Snippings

In an interesting OMFIF roundtable discussion with Nellie Liang, under secretary of the US Treasury for domestic finance, talked about the potential for stablecoins (which already have a “market cap” of $150 billion) across the financial sector.

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Average Dollar Amount Loaded onto Prepaid Cards by Canadian Consumers:

Transit prepaid cards had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $224 in the past year.
General purpose reloadable prepaid cards had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $120 in the past year.
Retailer-specific prepaid cards had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $96 in the past year.
Gift cards for online services such as music or online gambling had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $65 in the past year.
Prepaid mobile phone cards had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $62 in the past year.

From Average Dollar Amount Loaded onto Prepaid Cards by Canadian Consumers: –.

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Whereas the sCBDC plan allows for numerous, entirely distinct retail digital currencies, the Fed’s iCBDC plan provides for a single digital currency only, albeit one offered at and administered by numerous private-sector firms.

From Missed it by That Much: Where the Fed’s Digital Currency Proposal Goes Wrong – Alt-M.

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The South African patent office made history in July when it issued a patent that listed an artificial intelligence system as the inventor.

The patent is for a food container that uses fractal designs to create pits and bulges in its sides. Designed for the packaging industry, the new configuration allows containers to fit more tightly together so they can be transported better. The shape also makes it easier for robotic arms to pick up the containers.

From A First: AI System Named Inventor – IEEE Spectrum.

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One attacker, going by the pseudonym “jpegdegenlove” today paid a total of $133,000 for seven NFTs – before quickly selling them on for $934,000 in ether. Five hours later this ether was sent through Tornado Cash, a “mixing” service that is used to prevent blockchain tracing of funds.

From Hackers Exploit Bug to “Steal” $1 Million in NFTs from OpenSea Users.

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My guess is that the total addressable market of metaverse insurance will be only a small portion of today’s physical world premium. Even so, a small fraction of the $650 billion net written premium and $12 billion in net underwriting profit in 2020 in the U.S., might be enough to make insuring the metaverse interesting.

From Insurance in the metaverse, Meta, Facebook | Digital Insurance:

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General purpose reloadable prepaid cards had an average dollar amount loaded onto them of $120 in the past year.

From Average Dollar Amount Loaded onto Prepaid Cards by Canadian Consumers: –.

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Abdallah Assaii, a 37-year-old Lebanese coffee shop owner, robbed the bank to get his money back. It was his money, so was he really robbing the bank? Did he rob the bank or did he just make a claim for what is rightfully his?

The incident took place at a branch of Lebanese bank BBAC in the town of Jeb Jannine, in the Bekaa Valley, on January 18. Abdallah entered the bank branch and held seven bank employees hostage for four hours until they paid him his $50,000 US dollars in cash. The bank claims that Mr Assaii held a gun to the head of one of the bank staff, had explosives in his bag and sprayed petrol on the employees and on the floor, threatening to light a cigarette. Mr Assaii’s lawyer claims there was no threat and that he kept the gun in his bag and apologised to staff when the confrontation ended.

From He ‘robbed’ his bank to get his own money back – Chris Skinner’s blog.

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The image, which has now been withdrawn, was offered for sale for $2,776 (€2,446) on the OpenSea website, according to the Mediapart website, which first reported the story.

From Bataclan survivor shocked as surgeon tries to sell her X-ray as NFT | France | The Guardian.

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BoA concludes that Britcoin would represent a “rebundling” of money. Should consumers hold substantial amounts in a Britcoin wallet, banks would not be able to rely on the stability or duration of checking account deposits. Nor would they be able to cross-sell products such as credit cards and mortgages as effectively as they do now.

From Bank of America Says UK CBDC Would Be More Than a Digital Form of Cash:

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