A library of snippets
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A world that becomes more self-sufficient in defence and energy would also
be a world that holds less USD reserves. The huge strategic importance of the
Middle East to the dollar’s role as the world’s reserve currency should not be
underestimated. The current conflict may be the perfect storm for the
petrodollar.
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As they should, the card networks are trying to carve out roles in Digital Currency. Stablecoins could erode card volumes where Mastercard has its highest margins: cross-border transactions. Cross-border is a fraction of MasterCard’s volume but a third of its revenue. Cross-border volume outgrows US domestic volume by 3 to 1. If Stablecoins take a material share of this cross-border traffic it has a bigger impact on card network revenue than on card network volume.
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Companies are dialing up the heat on workers to adopt AI for a few reasons. First, they aren’t yet seeing returns on their AI investments, said Eric Ross, an analyst at investment research firm Cascend. “The vast majority are not getting any productivity,” he said.
From: Big Tech, Wall Street Bring AI to Performance Reviews – Business Insider.
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As rogue AI agents cause security problems and product outages even at sophisticated companies such as Meta and Amazon, major firms such as ServiceNow as well as startups are developing new AI to monitor and stop them.
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The new AI, also known as guardian AI agents, comes in the form of a cloud application and can be laborious to set up. To use a guardian AI app, customers need to connect it to other AI agents they use—including ones developed with OpenClaw, Claude Code and Agentforce—using standard application programming interfaces or model context protocol servers that enable such connections or monitoring.Customers must then tell the guardian app how the various AI agents they use should behave, given the agents’ tendency to stray from their original mission. For instance, a company might tell the guardian AI app to make sure that whenever an AI agent generates internal financial reports, it should always check Bloomberg when the reports reference stock prices.
If the report-making AI agent goes against that or another one of the company’s guidelines, the guardian agent can send an alert to employees to either stop the report-making agent or change the agent’s behavior the next time the same thing happens.
From: ‘Guardian’ Apps Aim to Stop AI Agents From Going Rogue — The Information.
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Given the progress they see in quantum computing hardware development, quantum error correction and quantum factoring resource estimates, Google is adjusting its quantum era timeline t0 2029, They are prioritising PQC migration for authentication services and recommend that others do the same. Android 17 is integrating PQC digital signature protection using ML-DSA in alignment with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), building on Google Chrome support for PQC.
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Swift has announced it is now building the infrastructure for a ledger which will facilitate interoperable 24/7 cross-border payments for banks using tokenised deposits. This marks the next stage of Swift’s blockchain-based solution which was first announced in September 2025.
Over 40 institutions, including JP Morgan Chase, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of America, came together to help shape the design of the ledger. The purpose was to create a blueprint which Swift states could “help banks coordinate cross-border payments more effectively as industry expectations shift toward always-on service”.
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The infrastructure is “being built on open-source foundations, using an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM)-compatible architecture based on Hyperledger Besu”, the statement continues.
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But in American Banker’s AI Talent Shift Survey 2026, released Wednesday, only 3% of bankers said AI has led to workforce reductions at their firms. The impact of AI has mostly been positive, according to the 206 bank executive respondents: Twenty-eight percent said AI is leading to efficiency gains and 12% cited role augmentations. Only 4% said AI has had a negative effect, such as layoffs or decreased morale.
From: Bankers say AI is not eating jobs, yet | American Banker.
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Coinbase initially filed its national trust charter application to the OCC on Oct. 3, joining the ranks of other crypto-related firms including Circle, Ripple and Paxos, which were all approved last December. Other crypto firms that have received approval in recent months include Stripe-owned Bridge and Crypto.com.
From: Coinbase receives conditional approval for OCC trust charter | American Banker.
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Security researchers estimate losses at up to $240 million, blaming governance security as the chief vulnerability after the attcker infiltrated a multisig upgrade a week ago.
From: DeFi platform Drift suspends deposits and withdrawals after crypto hack.
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If network-level authentication becomes “perfect”, the value of proprietary merchant and processor device graphs goes to zero. Billions spent on behavioral biometrics and fraud stacks become sunk costs and 100% of the “value add” goes to the network (and its enablers).
From: Owning Your Bot’s Actions: Target Part 2 | Noyes Payments Blog.
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