Is this the most annoying — or valuable — man in DeFi?
Even Chris Blecs biggest supporters acknowledge he can be as subtle as a sledgehammer when hes pushing for transparency from DeFi projects on Twitter.The founder of DeFi Watch puts noses out of joint across the industry whether hes hammering Polygon…
Even Chris Blecs biggest supporters acknowledge he can be as subtle as a sledgehammer when hes pushing for transparency from DeFi projects on Twitter.
The founder of DeFi Watch puts noses out of joint across the industry whether hes hammering Polygon for putting billions in the hands of two developers with admin keys or criticizing Rari Capital for being run by teenagers.
Hes exactly the kind of provocateur asking the sort of difficult questions those in power would love to see silenced. But in crypto, thats not possible and thats why he loves it.
In a decentralized community, I feel like Ive sort of found my groove a little bit, mostly because I cant be turned off, he laughs. Thats why Im drawn to crypto. Because I do think the day will come when, you know, when banks censor people if they violate norms, or if they dont comply with social standards. And Ill be first in line for that.
I promise you, if DeFi projects had a way today to censor people based on their political beliefs, there would be at least one doing it.
If you take a swing at the king…
As it happens, a recent Uniswap proposal was put forward to raise $50 million to bribe the 45-year-old to leave DeFi altogether. It emerged from a Twitter thread, in which industry luminaries, including DeFi Pulse co-founder Scott Lewis, MyCryptos Taylor Monahan and ChainLinkGod, variously accused him of being right-wing, dead wrong and of not acting in good faith.
Popular opinion: Chris Blec sucks.
Hes right but he has a shit poor way of showcasing his opinion.
Im tired of the constant complaints.
Youd think maybe he would shut up and found something.
The proposal didnt pass a consensus check. It failed miserably, Blec says. I was actually rooting for it. If they paid me $50 million, I would leave. I will say that.
A Bitcoiner whose career has seen him work with Ultimate Fighting Championship, conservative commentator Glenn Beck and Mad Moneys Jim Cramer, his combative approach is worlds away from the softly spoken Ethereum developers who actually build most DeFi projects. Uniswap inventor Hayden Adams, for example, appears to hold him in contempt.
He has been kind of open about his disdain for me in general, Blec says. I dont think he likes the way that I express myself. I think he really comes from that background of tech utopia a little bit. You know, having these really controlled environments and safe spaces. And Im the opposite. So, its a little bit like oil and vinegar.
None of the blowback he receives has deterred him in the slightest. Blec believes that calling DeFi projects out on their flaws is the only way to ensure user funds are protected and the sector stays out of the hands of banks and institutions.
I think theres valuable contributions Im making that I want to keep making, but theres a lot of people that dont want me to make them.
Governance theater
Blecs most recent campaign is unlikely to have endeared him any further to Adams. Hes been the most vocal critic of a recently passed Uniswap proposal to create a 1-million UNI fund to support lobbying efforts for better DeFi laws and regulation.
Opposed on principle to disgusting D.C. lobbying, he believes the fund, proposed by the Harvard Law Blockchain and Fintech Initiative, shows Uniswaps governance isnt decentralized: 18% of tokens are controlled by early VC investors, and a further 21.2% of votes are in the hands of the team.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, also known as A16z, controls enough tokens on its own to exceed the 40-million UNI threshold required to pass a proposal. While it has delegated its votes to a variety of university blockchain associations at Harvard, University of California, Berkley and Stanford University, as well as projects like Gauntlet, Blec suspects it instigated the lobbying fund proposal to benefit its portfolio of DeFi investments.
If Andreessen Horowitz wants to take $40 million out of the Treasury to fund this committee because its going to help their corporate interests, then that should be known. That shouldnt be a secret, you know, so thats what I really try to pursue with this stuff.
Of course, theres no hard evidence that A16z was behind this proposal or instructed its delegates on how to vote. However, its interesting to note that the final tally of votes shows that Harvard, Berkley, Stanford, Gauntlet and former Andreessen Horowitz partner Jesse Walden tipped in 40.5 million votes among them. Another 10.5 million votes came from other university-affiliated organizations, although its not confirmed if they have been delegated votes from A16z.
