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Boston Consulting Group

Tokenization of global illiquid assets estimated to be a $16 trillion business opportunity by 2030

A large chunk of the world’s wealth today is locked in illiquid assets. In a survey conducted in the U.S. in 1997, 56%+ of assets held by taxpayers with a net-worth of between $600,000 and $1 million were illiquid11. All else being equal, illiquid assets typically trade at a discount vs. liquid assets, and are characterized by a high stock-to-flow ratio, lower trading volumes and imperfect price discovery vs liquid assets.

From Post | Feed | LinkedIn:

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It might be worth thinking of an industry wide financial services satellite connection, too. We need some serious sector wide technology leadership on this topic.

From Zuckeberg’s Board • AI Act 2022 • Bye Bye Blockchain • Your wifi is not OK:

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It’s an interesting suggestion.

A diversion: I started my career in secure communications, on projects for (amongst others) GCHQ and the Royal Air Force. I also spent time at NATO working on radio and satellite communications planning. There was an actual Cold War in those days and working out how to bring up a functioning command and control network after a Russian nuclear first strike was, it has to be said, really rather interesting. I also worked on commercial satellite communications, including Palapa B1. This was the first regional satellite system and one of the main uses was going to be linking banking and other financial infrastructure across the vast Indonesia archipelago. (And here’s one for the teenagers: I wrote the X.25 and X.28 software to run over the Aloha satellite communications channels.)

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Crypto may be a mixed blessing, said US-based adult content creator Deon Glows, helping circumvent some of the restrictions in the banking system but also bringing in customers “seeking anonymity for unethical reasons.”

“There is skepticism (on crypto) because sex workers want to make the barriers to entry as minimal as possible,” she said.

From Crypto money gains traction in adult industry amid OnlyFans drama – France 24.

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Britain appears to be enjoying a surge of entrepreneurialism, with more than 200,000 start-ups registered at Companies House between April and June this year alone.

From The bogus companies exploiting Britain’s registration rules | The Spectator.

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Of course, in some ways it is good that the barriers to setting up a company are low, but perhaps not so good that anyone, anywhere in the world, can set up a UK-registered firm for the small fee of £12. They do not need to provide proof of identity, still less that they are making a serious attempt to set up a viable business. All they need is some sort of British address to put on the form: an address which can easily be lifted from the internet. Nor is there much to stop people registering companies with bogus directors, even including people unaware of how their names are being used.

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According to TASS citing a statement by President of the Trade House of Pakistan Association Zahid Ali Khan to reporters on Tuesday, replacing the US dollar with Russian rubles and Chinese yuan is a potential plan Pakistan is considering.

“We are still trading in dollars, which is a problem… We are considering the issue of trading in rubles or in yuan, but the issue is still being finalized,” said Ali Khan, noting that the transition to the two currencies in trade could take place as soon as next year, as he recently participated in the ‘Export Marathon’ international forum in Ekaterinburg, Russia.

From Yuan and ruble to replace dollar in Pakistan: Pakistani official | Al Mayadeen English.

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In the BBC’s interesting documentary on the technology of the modern payment card (The Secret Genius of Modern Life
Series 1: Bank Card), the presenter Hannah Fry explored the role of the adult sector in the evolution of the modern bank card industry. She made the point that rampant chargebacks in the early days of the internet drove the rapid development of authorisation and authentication techniques for “card not present” transactions.

Back in the dark times of the 1970s (we had strikes and power cuts in the UK) when I was what our American cousins would call a high school sophomore, I volunteered to take some additional exams, known as Certificates of Secondary Education (or “CSEs”), along side my “Ordinary Levels” (or “O Levels”). In those long ago days, you needed these O Levels in order to stay on at high school and study for “Advanced Levels” (of “A Levels”) which you needed to join the select band of individuals going on to university. CSEs were designed, if I remember correctly, for people who were going to leave school and go to work.

In addition to the hatful of O Levels that I was “studying” for, I took two CSE exams. The CSE in Computer Science had only just been introduced and it was not taught at my school but thanks to the encouragement of some truly unique teachers (to whom I will be eternally grateful) a group of were encouraged to teach ourselves after school. The other CSE, which was taught in the school, was Commerce.

I loved my CSE Commerce course. You learned how to type, some rudiments of what business is and so on. For working class kids growing up in Swindon, this was genuinely useful, as was learning about bank accounts, cheque books, mortgages and so on. By the time I went to university, I was ready to enter middle class life with a Barclays Bank account, a Barclaycard and a cheque book. I wouldn’t say I was an expert on personal finance (as my bank manager of the time would testify) but I had sufficient grasp of the basics to function effectively.

 

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Financial literacy in America is not only low but has steadily declined over time.

That is the conclusion of research from Finra, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. In 2009, the average respondent to its triennial survey could answer three out of five simple financial literacy questions correctly. By 2021, this number had fallen to 2.6. Worse, out of the 27,000-plus people surveyed, only 4 per cent were able to answer all questions correctly. This suggests many lack a basic understanding of concepts like inflation, compound interest and risk diversification.

An older — but more sweeping — study led by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services offered equally dismal findings. The US is ranked number 14 in terms of financial literacy, behind Singapore and the Czech Republic. Norway, Denmark, and Sweden tied for first place.

From Financial literacy: educating youngsters to be right on the money | Financial Times:

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Banco Central abrirá protocolos do Pix para países que queiram ‘copiar’ tecnologia de graça

From Banco Central abrirá protocolos do Pix para países que queiram ‘copiar’ tecnologia de graça – InfoMoney.

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Central Bank president Roberto Campos Neto said this Friday (11), that the municipality should release the Pix protocols in November so that other countries can copy the instant payment system for free. “Now, in November, we will open everything that we did in Pix, in terms of protocol, to all central banks that want to copy it, for free”, he said.

Campos Neto’s statement was made at an event organized by the CFA Society Brazil, in São Paulo.

digital assets
The president of the Central Bank also said that the autarchy wants to encourage banks to act as custodians of digital assets. “Exactly so you don’t have a custody concentration problem and because we think it will increase the efficiency of banks when they start to see assets and liabilities in the form of tokens”, he commented.

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This consists of a combination of proof of assets and proof of liabilities. There are technical challenges in making good protocols for both, but we can and should go as far as possible to make headway in both, and open-source the software and processes as much as possible so that all exchanges can benefit.

From Having a safe CEX: proof of solvency and beyond – HackMD.

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The ideal long-term solution is to rely on self-custody

From Having a safe CEX: proof of solvency and beyond – HackMD.

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