Snippings

Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) is undeniably useful — it allows one to attribute things a model generates to retrieved documents to verify their factuality and means — but it certainly will not stop Large Language Models (LLMs) from hallucinating and it has many limitations that vendors tend to gloss over.

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Crypto currencies are assets not money, yet vendors persist in bringing forward payment acceptance solutions at POS.

From: Business of Payments – July 2024 – by Geoffrey Barraclough.

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This British pub says it has saved 12 hours work each week by going cashless. Cash is expensive to handle and the costs grow as volume declines. The Portuguese Central Bank believes cash costs merchants 2.96% compared to 0.78% for debit cards.

From: Business of Payments – July 2024 – by Geoffrey Barraclough.

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With early pilots looking positive, there’s growing momentum behind new biometric payment technology in the US, including palm payments (favoured by Amazon) and even face payments. JP Morgan is taking an interest in the latter with a partnership with PopID, a Californian start-up which has an early lead in the technology.

In Europe, Mastercard is backing PayEye, a Polish start-up which is piloting its iris/facial recognition product at five locations of Empik, a large retailer of books, toys and games.

From: Business of Payments – July 2024 – by Geoffrey Barraclough.

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Shopify is deactivating Amazon Pay as a payment option from all European merchants. No reason was given and merchants are really unhappy.

From: Business of Payments – July 2024 – by Geoffrey Barraclough.

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Comparing the different methods of biometric recognitions proposed for use on payment authentication, the palm recognition is by far the most suitable. The fingerprint recognition required physical contact on the scanner glass, which is not ideal especially after the global pandemic.

Other methods including facial, iris, and voice recognition are not ergonomic enough or ideal in certain environments, hence they will not offer a seamless process that is superior to what is currently available. This leaves the palm print scanning method as the most ideal, and the process is not much more different to waving a payment card or mobile phone NFC over a POS terminal.

From: Beyond mobile wallets, palm recognition will be the next big thing in the evolution of digital payments – GlobalData.

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Why would Mr. Musk want to spend a ton of money on AML compliance and identity verification? My crackpot theory is that this is really all about identity, not money. Mr. Musk doesn’t care if he earns a single cent on you sending a couple of hundred bucks to someone for that Taylor Swift ticket. The business model of X is advertising, so he does care who you are, who you are sending money to and why you are sending it. Your data is worth vastly more than any transaction fees he might be able to collect from you.

From: X As SuperApp Or Smart Wallet: Musk, Money And Identity.

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Why would Mr. Musk want to spend a ton of money on AML compliance and identity verification? My crackpot theory is that this is really all about identity, not money. Mr. Musk doesn’t care if he earns a single cent on you sending a couple of hundred bucks to someone for that Taylor Swift ticket. The business model of X is advertising, so he does care who you are, who you are sending money to and why you are sending it. Your data is worth vastly more than any transaction fees he might be able to collect from you.

From: X As SuperApp Or Smart Wallet: Musk, Money And Identity.

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Why would Mr. Musk want to spend a ton of money on AML compliance and identity verification? My crackpot theory is that this is really all about identity, not money. Mr. Musk doesn’t care if he earns a single cent on you sending a couple of hundred bucks to someone for that Taylor Swift ticket. The business model of X is advertising, so he does care who you are, who you are sending money to and why you are sending it. Your data is worth vastly more than any transaction fees he might be able to collect from you.

From: X As SuperApp Or Smart Wallet: Musk, Money And Identity.

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constituencies within the lowest quartile of ID ownership tend to have a larger Asian, Disabled and C2/DE population than those in the highest quartile.

From: Voter ID and turnout in GE2024.

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