Category Archives: Uncategorized

xxx The BBA, which represents 200 banks managing £7 trillion in UK assets, wants MPs to “lower the threshold” for intelligence-sharing and make it easier for institutions to help each other spot criminal transactions. From Bank chiefs demand new legal powers to help stop terrorists laundering money through London firms | London Evening Standard xxx

Forum friend Ian Grigg, who I always take very seriously indeed on any such topic, wrote about Corda on his blog and concluded with a powerful statement. Bitcoin told the users it wanted an unstoppable currency – sure, works for a small group but not for the mass market. Ethereum told their users they needContinue reading “Financial Cryptography: Corda Day – a new force”

xxx In the UK, there have been robberies in which large quantities of gold and silver have been stolen from homes (here’s some I wrote about a few years ago) xxx Why would anyone mess about with physical gold that you can drop, lose, have stolen etc. And I bet it’s hard to buy anythingContinue reading “The Royal Mint and CME to launch digital gold on blockchain”

 xxx Social media users should be forced to reveal their real names so police can track down jilted lovers who post “revenge porn”, a peer has said. [From Revenge porn: Peer says Twitter users must reveal real names – Telegraph]  xxxx

xxx Police later discovered Ghani and Mahmood carried out the fraud after stealing three utility bills from Mr To’s mailbox. From Stockport identity fraud victim’s £500k home put on market – BBC News xxx

xxx Even though many places now take credit cards, Apple Pay and other forms of cashless technology, the actual amount of notes and coins circulating in the country has doubled in 20 years. And that’s while the economy and population has shrunk. More than 101 trillion yen (S$1.35 trillion) of cash was circulating at theContinue reading “Cash is still king in Japan, and that could be a problem for BOJ, Government & Economy – THE BUSINESS TIMES”

xxx With largest ATM network in the country under its wing, SBI handles on an average 10 million withdrawal transactions involving cash worth Rs 2,800 crore every day. From Banks to hire retired officials, extend working hours to stack up new currency notes in ATMs, branches | Business Standard News xxx

xxx “Re-configurations takes time so it has to be done one by one. Things should be normal in ten days. You have to understand there are 2 lakh ATMs in the country but there are only three to four vendors.” From Just 35,000 personnel to replenish ₹16 lakh crore in ATMs | business-news | HindustanContinue reading “Just 35,000 personnel to replenish ₹16 lakh crore in ATMs | business-news | Hindustan Times”

xxx What I expect most non-economists reading The Curse of Cash are confounded by is not the idea of abolishing physical notes and coins – on many levels this is appealing, particularly its consequences for criminal activity. No, what’s bizarre is his insistence on charging negative interest rates on cash to stimulate demand under deflation.Continue reading “Blogoff – The Curse of Cash – Philosophy of Money”

Well, that was the fun. The nice people at the Meaning Conference gave me 13 minutes to try to explain what a blockchain technology is, what blockchains might do, and what the implications might be, to an audience of largely creative people. Quite a challenge. //embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js  Since they were creative types, I thought I oughtContinue reading “Blockchain sprint!”