While there was plenty of support from elsewhere for the Education Fund including from community members and Consensys Blec is raising valid governance issues:
The reason Im so adamant about it is because its setting a trend, and others are watching, and I want people to see, its not as easy as they want it to be because youre gonna have fat guys in Florida like me, breathing down your neck, looking for transparency. You cant hide all this stuff and not expect people to ask questions.
Blecs journey
Born in New Jersey in 1975, Blec was mad keen on radio growing up. I loved to listen to the radio and call into the radio stations and stuff in the 80s, he says, explaining one of his first jobs was as a DJ for Smooth FM in New York in the 1990s. He built the stations website on the side using his rudimentary knowledge of HTML.
He left New York after 9/11 for obvious reasons and helped build Total Nonstop Action Impact Wrestling in Nashville from 2003 onward. That led to a really cool job in Las Vegas looking after marketing for the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
I joke that he must have learned his pugnacious approach to Twitter from five years working alongside wrestlers and martial artists. Surprisingly he agrees. Its actually true because part of it was that I worked for a fight promoter there that was pretty intense. And then before that, I worked with professional wrestlers. And, you know, working in radio was also kind of like a cage fight every day. He adds:
After that, I stayed in television. I worked with Glenn Beck, whos like a conservative talk show host, and I helped them run their digital television network. It was called TheBlaze. And so, hes a pretty big personality. And then I also worked for a short time with Jim Cramer.
On the money
Blec first bought Bitcoin in 2015 for a long trip through South East Asia with his wife, as it seemed like a convenient payment method while traveling, but it wasnt until early 2017 that he fell down the rabbit hole. He explains he was doing an online course on the history of money because Im a nerd when he had an epiphany about why Bitcoin was such a leap forward.
I remember that precise moment I was in my living room: I jumped up and I was like, I need to find that Bitcoin stuff. I need to learn about that. Because I just connected it to everything Id ever believed in as far as liberty and politics and stuff. And I just raced to try to learn everything I could after that.
He quit his job on The Street to work as a consultant in crypto full time, and during the ICO boom, he was involved in a project that tried and failed to launch a gold-linked token, which gave him his first peek behind the curtain.
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I learned about all the mistakes you can make in the space as far as security, and I swear, I kind of had this moment with that where I realized that smart contracts are not entirely unchangeable and that there are parts of them that can be modified. It started to open my mind.
He started posting crypto education videos on YouTube in 2018 and launched a specialist DeFi channel the following year with explanations of how to use protocols like Maker and Compound.
I really think I brought thousands of people to DeFi through the videos, he says. But I mean, now YouTube is pulling off videos just for saying one little thing
Blecs referring to reports that YouTube censored a video featuring mRNA technology inventor Dr. Robert Malone and others for expressing concerns over the COVID-19 vaccine. In protest, Blec recently pulled all of his video content from the platform.
That was the one that I just cracked and I was like, if were supposed to be building a censorship-resistant technology here in crypto, how am I supporting a business that just completely is opposed to any sort of rational dialogue? So, I pulled it off and Im looking for another home for it.
Blec is also deeply unhappy with mask mandates and lockdowns, skeptical about vaccines, and moved from oppressive New Jersey to Miami Beach this year to take advantage of its more relaxed approach.
Florida is crazy right now. Theyre setting records with real estate. And everybodys just trying to come here because theres the least amount of rules here.
The fact Miami mayor Francis Suarez is a Bitcoiner is an added bonus. The tech scene is growing so quickly, and I know a lot of people moved here last year. Its just kind of an exciting place to be right now, he says.
Bitcoiner in the ETH house
Blec approaches DeFi with the mindset of a Bitcoiner, rather than an Etherean, and has a laser-like focus on decentralization. DeFi Watch emerged as a result of Blec learning that Compound and other projects had an admin key providing devs with God Mode style control over funds and contracts.
That was the first time that I really had the realization that with DeFi, things werent always as it seemed, he says of the gulf between the rhetoric and the reality.
It suddenly struck me, like, Okay, wait a minute theyve kept some sort of centralized control? Who is it that holds this control? Why are they holding the control? How are they using it? And I just started asking all these questions.
He started digging into other projects to see if they had similar issues (many did) and put the results in a popular spreadsheet that got so many views he started up the DeFi Watch site to house all the information hed collected.
