Track record
Blockhouse Consulting is me, Paul Mitchell, plus a network of specialists I bring in when a piece of work needs them. You get the person you met.
Background
I have spent close to thirty years in strategy and innovation consulting, the last nine of them almost entirely on blockchain, tokenisation and digital assets and what they do to financial services.
I founded and led the blockchain capability at PwC South Africa, and subsequently headed consulting at Block Markets Africa. I led the team who wrote the report on Project Khokha, the South African Reserve Bank's first wholesale CBDC experiment.
Since mid-2025 I have held a part-time role as Head of Digital Payments at a PayInc, working on stablecoin and tokenised payment strategy from inside the national payments system. It keeps me close to where the regulation and the plumbing actually meet, and I manage the boundary between that role and my advisory work carefully.
I am based in Cape Town and work across Africa and internationally.
Selected work
Client names are withheld where the work is confidential. I am happy to talk through any of these in more detail.
PayInc (formerly Bankserv Africa)
Head of Digital Payments: defining stablecoin and tokenised money strategy for this systemically important clearing infrastructure, including submissions to the regulators consulting on how tokenised money should be treated under the national payments system.
South African Reserve Bank
Led the team who wrote the report forProject Khokha, the South African Reserve Bank's first experiment with Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). With Block Markets Africa, he also worked on PK2 and the extension of that work, PK2.x, into a blockchain sandbox for the largest South African banks and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Full PK2 report here, summary here..
BlockTower, stablecoin issuer
Regulatory strategy and engagement for BlockTower, issuer of ZARU, the rand stablecoin backed by a consortium comprising Luno, EasyEquities, Sanlam and Lesaka.
Pan-African trade finance institution
Regulatory analysis and strategy for a multilateral trade finance bank, covering several African jurisdictions in the context of a new stablecoin based service.
Tier-one South African banks
Blockchain and tokenisation strategy and decision support, including education programmes on money, banking and blockchain built for product, compliance and risk teams.
Asset management
Development of the strategic rationale and business case for a large asset manager to develop a collateralised lending model based on digital assets, building the client’s understanding in parallel with the business case
Industry bodies
Authored the report for the Fintech Association of South Africa's Payments Working Group.
Speaking
I speak on stablecoins, tokenised money and what they mean for financial services.
Sample speaking engagements
Compliance Institute of Southern Africa conference, 2026 - Keynote: Money Rewired - watch the talk
Seamless Africa, 2026 - Panel: Beyond the Wallet
Blockchain Africa Conference, 2025 - Tokenisation of the Payments Ecosystem in South Africa - watch the talk
What I am working on now
I am currently focused on rand stablecoin regulation and the submissions shaping it, tokenised deposit network design, the settlement architecture for tokenised money inside the national payments system, and digital asset regulatory assessments across a handful of African markets.
I write up a lot of my ideas. The blog is the fastest way to see how I think.
Get in touch
Cape Town based, working wherever the problem is.