Will the next TransferWise come from Hungary?

Barna Balazs
Nov 4 · 6 min read

It would be nice wouldn’t it? There are no guarantees, but how can we increase our chances to make it happen?

Technology is the strongest most disruptive force in the world. People build technology, and technology changes the world, and with it the lives of billions. When we give people the possibility to use technology in an industry, there is no going back, that industry is going to change forever. The current fintech revolution is the perfect example for that, but Hungary is not part of it.

Why?

Tough question. The answer super complicated. I’m not going to try to answer just point out things that I think would be helpful.

Hungarians have a good track record with innovation. We are at the 14th place when it comes to Nobel laureates in science per capita. We are not considering the people who should have won a Nobel: Eötvös Loránd, Polányi Mihály, Szilárd Leó, Kármán Tódor, Teller Ede, Neumann János.

Nobel laureates per capita

The sad part is that only one person won the Nobel prize whilst living and working in Hungary, and only one person who received the Nobel prize died in Hungary. The sad part of the sad part is that they had to leave, they didn’t have a choice, if they wanted to live up to their potential.

Neumann János the father of digital computer

In this digital world the next Neumann János could live and build a global company in Hungary.

We need a role model

If you want to make a million dollars, you have to help a million people.

Skype, Taxify, TransferWise. These companies disrupted the telecom industry, private transportation, international money transfer. They are all worth billions now, and if you are looking for a common denominator: all of them are coming from a place called Estonia. It’s a tiny country with 1.3 million people, but you know what they say:

It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog.

Tiigrihüpe

Tiigrihüpe (Estonian for Tiger Leap) was a project undertaken by Republic of Estonia to heavily invest in development and expansion of computer and network infrastructure in Estonia, with a particular emphasis on education.

Through Tiger Leap, they have been teaching programming at secondary level for some time. But their latest project is to introduce the concept to children earlier, when they enter at the age of seven. So far, they have trained 60 teachers to teach the first four year groups. “By next September, when the new school year begins, I hope every school finds it to be important to integrate programming in their classes,” says Tiger Leap’s Ave Lauringson, who is in charge of the project.

The questions we should be asking: Who are these people? How can we learn from them? What are they doing differently? What can we do better than them? Why isn’t there a direct flight between Tallinn and Budapest? :)

Hunstonia

Competent Rebels

The people behind these companies are rebels: when they aren’t happy with the way things work they are changing it. There is a catch there: they have the skills to do so.

The quality and the quantity of innovation is always going to be a function of the quantity and the quality of competent people.

What is competence in the 21st century?

It’s the ability to express yourself in the digital world. There is a less fancy word for it: coding.

Coding is the new English. It is essential if you want to understand the world, and if you want to be understood.

When do we start learning math? At the age of six. First at the elementary level, then on an intermediate level in high school, and finally in higher education. You will have math courses at University, even if you are not a mathematician.

Coding, we only learn about it in higher education, and even there it’s mostly on specialized programmes like Computer Engineering.

That’s way too late. The problem with that is we lose a lot of people.

People who don’t go into engineering won’t know if they are good at coding or not. How can they know if they haven’t closed off a career path they could have been great at?

That’s the reason why these coding schools like CodeCool are filled with people who are trying to change their careers and learn coding. They were exposed to it by chance, they liked it, and they felt that they are capable. Everyone is capable. Changing your career path takes a LOT of bravery.
We have to make this right by widening the funnel. Everyone should have the chance to learn how to code before they leave high school. I strongly believe that this is the best investment that any country can make. Ten times more people who can solve problems in the digital space.

If you want to be remembered a hundred years from now, make sure that you are important in the life of a child.

There is no reason, why we couldn’t teach coding on elementary or intermediate level to everyone. How much would it cost to educate all the teachers in the country to be able to teach coding? 2–3 million USD? That’s nothing, compared to the size of the opportunity that is ahead of us.

Our future is in digitalisation, we don’t have a choice there, but we are in a very good position.

The world is not going to wait for us

Code.org® is a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to computer science in schools and increasing participation by women and underrepresented minorities. Our vision is that every student in every school has the opportunity to learn computer science, just like biology, chemistry or algebra. Code.org provides the leading curriculum for K-12 computer science in the largest school districts in the United States and Code.org also organizes the annual Hour of Code campaign which has engaged 15% of all students in the world. Code.org is supported by generous donors including Amazon, Facebook, Google, the Infosys Foundation, Microsoft, and many more.

Code.org

The coding industry for Chinese children is worth up to 4 billion yuan ($558 million) and that is forecast to increase about tenfold in the next five years, according to market research and consulting group iResearch.

Major coding training companies accounted for a large portion of Chinese education investment deals last year, raising more than 780 million yuan altogether, according to latest industry figures.

What are we waiting for?

Barna Balazs

Written by

Engineer, fintech enthusiast