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Eventually, it became impossible to keep up with all the new projects launching, so he now focuses on representative examples, with the self-taught Blec roaming GitHub looking for telltale signs theres centralized control putting user funds at risk.
He says his goal is to educate DeFi users to be constantly skeptical so that they are thinking about these issues all the time. The endless array of exploits of DeFi protocols attest to the fact that sloppy security and poorly designed smart contracts are rampant. Blec says the June 20 Visor Finance exploit, in which $500,000 was lost, is yet another admin key fiasco.
They had their private key accidentally saved in their GitHub repo. I mean, to me, thats like the ultimate. And as soon as you see that kind of negligence or ineptness from a developer, they can be the nicest guys in the world. But if theyre that bad, you have to just run.
Administering the key
Projects often use admin keys, while the protocol is still being built in order to quickly fix security issues or stop exploits, with the goal of getting rid of it once the project is stable and ready for full decentralization. In order to mitigate the risks, many projects have adopted a multisig admin key, which requires a certain number of people to independently approve its use for a particular action.
This is not without its flaws either. Blec has been hammering away at Ethereum layer-two scaling solution Polygon for using a multisig to secure $8.32 billion in total value locked. When he began asking questions, they were using a two-of-three multisig, meaning that just two people could have colluded to make off with the funds, or had the access stolen from them.
There was billions of dollars flying around on this blockchain that basically was relying on three developers not to lose their Ledger Nano S devices. When you think about it that way, its kind of crazy.
While its since been changed to a five-of-eight multisig, that still has issues, according to Blec, who argues that Polygon users need to trust that the signers have just one copy of their key and that the multisig was set up securely. Equally worrying, is the fact that the project is based in India, which has been toying with a crypto ban. Having five people able to make unilateral changes means regulators have an identifiable target.
What happens if a regulator comes along and says you have to use this key to comply with these regulations, or you have to turn off this network right now until you can figure out how to comply?
— Hexologist Ask Me About PulseChain Airdrop (@Hexologist31) July 6, 2021
Kids in the kitchen
For Blec, the only thing worse than having an admin key in the hands of developers is having an admin key in the hands of teenagers. Blec famously called out Rari Capitals team of teenage devs, including a 15-year-old named Jet in March. The eldest was just 20. While his criticism was controversial at the time, the protocol itself was exploited a month or so later for $11 million.
I did feel a little bad when they got hacked after I was criticizing them, he says. I sent that kid a message right away because I just felt bad for him. I just didnt want him to take it to heart even though it was a loss, and they did screw up. Blec says that hes sensitive to any situation where I feel like somebody could become depressed.
Ive had family members that have committed suicide and stuff, and it affected me pretty deep. And, you know, Ive always been sensitive to that kind of stuff as far as, you know, depression and things.
But he says asking tough questions is too important to stop just to avoid hurting peoples feelings.
Theres millions and sometimes billions of dollars at stake. So, its trying to balance the feelings of a developer whos got himself in way too deep with the finances of thousands of people who have their money staked.
Former Project Veritas & O’Keefe Media Group operative and Pfizer formulation analyst scientist Justin Leslie revealed previously unpublished recordings showing Pfizer’s top vaccine researchers discussing major concerns surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. Leslie delivered these recordings to Veritas in late 2021, but they were never published:
Principal scientist at Pfizer, Kanwall Gill in 2021:
“We had no idea how it’s going to look like. MRNA vaccines have been there for 50 years, but nothing went to clinical trial because MRNA have been known to have side effects.”
Featured in Leslie’s footage is Kanwal Gill, a principal scientist at Pfizer. Gill was weary of MRNA technology given its long research history yet lack of approved commercial products. She called the vaccines “sneaky,” suggesting latent side effects could emerge in time.
Gill goes on to illustrate how the vaccine formulation process was dramatically rushed under the FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization and adds that profit incentives likely played a role:
Pfizer's principal scientist in 2021:
“It takes 10 year for a vaccine to come out. It takes years of observations... we are doing everything at the same time."
"It’s going to affect my heart, and I’m going to die. And nobody’s talking about that."
