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A new study from Juniper Research, foremost experts in the payments market, found the number of payment cards issued via digital platforms will reach 1.3 billion annually by 2027, from just 500 million in 2023. This growth of 170% reflects strong interest in improving the way users access and replace cards from issuers. This is in context of strong competition between issuers from digital-only banks and new fintechs offering card services.

Modern card issuing platforms, also known as digital card issuing platforms, allow card issuers to create cards using an API (Application Programming Interface)-driven approach; enabling cards to be delivered instantly to digital wallets, with the option for a physical card, boosting flexibility, transparency and speed significantly.

From News | Business Wire.

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Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia
Tech chief says the development of chatbots is a more worthwhile use of processing power than crypto mining
Alex Hern
@alexhern
Sun 26 Mar 2023 16.21 BST
The US chip-maker Nvidia has said cryptocurrencies do not “bring anything useful for society” despite the company’s powerful processors selling in huge quantities to the sector.

Michael Kagan, its chief technology officer, said other uses of processing power such as the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT were more worthwhile than mining crypto.

From Cryptocurrencies add nothing useful to society, says chip-maker Nvidia | Cryptocurrencies | The Guardian:

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General Motors is planning to drop support for both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from new electric vehicles it plans to launch in the next few years. The decision won’t affect any GM vehicles already on the market, nor will it apply to gasoline- or diesel-powered GM vehicles in the coming years—just EVs.

GM wants to offer customers a more integrated solution that sees Google Maps, Google Assistant, Audible, Spotify, and other applications run natively on its Ultifi software platform.

 

I must admit, I’m rather taken aback by this decision. For starters, Apple CarPlay is wildly popular; Apple says 79 percent of new car buyers insist on this feature. While independent surveys don’t find quite this level of demand, a 2020 survey showed 48 percent of car buyers want CarPlay or Android Auto in their next vehicle.

From GM confirms it’s dropping Apple CarPlay and Android Auto from 2024 EVs | Ars Technica:

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Ofcom will neither prescribe mitigations implemented by telcos in the way the US has, nor will they stipulate that calls must be blocked if they have not been authenticated, as is required by French law.

From UK Adopts New Rules to Stop CLI Spoofing but Not STIR/SHAKEN | Commsrisk:

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Privacy or good data practices are not something we can expect the market to produce, they also aren’t something that consumers can easily opt in or out of. Theorizing data’s competitive value in terms of a quality dimension equivalent to price is misleading. It misses the importance of structuring digital platform markets so that competition can reduce data and privacy concerns.

From Data, Context and Competition Policy – ProMarket:

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Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission proposed a new licensing framework in February, focusing on investor protection. A senior official said at a briefing that the regulator wanted to prevent a recurrence of the problems that brought down FTX, as well as other fraudulent behavior.

From Hong Kong’s Crypto Ambitions Get a Boost From U.S. Crackdown – WSJ:

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Behind Elon Musk’s gamble to turn Twitter Inc. into a company worth more than $250 billion is a beloved idea he has hung on to for more than two decades: digital banking.

The billionaire entrepreneur has talked in dribs and drabs about what Twitter 2.0 might ultimately look like under his control. But late last week, he gave employees a taste of how grandiose his plans are, telling them he envisions Twitter being worth more than 10 times its current value of around $20 billion.

Key to his effort, he has said, is putting the social-media company at the center of users’ financial lives.

From Elon Musk Revives Old Banking Dream in Pursuing $250 Billion Twitter Valuation – WSJ:

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“I think it’s possible to become the biggest financial institution in the world,” Mr. Musk said in March at a Morgan Stanley conference. 

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Amazon Sidewalk is only active in the U.S., so Apple’s Find My network works better than Tile abroad, because of the global prevalence of Apple devices. In Paris, where I tested the devices, the Find My network spotted the Chipolo card in a park within minutes. During this 30-minute remote field test, my Tile tracker never turned up in the Tile app.

From Track Your Lost Stuff: Apple’s Find My vs. Amazon Sidewalk – WSJ:

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Argentinian low-cost airline Flybondi is integrating Web3 into its ticketing process by issuing e-tickets as non-fungible tokens (NFT).
The new integration announced Thursday is called Ticket 3.0 and is an expansion of its existing relationship with NFT ticketing company TravelX, which launched in September 2022. The NFT ticketing technology, built on the Algorand blockchain, allows passengers to change their name, transfer or sell their “NFTickets” independently.

From NFTickets: Argentinian Airline Flybondi Issues Every Ticket as an NFT:

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“Almost anything of value can be tokenized and tokenization of financial and real-world assets could be the “killer use-case” blockchain needs to drive a breakthrough,” added the report. “We forecast $4 trillion to $5 trillion of tokenized digital securities and $1 trillion of distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based trade finance volumes by 2030.”

From Tokenization of Assets Could Reach $5 trillion by 2030 – Markets Media.

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