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There are more than 300 bars, breweries, and eateries using iPourIt technology throughout the U.S., says CEO Chris Braun, and the majority of operators are serving food. iPourIt, based in Lake Forest, California, touts itself as the first self-pour tap wall system to be designed and installed, thus beginning the rise of the self-pour revolution. Though similar in theory to self-serve frozen yogurt since guests can pour as much or as little as they please, iPourIt is more sophisticated and uses RFID technology to limit access to the taps to customers verified to be 21 years or older, plus tracks the ounces poured to create a cumulative bill for each guest throughout the visit.

Operators report an average increase in alcohol sales by 39 percent after installing a self-pour wall,

From: Self-Pour Walls Spike Alcohol Sales and Boost Guest Experiences, Operators Say | FSR magazine.

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This new generation of real-time retail payments systems is a big part of why Wise can move 55% of its customers cross-border payments instantly. Here’s how it works.
Say a Wise customer in Ireland wants to send 500 euros to a family member in India. First, the money must be moved from the customer’s Irish bank account to Wise’s account at another Irish bank. In the old days of batch processing, this leg of the remittance would have taken a day or two. Thanks to the European Central Bank’s TARGET instant payment settlement (TIPS) system, introduced in 2018, a flow like this can now occur in just a few moments.
Having received its customer’s 500 euros, Wise can now proceed to the next stage: paying out 44,000 rupees to the recipient in India. To do so it will have to transfer funds from its account at an Indian bank to the recipient’s bank. In the days of batch processing, that meant adding another day or two of waiting. Nowadays, courtesy of India’s Immediate Payment Service (IMPS), when Wise sends 44,000 rupees to the family member’s bank account the payment can be processed in a second or two.

From Elon, You Don’t Need Crypto to Do Twitter Payments:

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Buterin pointed to privacy, accessibility, centralization and security as the major risks associated with Worldcoin’s Proof-of-Personhood (PoP) construction and proposed an alternative solution to mitigate against them in a blog post on Monday.

From Vitalik Buterin outlines ‘four major risks’ with Worldcoin following token launch | The Block.

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The simplest way to define a proof-of-personhood system is: it creates a list of public keys where the system guarantees that each key is controlled by a unique human. In other words, if you’re a human, you can put one key on the list, but you can’t put two keys on the list, and if you’re a bot you can’t put any keys on the list.

From What do I think about biometric proof of personhood?.

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he concept of proof-of-personhood in principle seems very valuable, and while the various implementations have their risks, not having any proof-of-personhood at all has its risks too: a world with no proof-of-personhood seems more likely to be a world dominated by centralized identity solutions, money, small closed communities or some combination of all three.

From Vitalik Buterin outlines ‘four major risks’ with Worldcoin following token launch | The Block.

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Stablecoins have potential advantages in speed, cost and programmability.  Tokenization could provide benefits that FedNow never can. Payments today involve separate movements of the payment information—name and account of payor and payee and amount—and the value. Each involves multiple steps and parties.  Stablecoins can combine messaging, reconciliation, and transfer of value all at once, instantly.

From: The U.S. Can Make the Rules on Stablecoins, or It Can Take Them | Barron’s.

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Consumers seeing tip prompts at every turn say they are overwhelmed—and that worker wages should be business owners’ responsibility, not theirs.

From Why Businesses Can’t Stop Asking for Tips – WSJ:

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“The U.S. economy is more tip-reliant than it’s ever been,” said Scheherezade Rehman, an economist and professor of international finance at George Washington University. “But there’s a growing sense that these requests are getting out of control and that corporate America is dumping the responsibility for employee pay onto the customer.”

From Why Businesses Can’t Stop Asking for Tips – WSJ:

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The pair were ordered to forfeit the proceeds from nearly 120,000 bitcoins they allegedly laundered from the hacked crypto exchange.

From ‘Razzlekhan,’ Husband Agree to Plea Deal in Bitfinex Hack Laundering Case Worth Billions.

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The raid was part of a crime wave that has swept through Germany for more than two years, terrorising residents with night-time detonations from big cities to small towns and villages. Some 496 cash machines were blown up last year, 27 per cent more than in 2021, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) said. Daniel Muth, deputy head of Hesse’s state criminal police office, said: “The attacks have become ever more professional.”

The country has become Europe’s ground zero for ATM attackers, who have exploited a fragmented banking system and a decentralised police force — and Germans’ marked preference for cash over cards or digital payments. With more than 55,000 machines stocked with high-denomination banknotes to feed that demand, the average sum seized in a bombing raid last year hit €100,000. That pushed up the financial toll by 53 per cent from a year earlier to €30mn, BKA said.

From Bombs, car chases and ‘free money’: Dutch gangs blow up German cash machines | Financial Times.

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