Leslie recorded another colleague, Pfizer’s pharmaceutical formulation scientist Ramin Darvari, who raised the since-validated concern that repeat booster intake could damage the cardiovascular system:
Pfizer's pharmaceutical formulation scientist, Ramin Darvari, in 2021:
“They’re engineering it specifically for me to take the next one, so increasing my consumption."
“It’s going to affect my heart, and I’m going to die. And nobody’s talking about that.”
None of these claims will be shocking to hear in 2024, but it is telling that high-level Pfizer researchers were discussing these topics in private while the company assured the public of “no serious safety concerns” upon the jab’s release:
Vaccine for Children is a Different Formulation
Leslie sent me a little-known FDA-Pfizer conference — a 7-hour Zoom meeting published in tandem with the approval of the vaccine for 5 – 11 year-olds — during which Pfizer’s vice presidents of vaccine research and development, Nicholas Warne and William Gruber, discussed a last-minute change to the vaccine’s “buffer” — from “PBS” to “Tris” — to improve its shelf life. For about 30 seconds of these 7 hours, Gruber acknowledged that the new formula was NOT the one used in clinical trials (emphasis mine):
“The studies were done using the same volume… but contained the PBS buffer. We obviously had extensive consultations with the FDA and it was determined that the clinical studies were not required because, again, the LNP and the MRNA are the same and the behavior — in terms of reactogenicity and efficacy — are expected to be the same.”
According to Leslie, the tweaked “buffer” dramatically changed the temperature needed for storage: “Before they changed this last step of the formulation, the formula was to be kept at -80 degrees Celsius. After they changed the last step, we kept them at 2 to 8 degrees celsius,” Leslie told me.
The claims are backed up in the referenced video presentation:
I’m no vaccinologist but an 80-degree temperature delta — and a 5x shelf-life in a warmer climate — seems like a significant change that might warrant clinical trials before commercial release.
Despite this information technically being public, there has been virtually no media scrutiny or even coverage — and in fact, most were told the vaccine for children was the same formula but just a smaller dose — which is perhaps due to a combination of the information being buried within a 7-hour jargon-filled presentation and our media being totally dysfunctional.
Bohemian Grove?
Leslie’s 2-hour long documentary on his experience at both Pfizer and O’Keefe’s companies concludes on an interesting note: James O’Keefe attended an outing at the Bohemian Grove.
Leslie offers this photo of James’ Bohemian Grove “GATE” slip as evidence, left on his work desk atop a copy of his book, “American Muckraker”:
My thoughts on the Bohemian Grove: my good friend’s dad was its general manager for several decades. From what I have gathered through that connection, the Bohemian Grove is not some version of the Illuminati, at least not in the institutional sense.
Do powerful elites hangout there? Absolutely. Do they discuss their plans for the world while hanging out there? I’m sure it has happened. Do they have a weird ritual with a giant owl? Yep, Alex Jones showed that to the world.
My perspective is based on conversations with my friend and my belief that his father is not lying to him. I could be wrong and am open to evidence — like if boxer Ryan Garcia decides to produce evidence regarding his rape claims — and I do find it a bit strange the club would invite O’Keefe who is notorious for covertly filming, but Occam’s razor would lead me to believe the club is — as it was under my friend’s dad — run by boomer conservatives the extent of whose politics include disliking wokeness, immigration, and Biden (common subjects of O’Keefe’s work).
Therefore, I don’t find O’Keefe’s visit to the club indicative that he is some sort of Operation Mockingbird asset as Leslie tries to depict (however Mockingbird is a 100% legitimate conspiracy). I have also met James several times and even came close to joining OMG. While I disagreed with James on the significance of many of his stories — finding some to be overhyped and showy — I never doubted his conviction in them.
As for why Leslie’s story was squashed… all my sources told me it was to avoid jail time for Veritas executives.
Feel free to watch Leslie’s full documentary here and decide for yourself.
Fun fact — Justin Leslie was also the operative behind this mega-viral Project Veritas story where Pfizer’s director of R&D claimed the company was privately mutating COVID-19 behind closed doors:
BREAKING: @Pfizer Exploring "Mutating" COVID-19 Virus For New Vaccines
"Don't tell anyone this...There is a risk...have to be very controlled to make sure this virus you mutate doesn't create something...the way that the virus started in Wuhan, to be honest."#DirectedEvolutionpic.twitter.com/xaRvlD5qTo
“[…] our findings support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment, particularly essential and non-essential metals, affect epigenetic aging biomarkers across the life course.”
