they have the disadvantage of limiting the amount that can be paid, which ranges from 500 to 1,000 euros per transaction. Let’s see what they are!

1. Mobile payments linked to a current account or card. In this case, young people only have to link their debit or credit card details to the bank’s application on their mobile phone or take a photograph of the card so that the system can scan the numbers and detect it. At 11Onze you can now order your virtual card through El Canut.
2. Payment with a ‘contactless’ card. In this particular method, all you have to do is activate the corresponding application and bring your mobile phone close to a dataphone capable of reading the phone’s NFC chip. This system allows young people to make purchases using radio frequency identification technologies, which are embedded in smart cards in mobile phones or other devices. Moreover, if the purchase does not exceed 20 euros, it is not even necessary to enter the PIN.
3. Transfer by mobile phone. Finally, we must talk about what is the most popular way of paying among young people. Surely you have heard of Bizum or PayPal. These are platforms or applications that allow small transfers to be made between individuals using the same mobile phones. Simple and uncomplicated. And you, how do you pay for your purchases?

11Onze is becoming a phenomenon as the first Fintech community in Catalonia. Now, it releases the first version of El Canut, the super app of 11Onze, for Android and Apple. El Canut, the first universal account can be opened in Catalan territory.

The technological revolution that no longer worries only factory workers, but also knowledge professionals. For decades, technology seemed to have an implicit pact with society. Machines would replace the most repetitive, physically demanding and dangerous jobs, while knowledge, creativity and the ability to reason would remain the exclusive domain of human beings. Studying, specializing and accumulating experience appeared to be the best insurance against economic change.

But that pact is beginning to crack. The rise of generative artificial intelligence is changing society’s perception of technology and, for the first time in many years, the debate is no longer focused solely on the opportunities it offers, but also on the risks it entails. More and more people are questioning a tool that, until recently, was presented as an almost inevitable synonym for progress.

This is no coincidence. According to a recent survey reported by the specialist outlet Futurism, public support for artificial intelligence is beginning to erode, mainly due to growing concerns about the destruction of skilled jobs, the spread of misinformation and the concentration of power in the hands of a handful of major technology companies. Fear itself is nothing new. What is new is who is feeling it.

When education is no longer a guarantee

The first major industrial revolutions transformed manual labour above all else. Mechanical looms replaced craftsmen, assembly lines reduced the need for skilled labour and robotics reshaped factories. Every innovation encountered resistance, but it also reinforced an idea that seemed beyond dispute: knowledge was far more difficult to automate than physical strength.

Artificial intelligence is now challenging that assumption. Large language models are already drafting contracts, writing software, producing financial reports, translating texts, creating illustrations, generating preliminary diagnoses and producing content that, until very recently, required years of education and professional experience. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, technology is no longer competing only with human muscle. It is competing with the human mind as well.

Those potentially affected are no longer limited to factory workers or warehouse employees. Lawyers, journalists, architects, consultants, financial analysts, software developers, teachers, graphic designers and translators are now also part of the equation. This is precisely what explains much of the recent shift in attitudes toward AI. Professional classes that for years viewed digitalisation as an opportunity are beginning to realise that they, too, may find themselves in direct competition with algorithms.

A fear with more than two centuries of history

This concern may appear entirely new, but economic history tells us otherwise.

Between 1811 and 1816, at the height of the Industrial Revolution, thousands of English textile craftsmen began destroying the mechanical looms spreading through the factories. That movement would become known as Luddism, inspired by the figure—probably legendary—of Ned Ludd.

For a long time, the Luddites have been portrayed as enemies of progress, incapable of understanding the benefits of mechanisation. Yet this interpretation is deeply unfair. Workers did not smash machines because they rejected technology itself, but because they believed the new production model condemned them to unemployment, devalued their skills and concentrated profits in the hands of factory owners. Their protest was not against machines. It was against the way progress was being organised.

From the loom to the algorithm

The differences between that world and ours are enormous, but so are the similarities.

The Luddites could physically see the machines replacing them. The loom occupied a specific place inside the factory and symbolised the transformation of their way of life. Artificial intelligence, by contrast, is invisible. It operates from data centres located thousands of miles away and can simultaneously reshape the work of a lawyer in Barcelona, a journalist in London or an architect in New York.

The profile of those affected has also changed. Two centuries ago, mechanisation primarily threatened manual skills. Today, it is intellectual work that finds itself competing with technology. That is why some economists and historians now speak of neo-Luddism—not to describe a war against AI, but to explain the re-emergence of the same underlying concern: the fear that a technological revolution may fundamentally alter the rules of the labour market.

This new form of Luddism does not express itself through the destruction of machines. Instead, it takes the form of calls for regulation, strikes by artists and creators, copyright lawsuits, debates over data ownership and growing concern about the future of many highly skilled professions.

Who will reap the benefits of progress?

Economic history shows that major technological revolutions tend to generate greater wealth, higher productivity and new opportunities for growth. It happened with the steam engine, electricity, computerisation and the Internet. Everything suggests that artificial intelligence will follow the same path. However, history also teaches us that the benefits of progress are never distributed automatically.

