A library of snippets
Paul Brody is Global Blockchain Leader for EY (Ernst & Young).
Payments, especially those across borders, are often touted as a key use case and value proposition for the blockchain industry. Unfortunately, a look at both the technology, competition, and regulatory environment doesn’t really support that idea. .
From: FedNow Is a Reminder That Payments Aren’t Crypto’s Differentiator.
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There’s no particular reason why this kind of financial intermediation should be a $100 billion industry, rife with inefficiencies
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Why it matters: Interchange fees — the swipe fees paid by merchants when customers pay by credit card — reached $100 billion in 2022, per Matt Schulz of Lending Tree. That’s more than $800 per household.
In order to encourage credit card usage, issuers give cash, miles, or other rewards to consumers. The top six card issuers spent $67 billion on such activities last year.
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Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (“DAOs”) provide a new way for individuals across the globe to use blockchain technology to pool resources, collaborate, and otherwise interact in a more participatory, fluid and decentralized manner than traditional corporate entities. A new CFTC order, however, carries significant potential implications for DAO structures and participation by suggesting that voting alone is enough for personal liability for the actions of a DAO.
From: VOTER BEWARE! Personal Liability for DAO Token Holders for Voting? | Paul Hastings LLP.
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As part of a bipartisan effort to enable cannabis firms to access the banking system, Congress is considering limiting regulators’ power to pressure banks to cut off customers who, while engaged in legal practices, are considered unsavory or unpopular. The use of this concept, called reputation risk, has been abused by regulators several times in the past. That they have pressed financial institutions to de-bank legal-but-disfavored clients, with little to no independent legal justification or public safety value, is quite clear. Unfortunately, this good-faith effort by Congress is spawning an attempt to airbrush real cases of regulatory abuse out of history.
From: Don’t whitewash the history of bank regulators’ abusive practices | American Banker.
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China’s state-owned telecoms operator China Mobile, put forward proposals for a “Digital Identity System” for all users of the Metaverse at the second meeting of the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Metaverse Focus Group in Shanghai in July 2023. (The ITU is a United Nationa agency and plays influential role in defining the ground rules for global telecommunications). The Chinese operator said that the digital ID should work with “natural characteristics” and “social characteristics” that include a range of personal data points like people’s occupation, “identifiable signs” and other attributes. They also suggested this information be “permanently” stored and shared with law enforcement “to keep the order and safety of the virtual world.”
(The proposals even provides the example of a noxious user called Tom — an ideal stand-in for whoever uses the fledgling technology, for instance for gaming or socializing — who “spreads rumors and makes chaos in the metaverse”; the digital identity system would allow the police to promptly identify and punish him.
We do of course need a means to take credentials associated with sovereign identity and use them in the Metaverse, but the special case of a virtual identity of Alice’s that is a homonym of her physical identity Alice (eg, her passport) should be seen as just that: a special case. Generally speaking, we do not see sovereign identities at the heart of the Metaverse.
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PayPal’s recently released stablecoin PayPal USD is facing challenges gaining traction, on-chain data reveals. According to findings from blockchain analytics firm Nansen, roughly 90% of PayPal USD
PYUSD$0.99
is currently held in stablecoin issuer Paxos Trust’s wallets.Holdings on crypto exchange wallets stand at nearly 7% of the total supply, according to the report, with balances on Kraken, Gate.io and Crypto.com. Uptake among so-called “smart money” investors — a term used to describe well-informed or professional investors — is negligible.
From: PayPal’s PYUSD struggles with early adoption — Nansen.
This seems logical to me, since buy stable coins isn’t an investment any more than buying dollar bills is. I suppose the language reflects the way that crytptofolk thin: every coin is an ooportunity to pump and dump, rug pull or arbitrage.
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The Postal Service was founded by the Second Continental Congress. It’s our oldest institution, even older than the Constitution itself.
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The United States Postal Service, which lost $2.5 billion last quarter alone, knows that postage fraud is a problem. They’ve committed to “fighting back” by adopting a new rule wherein they throw away items that are mailed using counterfeit postage, as opposed to return them with an explanation that the postage is counterfeit, like they previously did. This means that people who are both most likely to fall for online scams and to pay their bills by mail, particularly the elderly, won’t know why their mail isn’t being delivered. With late fees and interest, things could quickly spiral out of control. The new rule doesn’t “fight” postage fraud at all, it just minimizes some of the costs associated with dealing with it.
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TulsaStamps.com is just one of dozens of websites selling fraudulent stamps — usually manufactured in China — that I found through Google Shopping ads by searching “stamps.”
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Snippings