Category Archives: Uncategorized

xxx “Another reason for caution over retail CBDC among central banks in advanced economies is the concern that commercial banks may suffer a loss in retail deposits to accounts at the central bank and, thus, lose a key funding source, potentially impacting credit provision.” From “Motivations and prospects for central bank digital currency – CentralContinue reading “Motivations and prospects for central bank digital currency – Central Banking”

xxx “housands of taxi drivers in the Chinese city of Xi’an are now being verified by facial recognition technology when they get behind the wheel. And, true to the country’s security ethos, they’re also being monitored constantly by an AI system to ensure they aren’t engaging in prohibited activities such as smoking or using a smartphoneContinue reading “Facial Recognition Verifies Taxi Drivers in China – Mobile ID World”

xxx “And in an even more dramatic measure, Apple’s universal login will let you hide your email address from third-party services. Unlike Facebook and Google, Apple will randomly generate an email address on your behalf, which then forwards communications from companies and institutions to your real address.” From “‘Sign In With Apple’ Protects You inContinue reading “‘Sign In With Apple’ Protects You in Ways Google and Facebook Don’t | WIRED”

Many years ago, I read David Edgerton’s “The Shock of the Old: Technology in Global History Since 1900″, which really got me thinking about think technological change. I’ve just finished Richard Baldwin’s “The Globotics Upheaval—Globalisation, Robotics and The Future of Work” and now I’m just getting started with the Carl Benedit Frey’s “The Technology Trap—Capital,Continue reading “POST Piss Redux”

The UK once had a substantial wool trade. In fact, England’s medieval prosperity was founded on wool. In the 13th century there were three sheep to every man, woman and child and wool was the biggest export. At this time, the job of the “fuller” was vital. The fuller was responsible for treating the woolContinue reading “POST Rare, pure and”

Madame Lagarde, the woman in charge of money, gave a speech in Japan recently in which she said that disruption in finance “is likely to come from the big tech firms, who will use their enormous customer bases and deep pockets to offer financial products based on big data and artificial intelligence”. But why willContinue reading “POST Competition in the tech-centric future of financial services”

The opening keynote at this year’s London Identity Week was given by Oliver Dowden, the Minister for Implementation at the Cabinet Office. Mr. Dowden is the Minister in charge of the digital transformation of government. To people like me, digital identity is central to digital transformation of government (and the digital transformation of everything else,Continue reading “Implementing digital identity in the UK”

xxx “The Common Business-Oriented Language was developed nearly 60 years ago and has been gradually replaced by newer, more versatile languages such as Java, C and Python. Although few universities still offer COBOL courses, the language remains crucial to businesses and institutions around the world. In the United States, the financial sector, major corporations andContinue reading “Banks scramble to fix old systems as IT ‘cowboys’ ride into sunset – Reuters”

From the earliest days of the web, people have been wondering about what exactly death means in an online age. I have been reminded about this in the most unpleasant way recently, having lost a family member way to soon and having observed how the sadness and stress associated with such an event is multipliedContinue reading “POST Multigenerational Financial Services, Till Death Do Us Part (Not)”

I genuinely did not know this, having never been to either of the noted lap-dancing clubs Secrets or Platinum Lace, but such establishments require customers to buy vouchers, a private currency, to pay the dancers. The dancers do not, as you might expect in the modern world, accept credit cards (even contactless fnar fnar). TheContinue reading “Post-functional money and VAT”