Snippings

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Behind most groups are artists who use motion capture and real-time rendering to step into their alter egos. Some, like the girl group Mave, are entirely synthetic, created using machine learning, deepfakes, and 3D modeling technologies.

For the artists, living a high-octane life as a virtual star can pose unique challenges. Their true identities are obscured, leaving them vulnerable to hypercharged doxxing attempts and cyberbullying. Stranded between their digital personas and real lives, they wrestle with loneliness, self-doubt, and the pressure to stay flawless, online and off, members of Re:Revolution told Rest of World.

From: Metaverse K-pop idols reshape fame and labor in South Korea – Rest of World.

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QR Ph P2M is implemented in the Philippines with an issuer/acquirer model, similar to cards. Merchants need to register with an acquirer who provides them with a merchant id. The acquirer id is also embedded in the QR code with the merchant id. The sending wallet provider/bank sends payment to the receiving acquirer which then credits the merchant’s account. This is different, for example, to UPI QR in India where the merchant’s account is credited directly by the paying institution, routed to it by the central UPI platform.

From: (14) Just the Way QR – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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In March 2026, Peter Schroeder, Global Head of Marketing at Circle, released data on the X platform showing that in the past nine months, AI agents completed 140 million payments, totaling $43 million. 98.6% of these were settled in USDC, averaging only $0.31 per transaction. More importantly, the number of AI agents with purchasing power has exceeded 400,000.

From: 99% of AI payments use USDC, and Circle has quietly become the biggest winner, but where should the money from AI agents go? | MEXC News.

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The question about bubbles is always: is this one like railroads or like tulips? Tulips left nothing of value behind while railroads went on to be transformative.

From: Long Island AI – net.wars.

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Major banks are taking more precautions to protect their CEOs after a health insurance executive was gunned down in 2024.
Supporting data: Some large financial institutions increased their security spending last year by multiples of two, seven or even 10.

From: Banks spend more on CEO security after 2024 slaying in NYC | American Banker.

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That a machine might use my writing not only to learn about my subject matter, but also to analyze and ultimately mimic my authorial voice, points to a future that George Orwell envisioned with eerie prescience. In his 1949 dystopian novel “1984,” Orwell imagined “novel-writing machines” capable of mass-producing literature, employing programmed mechanical “kaleidoscopes” as substitutes for individual artistic process.

From: Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel-writing machines’.

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Once you have an established cast of characters for a movie franchise like, say, “Fast & Furious,” audiences will likely see the next installment whether it’s written by man or machine.

From: Thousands of AI-written, edited or ‘polished’ books are being sold – an eerie echo of Orwell’s ‘novel-writing machines’.

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But for DeFi, precautionary freezes are a double-edged sword. Imagine the Drift Protocol exploiters deposited some of their USDC into an Aave lending pool – should Circle then freeze the whole pool? Or imagine proceeds from another crime were deposited into Drift’s vaults which were then frozen (either by Drift or the relevant token issuers), disabling any reaction to market moves and potentially adversely impacting innocent participants. Who should be given “freeze just in case” authorization, and how far should “safe harbor” extend?

From: Should stablecoin issuers be able to freeze accounts?.

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Now app users have one-click access to prediction markets, allowing them to trade using their Binance Spot and Funding Account balances, with all trading and settlement transaction fees sponsored by Binance Wallet.

From: Binance launches prediction markets feature.

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We don’t have good identity tools for people, let alone artificial intelligence. So we need to start digitally signing everything. Including real customer moments, using mobile devices and hardware.

From: No one is listening to Steve Jobs’s advice about the EU Digital ID Wallet.

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