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Some fret that too much digital payment leaves Europe dependent on the likes of Visa and MasterCard, American firms with unpredictable political masters. (The ecb is mulling a “digital euro” in response, though that will take years.) In the Baltics and Nordics, where angst focuses on Russian sabotage, digital payments systems now work for a time even when power is cut. But nothing beats cash when it comes to resilience. Swedes have long been advised to store enough in notes and coins to get through a week, a move the eu now recommends.

From: Why Europe is rediscovering the virtues of cash.

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in December ministers from the eu’s 27 member states reiterated their desire to ban businesses from refusing notes and coins. As part of a forthcoming law, shops and restaurants will still be able to indicate they prefer digital payments, but will need also to accept old-fashioned cash.

From: Why Europe is rediscovering the virtues of cash.

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An ever-growing number put out “no cash” signs: across Europe, 12% of all businesses flatly refused cash in 2024, up from 4% just three years earlier.

From: Why Europe is rediscovering the virtues of cash.

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Coffee shops realised they could do brisker business by having punters tap their bank cards instead of shuffling bits of metal.

From: Why Europe is rediscovering the virtues of cash.

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In Europe, regulators were worried about the cost of interchange to businesses (rather than consumers) and capped it. Since issuers didn’t have the margin to compete on rewards paid for by interchange, they instead leaned into branding and convenience, and credit cards became a smaller portion of the payment mix (about 47% of electronic payments, compared to almost 70% in the U.S.).

From: How credit cards make money.

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A single person lost nearly a QUARTER OF A BILLION QUID in January when they fell for a scam that gave a  clever crypto criminl access to the keys stored in their hard wallet. Astonishing. The Bitcoin and Litecoin stash was soon being converted to Monero and bridged via Thorchain as it evaporated.

I am sure this sort of thing goes on all the time, albeit on a smaller scale, but this particular heist really did make me sit up and think. If a cryptobro with $282m on their USB stick cannot protect their piles of digital dosh, what hope is their for the rest of us?

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Ruling against Lin, Mr Justice Cawson said: “WhatsApp messaging is now a well-established method of sending encrypted messages linked to the telephone numbers of mobile phones using the WhatsApp ‘app’ downloadable to mobile phones.

• Why financial settlement after divorce is still a mess

“I consider that the header within a WhatsApp ‘chat’ identifying the sender is analogous to the email address that is added by the relevant service provider to the top of an email, utilising the sender’s email address.

“It is not, as I see it, part of the actual message itself, but merely provides a mechanism designed by the relevant service provider to allow the sender of the email or WhatsApp message to be identified.

“It is, I consider, therefore, properly to be regarded as incidental to the message itself, rather than as forming part thereof.”

From: WhatsApp texts are not contracts, judge rules in £1.5m divorce row.

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WhatsApp texts are not contracts, judge rules in £1.5m divorce row
Artist fails in her High Court attempt to keep her north London house after messages with her ex-husband were deemed not to constitute signed documents

From: WhatsApp texts are not contracts, judge rules in £1.5m divorce row.

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The cyber attack on Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) will cost an estimated £1.9bn and be the most economically damaging cyber event in UK history, according to researchers.

From: JLR hack ‘is costliest cyber attack in UK history’, experts say – BBC News.

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In essence, a memecoin is a way to turn fame into money directly.

From: Crypto Is the Perfect Currency for Trump’s Corrupt Pay-to-Play Presidency.

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