Credit: 2024 Bozack et al.
“[…] our findings support the hypothesis that the intrauterine environment, particularly essential and non-essential metals, affect epigenetic aging biomarkers across the life course.”
BUFFALO, NY- March 12, 2024 – A new research paper was published inAging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as “Aging (Albany NY)” and “Aging-US” by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 4, entitled, “Associations of prenatal one-carbon metabolism nutrients and metals with epigenetic aging biomarkers at birth and in childhood in a US cohort.”
Epigenetic gestational age acceleration (EGAA) at birth and epigenetic age acceleration (EAA) in childhood may be biomarkers of the intrauterine environment. In this new study, researchers Anne K. Bozack, Sheryl L. Rifas-Shiman, Andrea A. Baccarelli, Robert O. Wright, Diane R. Gold, Emily Oken, Marie-France Hivert, and Andres Cardenas from Stanford University School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Columbia University, and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai investigated the extent to which first-trimester folate, B12, 5 essential and 7 non-essential metals in maternal circulation are associated with EGAA and EAA in early life.
“[…] we hypothesized that OCM [one-carbon metabolism] nutrients and essential metals would be positively associated with EGAA and non-essential metals would be negatively associated with EGAA. We also investigated nonlinear associations and associations with mixtures of micronutrients and metals.”
Bohlin EGAA and Horvath pan-tissue and skin and blood EAA were calculated using DNA methylation measured in cord blood (N=351) and mid-childhood blood (N=326; median age = 7.7 years) in the Project Viva pre-birth cohort. A one standard deviation increase in individual essential metals (copper, manganese, and zinc) was associated with 0.94-1.2 weeks lower Horvath EAA at birth, and patterns of exposures identified by exploratory factor analysis suggested that a common source of essential metals was associated with Horvath EAA. The researchers also observed evidence of nonlinear associations of zinc with Bohlin EGAA, magnesium and lead with Horvath EAA, and cesium with skin and blood EAA at birth. Overall, associations at birth did not persist in mid-childhood; however, arsenic was associated with greater EAA at birth and in childhood.
“Prenatal metals, including essential metals and arsenic, are associated with epigenetic aging in early life, which might be associated with future health.”
Read the full paper: DOI:https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205602
Corresponding Author: Andres Cardenas
Corresponding Email:andres.cardenas@stanford.edu
Keywords: epigenetic age acceleration, metals, folate, B12, prenatal exposures
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About Aging:
Launched in 2009, Aging publishes papers of general interest and biological significance in all fields of aging research and age-related diseases, including cancer—and now, with a special focus on COVID-19 vulnerability as an age-dependent syndrome. Topics in Aging go beyond traditional gerontology, including, but not limited to, cellular and molecular biology, human age-related diseases, pathology in model organisms, signal transduction pathways (e.g., p53, sirtuins, and PI-3K/AKT/mTOR, among others), and approaches to modulating these signaling pathways.
Please visit our website at www.Aging-US.com and connect with us:
National insurance, income tax, VAT, capital gains tax, inheritance tax… it’s easy to get confused about the many different ways we contribute to the cost of running the country. The budget announcement is the key time each year when the government shares its financial plans with us all, and announces changes that may make a tangible difference to what you pay.
But you’ll likely be hearing a lot more about taxes in the coming months – promises to cut or raise them are an easy win (or lose) for politicians in an election year. We may even get at least one “mini-budget”.
If you’ve recently entered the workforce or the housing market, you may still be wrapping your mind around all of these terms. Here is what you need to know about the different types of taxes and how they affect you.
The UK broadly uses three ways to collect tax:
1. When you earn money
If you are an employee or own a business, taxes are deducted from your salary or profits you make. For most people, this happens in two ways: income tax, and national insurance contributions (or NICs).
If you are self-employed, you will have to pay your taxes via an annual tax return assessment. You might also have to pay taxes this way for interest you earn on savings, dividends (distribution of profits from a company or shares you own) received and most other forms of income not taxed before you get it.
VAT and excise duties are taxes on most goods and services you buy, with some exceptions like books and children’s clothing. About 20% of the total tax collected is VAT.