This is probably the point that most clearly connects nineteenth-century Luddism with today’s debate over artificial intelligence. English craftsmen did not oppose machines because they were against innovation. What they challenged was an economic model in which the gains produced by mechanisation were concentrated in the hands of factory owners, while workers alone bore the costs of the transformation.

Two centuries later, the question remains strikingly relevant. Artificial intelligence promises unprecedented gains in productivity, but it also raises fundamental questions about how this new wealth will be distributed. If an increasing share of intellectual work can be automated, who will capture the value once created by millions of professionals? The companies developing the largest AI models? The organisations that integrate them into their operations? Or will this new wave of productivity ultimately translate into greater prosperity for society as a whole?

This is far from a minor issue. Much of the unease surrounding artificial intelligence today does not stem from the technology itself, but from the perception that its benefits may once again become concentrated in the hands of a very small number of players, while the costs—professional retraining, downward pressure on wages and the disappearance of certain occupations—are borne by a much broader segment of society.

Perhaps, rather than witnessing a purely technological revolution, we are facing an old economic debate resurfacing with new tools. It is precisely this historical continuity that explains why, more than two centuries after Ned Ludd, the same question resonates once again: who will control the benefits of progress, and who will bear its costs?

The lesson of luddism

For almost two centuries, many highly skilled professionals believed that major technological revolutions mainly affected other people: weavers, miners and factory workers. Artificial intelligence is now shattering that perception. For the first time since the Industrial Revolution, a significant part of the educated middle class is discovering that formal education is no longer an absolute safeguard against automation.

Perhaps this is the true novelty of our time. It is not that technology replaces people—that has happened repeatedly throughout history—but that it is now challenging professions that until recently seemed to belong exclusively to human talent.

For that reason, the debate over artificial intelligence should not be reduced to deciding whether we are for or against the technology itself. History shows that trying to stop progress is a losing battle. The real question is different: how can we ensure that the enormous productivity gains promised by this new technological revolution translate into greater shared prosperity, rather than an even greater concentration of wealth and power?

It is exactly the same question the Luddites were asking more than two hundred years ago. And judging by the debate surrounding artificial intelligence today, it may never have been more relevant.

Protecting savings with physical gold has been one of 11Onze’s main contributions to its community and, now, the range of products is being expanded. That is why, in the face of volatility, still-high inflation and the growing crisis of confidence in the banking system, gold is once again strengthening as a safe-haven asset. Discover Gold Seed at Preciosos 11Onze.

There are now more mobile devices in the world than people. Mobile phones have changed the way we live, work, communicate and even our quality of life, wellbeing and health.

An app is a standalone piece of software that is made to perform a specific task and is optimised for use on smartphones, tablets or smartwatches based on the features available. Health apps are known as mobile Health (mHealth), and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) it is a “delivery of health information and services using mobile technologies”.

What is a health application?

It falls within the field of eHealth, understood as the use of communication and information technologies applied to health services (computers, mobile phones, GPS, connected medical instrument monitors, medical robots, etc.). These are computer programmes that are used on mobile platforms and are often connected to medical devices that tell us how to improve our health or prevent risks. There are also diagnostic applications for treating patients or communicating with our healthcare system.

The European Commission states that medical and public health practice is compatible with mobile phones, patient monitoring devices, personal digital assistants and other wireless devices. It also includes in this category applications related to health information to the population, medication reminders sent by SMS, telemedicine, training and guidance systems and even lifestyle and wellness applications created with the aim of maintaining or improving the population’s healthy habits through the practice of sport and wellness.

How are they monitored and what quality criteria is used?

In Catalonia, a method for evaluating mobile health applications using objective variables, called iSYScore, has been used for some time now.

The criteria used by iSYScore to select the most suitable mobile health apps is based on the opinions of users, developers and health professionals, and is based on three key factors: popularity, trust and usefulness.

What are the problems with these applications?

Basically, the lack of loyalty. There are few apps that have achieved long-term stability. A study confirms that 70% of chronically ill people who have used them stop using them after six months. And 80% of apps are abandoned after only two weeks. To improve these figures, personalisation based on different profiles would be advisable. Each person is unique, and these apps act in a generic way.

Another problem to be faced is that of data ownership and data protection, as well as the loss of credibility the product may have if it doesn’t work for the first users who try it.

Tips for choosing a reliable application

1. Be informed: Search and compare applications on search engines such as Google. 
2. Reviews: Search forums for user opinions. 
3. List of options: Choose between 4 or 5 applications.
4. Reliability:  Make sure they are based on scientific evidence, and a good place to do this is to look for references in PubMed (National Center for Biotechnology Information).
5. Test: It would be advisable to test (try out) the application with a friend. If, for example, you suffer from insomnia, it is important that your friend does not suffer from insomnia so that you can share how it went.
6. Who is behind it? To be a quality (reliable) application, it is important that technicians, health professionals (who will be different depending on the purpose of the product) and experts in legislation and data management have been involved in the process. 
7. Obsolescence: Clinical studies require time and in the world of new technologies time passes very quickly and therefore needs to be taken into account.

Following these simple steps will ensure that the applications you use are quite reliable.

11Onze is the community fintech of Catalonia. Open an account by downloading the super app El Canut for Android or iOS and join the revolution!