One of the first independent accountancy firms specialising in cryptocurrency launches in Gloucestershire

Joe David’s accountancy business Myna is not what you might call mainstream – it is one of the UK’s first independent specialists in cryptocurrency and blockchain.

Mr David’s firm is visible to players in a market which – a week into 2021 – was valued at more than $1 trillion (US) world-wide.

‘Crypto’, as those familiar with the digital entity call it, is now the world’s fifth-most circulated currency by value.
‘I am very entrepreneurial. I have always embraced technology and explored how it can streamline efficiencies,’ said Mr David, also founder and managing director of Cheltenham cloud-based accounting specialist Nephos – which gave birth to Myna.

Myna will advise cryptocurrency platforms, businesses accepting the currency as payment and individual investors.
It may all seem a long way off being mainstream, but the move in that direction was given a significant boost recently when electric car marque Tesla bought $1.5 billion in bitcoin.

Yes, Nephos can still do your VAT returns, but it prides itself in actively helping businesses through its use of technology – no matter what currency they use.

Two years ago the firm – then called DS Accounting – was like many other traditional accountants, and then came HMRC’s ‘Making Tax Digital’ revolution.

It saw Mr David transform his business, with now more widely used cloud accounting and fintech platforms such as Xero, Pleo and Fathom to streamline the accountancy function of its clients and enable real-time insights.

‘We have actually been going for about seven years now, we have 10 staff and just under 200 clients,’ said Mr David, stressing that while the name and the technology are new, but the pedigree is proven.

The 34-year-old Cheltenham born entrepreneur was previously the financial director for county-based engineering legend Lister Petter before getting into business himself.

Over the last 18 months, Nephos has also been trialing cryptocurrency payments from a small number of clients.
Myna allows it to extended this to all its clients, as well as advising them on how they can accept the currency as payment as well.

In Gloucestershire, Nephos has worked with fast-growing international Gloucester-based performance car specialists Forge Motorsport to help it reap the benefits of digital accounting.

According to the website nerdwallet.com a cryptocurrency is a form of payment that can be exchanged online for goods and services. ‘Think of them as you would arcade tokens or casino chips,’ is its suggestion. They are created using a technology called ‘blockchain’.

Euromoney.com calls ‘blockchain is a system of recording information in a way that makes it difficult or impossible to change, hack, or cheat the system. A blockchain is essentially a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across the entire network of computer systems on the blockchain’.

By Andrew Merrell

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