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The spoiler for this article: I’m no longer betting on verifiable credentials taking off. I mean this literally — 99% of my net worth is Trinsic stock, so the strategy I bet my company on is an objective revelation of my strongest convictions. While once central to Trinsic’s existence, our latest pivot demonstrates that I believe interoperable digital credentials won’t succeed in market anytime soon.
Specifically, my prognostication is that digital identities will continue to be deployed and adopted, but that fragmentation, incompatibility, and bespoke implementations will continue to dominate the market.

From: Why Verifiable Credentials Aren’t Widely Adopted & Why Trinsic Pivoted | by Riley Hughes | Oct, 2024 | Medium.

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It reveals that 96% of young people in the UK aged 13-18 have made an online purchase, and collectively spend an estimated £50m+ per week online.

Of those young people surveyed who could estimate how much they spend online in a typical week, 42% had subscribed to something accidentally, been scammed, or lost money in some other way.

From: A problem hiding in plain sight? | Parent Zone.

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According to the survey, 96 per cent of young people in the UK aged 13-18 have made an online purchase. Collectively they spend an estimated £50 million per week online. A week! So that’s over $2.5billion a year.

From: Kids are getting constantly scammed online too.

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If I was smart (and / or 15 years younger) my next major investigation or podcast would be about money laundering in online gaming sites. There have been a few examples exposed already, like this one from 2019, when a major firm realised the vast majority of sales on their sites was likely criminals laundering money.

From: Kids are getting constantly scammed online too.

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Either way, the G7 CEG strongly expects banks to develop a better understanding of the issues, the risks involved, and strategies for mitigating those risks.

From: Banks urged to act now to avoid future quantum catastrophe.

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If I was smart (and / or 15 years younger) my next major investigation or podcast would be about money laundering in online gaming sites. There have been a few examples exposed already, like this one from 2019, when a major firm realised the vast majority of sales on their sites was likely criminals laundering money.

From: Kids are getting constantly scammed online too.

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Corby says the group is “currently waiting to hear if the new UK government will continue with its predecessor’s plan to amend licensing laws to allow for digital proof of age.” At present, while digital credentials can be used for buying all age-restricted goods including energy drinks, vapes, tobacco, lottery tickets, games, fireworks, medicine and alcohol online; accessing age-related travel discounts on trains, coaches and buses; watching age-restricted films at cinemas; entering 18+ gaming or gambling premises; accessing tattoo, tanning and beauty salons; and proving identity for right to work, right to rent and criminal record checks – digital IDs still cannot be used to prove age when buying alcohol on licensed premises.

From: AVPA age verification approach uses signed QR codes to share relevant age data | Biometric Update.

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These successful digital payment brands share common characteristics:

1.     Bank-owned (all except Lydia, Satispay and SOFORT) – a group of banks gives a large percentage domestic populations automatic access to the service.

2.     Large acceptance networks – a critical mass of domestic retailers and billers where consumers make payments gives the service a high utility.

3.     Mobile-first – mobile has become the dominant device for initiating payments.

4.     Cash-like – immediate finality, use anywhere, pay and get-paid (as a person or as a business).

5.     Popular with consumers – convenient and easy to use.

MyBank is an exception (perhaps accounting for its lower value transacted) being available online only and seems to be mainly for B2B payments.

From: (7) We need a Wero! – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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Called Concourse, the platform connects to a business’ financial systems to let finance teams retrieve and analyze data, generate charts, and ask ad hoc questions such as “What’s our non-GAAP revenue?”

But what makes Concourse different, according to Hafemeister, is its ability to execute financial workflows with “complex, multi-step operations.” For example, the platform can retrieve data from a company’s NetSuite dashboard to download CSV files, then copy that data to an Excel spreadsheet.

Concourse will also have to assuage potential customers’ fears of AI-introduced errors and hallucinations. In a poll of U.K.-based executives by HR specialist Peninsula, 40% said inaccuracies from AI tools were a key concern, followed by concerns around data confidentiality.

From: Concourse is building AI to automate financial tasks | TechCrunch.

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Over a period of seven minutes, the scammers pressured Lynne into authorising four transfers worth £160,000… Her employer has spent £70,000 on legal fees trying to get the money back.
An FOS investigator has recommended at least £115,000 should be refunded to them by Revolut, who are contesting the sum. A final decision by the Ombudsman is expected soon.

From: Revolut: More than 100 customers contact BBC about scams – BBC News.

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