3. Taxes on wealth and assets
These are mainly taxes on the money you earn if you sell assets (like property or stocks) for more than you bought them for, or when you pass on assets in an inheritance. In the latter case in the UK, the recipient doesn’t pay this, it is the estate paying it out that must cover this if due. These taxes contribute only about 3% to the total tax collected.
You also likely have to pay council tax, which is set by the council you live in based on the value of your house or flat. It is paid by the user of the property, no matter if you own or rent. If you are a full-time student or on some apprenticeship schemes, you may get a deduction or not have to pay council tax at all.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our 20s and 30s. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
Put together, these totalled almost £790 billion in 2022-23, which the government spends on public services such as the NHS, schools and social care. The government collects taxes from all sources and sets its spending plans accordingly, borrowing to make up any difference between the two.
Income tax
The amount of income tax you pay is determined by where your income sits in a series of “bands” set by the government. Almost everyone is entitled to a “personal allowance”, currently £12,570, which you can earn without needing to pay any income tax.
You then pay 20% in tax on each pound of income you earn (across all sources) from £12,570-£50,270. You pay 40% on each extra pound up to £125,140 and 45% over this. If you earn more than £100,000, the personal allowance (amount of untaxed income) starts to decrease.
If you are self-employed, the same rates apply to you. You just don’t have an employer to take this off your salary each month. Instead, you have to make sure you have enough money at the end of the year to pay this directly to the government.
The government can increase the threshold limits to adjust for inflation. This tries to ensure any wage rise you get in response to higher prices doesn’t lead to you having to pay a higher tax rate. However, the government announced in 2021 that they would freeze these thresholds until 2026 (extended now to 2028), arguing that it would help repay the costs of the pandemic.
Given wages are now rising for many to help with the cost of living crisis, this means many people will pay more income tax this coming year than they did before. This is sometimes referred to as “fiscal drag” – where lower earners are “dragged” into paying higher tax rates, or being taxed on more of their income.
National insurance
National insurance contributions (NICs) are a second “tax” you pay on your income – or to be precise, on your earned income (your salary). You don’t pay this on some forms of income, including savings or dividends, and you also don’t pay it once you reach state retirement age (currently 66).
While Jeremy Hunt, the current chancellor of the exchequer, didn’t adjust income tax meaningfully in this year’s budget, he did announce a cut to NICs. This was a surprise to many, as we had already seen rates fall from 12% to 10% on incomes higher than £242/week in January. It will now fall again to 8% from April.
While this is charged separately to income tax, in reality it all just goes into one pot with other taxes. Some, including the chancellor, say it is time to merge these two deductions and make this simpler for everyone. In his budget speech this year, Hunt said he’d like to see this tax go entirely. He thinks this isn’t fair on those who have to pay it, as it is only charged on some forms of income and on some workers.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for this to happen however, and even if it did, there are huge sums linked to NICs (nearly £180bn last year) so it would almost certainly have to be collected from elsewhere (such as via an increase in income taxes, or a lot more borrowing) to make sure the government could still balance its books.
There are likely to be further tweaks to the UK’s tax system soon, perhaps by the current government before the election – and almost certainly if there is a change of government.
Wealth taxes may be in line for a change. In the budget, the chancellor reduced capital gains taxes on sales of assets such as second properties (from 28% to 24%). These types of taxes provide only a limited amount of money to the government, as quite high thresholds apply for inheritance tax (up to £1 million if you are passing on a family home).
There are calls from many quarters though to look again at these types of taxes. Wealth inequality (the differences between total wealth held by the richest compared to the poorest) in the UK is very high (much higher than income inequality) and rising.
But how to do this effectively is a matter of much debate. A recent study suggested a one-off tax on total wealth held over a certain threshold might work. But wealth taxes are challenging to make work in practice, and both main political parties have already said this isn’t an option they are considering currently.
Andy Lymer and his colleagues at the Centre for Personal Financial Wellbeing at Aston University currently or have recently received funding for their research work from a variety of funding bodies including the UK's Money and Pension Service, the Aviva Foundation, Fair4All Finance, NEST Insight, the Gambling Commission, Vivid Housing and the ESRC, amongst others.
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