Snippings

MercyCor Ventures report on the “The potential of cryptocurrency for Kenya’s youth: Pilot insights on stablecoin micropayments for digital workers” states quite clearly that “the largest potential barrier to inclusion is a Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get started”.

 

The largest potential barrier to inclusion is a
Know Your Customer (KYC) requirement that
makes it difficult, if not impossible, to get started.
Though Kenya has attempted to introduce a
digital identification program through Huduma
Namba, it was stalled in 2021 due to data privacy
concerns.71 Even if Kenya were to successfully
introduce a digital identification program, millions
of people—a majority of whom may be ideal
participants in the microwork economy—may

still be out of reach. Therefore, simply setting
traditional KYC requirements similar to a bank
account may not work. Having a more inclusive
and innovative approach to KYC and Anti-
Money Laundering/Combating the Financing of
Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance is at the root of
the success for mobile money platforms, such as
M-Pesa in Kenya, and should be considered for
cryptocurrencies as well.

From .

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UK’s Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) has put the card schemes on notice that it is investigating their fees and how to help merchants get better deals, including by promoting the alternative of account-to-account payments.

From UK watchdog takes on card schemes.

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By Mark Gurman +Follow

30 March 2022, 18:39 BST

Updated on30 March 2022, 19:27 BST

Apple is reportedly developing its own payment processing technology and infrastructure for future financial products, part of an ambitious effort that would reduce its reliance on outside partners over time, according to people with knowledge of the matter. A multiyear plan would bring a wide range of financial tasks in-house, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public. That includes payment processing, risk assessment for lending, fraud analysis, credit checks and additional customer-service functions such as the handling of disputes.

The effort is focused on future products, rather than Apple’s current lineup of services. Still, the news sent shares of CoreCard Corp. and Green Dot Corp. — two of Apple’s existing partners — down more than 10% apiece on Wednesday. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. , another key partner, slipped as much as 1.2%.

The push would turn the company into a bigger force in financial services, building on a lineup that already includes an Apple-branded credit card, peer-to-peer payments, the Wallet app and a mechanism for merchants to accept credit cards from an iPhone. Apple is also working on its own subscription service for hardware and a “buy now, pay later” feature for Apple Pay transactions, Bloomberg has reported.

Part of the project has been dubbed “Breakout” internally, underscoring the idea of breaking away from the existing financial system, according to the people. A representative for Cupertino, California-based Apple declined to comment on the plans.

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That was the generation who thought cash was safe and banks weren’t. Nowadays, they wouldn’t bother; it’s getting harder to find anyone to take your money. The other day I sent my daughter off with a tenner to buy a pizza; no go,

From It’s ridiculous that retailers can refuse payment by cash | Comment | The Times.

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The parent company of Axie Infinity that just fell victim to a historic, $625 million crypto-hack said it will reimburse users who lost money in the heist.

From Victims of $600 Million Crypto Heist Will Be Reimbursed: Report.

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An attacker “used hacked private keys in order to forge fake withdrawals” from the Ronin bridge across two transactions, as seen on Etherscan.
While the Ronin sidechain has nine validators requiring five signatures for withdrawals and is meant to protect against these types of attacks, the blog post notes that “the attacker found a backdoor through our gas-free RPC node, which they abused to get the signature for the Axie DAO validator.”
The blog post pegged the losses at 173,600 ether and 25.5 million in USDC, currently worth in excess of $625 million.

From Axie Infinity’s Ronin Network Suffers $625M Exploit:

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World Development
Volume 125, January 2020, 104621

Beyond the neoliberal-statist divide on the drivers of innovation: A political settlements reading of Kenya’s M-Pesa success story
Author links open overlay panelMatthewTyce

 

The M-Pesa story is not black or white but shades of grey, requiring a distinction between productive and unproductive rents

Safaricom’s rewards for obtaining first-mover status were such that it pursued ongoing improvements to M-Pesa. Investing heavily in mobile start-ups and app developers, as well as a state-of-the-art innovation lab, Safaricom added numerous functions to the platform, allowing customers to purchase goods and services in retail stores through Lipa Na M-Pesa, pay utility bills, rent and school fees using PayBill and withdraw cash at ATMs.54 Additionally, Safaricom expanded M-Pesa beyond a transfer service, embedding it within Kenya’s financial ecosystem by offering savings, credit and insurance products with partner institutions, including banks that initially “tried to kill M-Pesa.”55

From Beyond the neoliberal-statist divide on the drivers of innovation: A political settlements reading of Kenya’s M-Pesa success story – ScienceDirect:

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We have all read about the rise in popularity of Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL), and the concerns around consumer debt it has sparked. According to the Centre for Financial Capability, almost 25% of UK adults who had used BNPL had failed to pay on time, rising to 35% for people aged between 18 and 34. It now makes up £6.4 billion, or 5%, of all ecommerce transitions in the UK, up at least 60% from a year prior. And it shows no signs of slowing: Klarna recently announced a partnership with Chevron and Texaco in the U.S. that would allow users to pay for gasoline in installments.

From FinTech and the slippery slope | LinkedIn:

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Getting paid in cUSD offered other advantages, too. Participants had the option to easily off-ramp their cUSD earnings to their M-Pesa accounts,

From Pilot Spotlight: How Celo and Mercy Corps Ventures Partnered to Benefit Microworkers in Kenya | by Celo Foundation | The Celo Blog | Feb, 2022 | Medium.

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Fintech on the front line

Apple Pay and Google Pay are suspending support for contactless mobile payments made using Mir cards issued by Russia’s National Payment Card System (NSPK).

From Apple Pay and Google Pay suspend contactless mobile payments for Mir cardholders in Russia • NFCW.

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