Snippings

Writing over at the World Economic Forum, Marcus Bonner says it is that the future Metaverse inhabitants’s digital identity will not be a single entity, but rather a “unique core linked to a myriad of other digital entities“, resulting in a web of highly complex and inter-connected information strands. I think he is right, but I would see things in a slightly more structured way, where virtual citizens have a a small number of digital identities (work, play, home, adult, hobby) each of which is linked to a large number of personas. My home digital identity my be linked with my supermarket loyalty card, my local proper tax account and my driving licence but not to my Manchester City fan club persona, my “John Doe” default internet browsing persona or my David G.W. Birch work persona.

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Nordic banks have developed some of the industry’s most innovative premium APIs.

As well as allowing third parties to request basic account data and initiate transactions, Finland’s OP bank also has APIs to filter transactions, request information about specific payments and issue refunds automatically.

Another bank in the region, Nordea, which operates across Finland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden, is considered to have one of the most extensive API suites on the market.

In addition to its five compliance APIs, Nordea offers 10 paid-for solutions that cover foreign exchange trading, corporate payouts, refunds and mass payments, among other services.

From Defining EU Open Banking API Innovation | PYMNTS.com:

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All PSP’s offering instant payments of euro will be required to provide their customers with a service to check for any discrepancies between the payee’s IBAN and the payee’s name and are required to notify the customer of any discrepancy.

From Legal Opinion: EU Proposal for the Regulation of Instant Payments:

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Since FTX’s collapse, some crypto enthusiasts have flocked to smaller firms in the experimental field of decentralized finance, which allows traders to borrow, lend and conduct transactions without banks or brokers, relying instead on a publicly viewable system governed by code.

But DeFi has its own problems, including vulnerability to hackers, who have drained billions of dollars this year from the experimental projects.

From The Crypto Industry Struggles for a Way Forward After FTX Collapse – The New York Times:

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The opportunities for financial institutions in the metaverse go beyond simply offering conventional services in this new digital space. Countless new businesses and markets are being created through the trade of intangible products like non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in the metaverse.

Virtual commodities in the art and fashion sectors have also seen strong investment, with the transactions underlying these purchases potentially benefiting from the involvement of players in the financial industry.

From What will financial services look like in the metaverse? – Fintech Talents:

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It is not unreasonable to be sceptical. Jeffrey Funk, Lee Vinsel, and Patrick McConnell write in some detail about what they call the Metaverse “bubble” and go on to examine the economic effects of bubbles by comparing this technology bubble to past ones. They say that the biggest difference is that some goods did emerge from the dot-com bubble but “probably not much will result from the current bubble”. I am not convinced by this argument, because the goods here are not the Metaverse itself (however interesting and entertaining that might be) but because it will become a nexus for safer commercial interaction and the location of better, cheaper and faster financial services.

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Offering consumers a digital version of an official, government-issued state ID requires the official sanction and endorsement of the government in question, and Apple has reportedly spent months negotiating with various state governments in the US. Presumably, Google has been doing the same, and it seems fair to expect some information about which states will be among the first to support its own digital ID system when the beta feature rolls out this month.

From Google Play Changelog Points to Beta Launch of Digital IDs – Mobile ID World:

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oogle is preparing to follow through with a beta launch of its own digital ID solution, suggests a technical document pertaining to a Google Play System update slated for this month. As XDA Developers notes, the partial changelog includes a “Beta feature to allow users from selected US state(s) to digitize their state ID/driver’s license into the Google Wallet for convenient, private and secure presentation.”

From Google Play Changelog Points to Beta Launch of Digital IDs – Mobile ID World:

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Our six Deutsche Bank experts believe that the most likely future scenario in the future is one of multiple metaverse ecosystems, but which allow interoperability through standard solutions and protocols for digital identity, credentials, and asset ownership. The metaverse could usher in the next e-commerce revolution as it gains traction through advances in technology and becomes more mainstream. Financial services firms have a significant role in powering this evolution.

From Metaverse – the next e-commerce revolution – Corporates and Institutions:

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In the first half of 2022, the price of every major cryptocurrency dropped following the collapse of TerraUSD and LUNA. Now, multiple crypto-related companies are facing serious financial difficulties, including insolvency. In November 2022, crypto exchanges FTX and FTX.US filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The fallout of this crypto crash is ongoing. This period of market cooling has become known as “crypto winter.”

From Crypto Winter 2022: What Happened? – NerdWallet:

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