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They’re visual because the same area showing the QR code (top picture) updates to display the amount paid and the card balance.

From: China upgrades digital RMB CBDC hardware wallet – Ledger Insights – blockchain for enterprise.

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Globally, banks generated $7 trillion in revenue (Exhibit 1) and $1.1 trillion in net income, with return on tangible equity (ROTE) reaching 11.7 percent. Banks have returned to healthy levels of capital (12.8 percent common equity tier one capital divided by risk-weighted assets) and liquidity (77.2 percent), which both improved over 2022. In fact, banking generated more total profit than any other sector around the world.

From: McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2024 | McKinsey.

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The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau added payment apps and other financial products to its final open banking rule and in keeping with its focus on innovation, provided for some secondary uses of data.

From: CFPB’s 1033 open banking final rule expands scope to payment apps | American Banker.

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The road for digital driver’s licenses in Australia continues to widen, with the announcement that state and territory governments have agreed to adopt international security standards for mobile licenses (mDLs). This improves the chances of nationwide acceptance of digital licenses as part of a new verifiable credential strategy, says a report from InnovationAus.

From: Australia aligns on ISO mobile driver’s license standard as NSW leads on digital ID | Biometric Update.

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In case you missed the memo, we are barreling toward the next big consumer device category: smart glasses. At its developer conference last week, Meta (née Facebook) introduced a positively mind-blowing new set of augmented-reality (AR) glasses dubbed Orion.  Snap unveiled its new Snap Spectacles last week. Back in June at Google IO, that company teased a pair. Apple is rumored to be working on its own model as well. Whew.

From: The coolest thing about smart glasses is not the AR. It’s the AI. | MIT Technology Review.

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While most Americans are loyal to their financial institution, 66% of Gen Z and millennial respondents said they would switch banks if a better offer came along.

From: More Young Adults Get Financial Advice from Social Media.

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Motorola-owned DRN sells multiple license-plate-recognition cameras: a fixed camera that can be placed near roads, identify a vehicle’s make and model, and capture images of vehicles traveling up to 150 mph; a “quick deploy” camera that can be attached to buildings and monitor vehicles at properties; and mobile cameras that can be placed on dashboards or be mounted to vehicles and capture images when they are driven around.

Over more than a decade, DRN has amassed more than 15 billion “vehicle sightings” across the United States, and it claims in its marketing materials that it amasses more than 250 million sightings per month. Images in DRN’s commercial database are shared with police using its Vigilant system, but images captured by law enforcement are not shared back into the wider database.

The system is partly fueled by DRN “affiliates” who install cameras in their vehicles, such as repossession trucks, and capture license plates as they drive around. Each vehicle can have up to four cameras attached to it, capturing images in all angles. These affiliates earn monthly bonuses and can also receive free cameras and search credits.

From: License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars | WIRED.

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The scale and complexity of quantum systems that can be simulated using AI is advancing rapidly, says Giuseppe Carleo, a professor of computational physics at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL). Last month, he coauthored a paper published in Science showing that neural-network-based approaches are rapidly becoming the leading technique for modeling materials with strong quantum properties. Meta also recently unveiled an AI model trained on a massive new data set of materials that has jumped to the top of a leaderboard for machine-learning approaches to material discovery.

From: Why AI could eat quantum computing’s lunch | MIT Technology Review.

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The Australian government has pledged to legislate an age limit of 16 years for social media access, with penalties for online platforms that do not comply.

But the Labor government has not spelled out how it expects Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others to actually enforce that age limit. Anthony Albanese is facing pressure from the Coalition opposition to rush the bill through parliament in the next three weeks, although a federal trial into age assurance technology has not yet commenced.

Albanese and the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, did not rule out the potential for social media users to have their faces subject to biometric scanning, for online platforms to verify users’ ages using a government database, or for all social media users – regardless of age – being subject to age checks, only saying it would be up to tech companies to set their own processes.

From: Australia to ban under-16s from social media – but can’t say how TikTok, Instagram and others will enforce it | Internet safety | The Guardian.

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Dean Skurka, the president and CEO of Toronto-based WonderFi, was forced into a vehicle in downtown Toronto on Wednesday evening.

He was released after a C$1 million ransom was paid electronically, according to CBC, citing a source close to the police investigation.

Skurka has told CBC that “client funds and data remain safe, and were not impacted by this incident”.

From: Crypto CEO kidnapped, released after paying C$1m ransom.

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