A library of snippets
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Federal investigators spent years hunting for clues in the 2016 hacking of the Bitfinex cryptocurrency exchange, when thieves stole bitcoin now worth $4.5 billion. In the end, what helped lead them to two suspects was something much more quotidian: a $500 Walmart gift card.
From A Crucial Clue in the $4.5 Billion Bitcoin Heist: A $500 Walmart Gift Card – WSJ.
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“Tap to Pay” is likely to be the start of a deeper push into the merchant side of e-commerce which will provide a platform for future bets with BNPL, P2P and eventually creating a closed loop payments network.
From FATP (17/02) – What is Apple’s end game with payments?:
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Apollo Global Management Inc. APO 0.57% is nearing a deal to acquire the point-of-sale terminal business of European payments company Worldline SA WLN -2.36% for close to $2.3 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
The proposed deal is the latest bet on the continued growth of digital payments.
From Apollo Nears $2.3 Billion Deal for Worldline’s Terminal Business – WSJ:
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French payments services provider Worldline has launched a strategic review of its point-of-sale (POS) terminals business and has hired UBS and BNP Paribas to advise on strategic options.
The company is looking to sell the Terminal Solution & Services (TSS) unit at a valuation of €3bn ($3.5bn), Bloomberg reported.
The strategic review of the business follows Worldline’s €7.8bn ($9.2bn) acquisition of Ingenico Group.
The French firm said that the move is part of its strategy to transition from “Hardware + Service” to “Software-as-a-Service” business model.
Worldline chairman and CEO Gilles Grapinet said: “Worldline is more than ever ready to keep playing a central role in the ongoing consolidation of payments in Europe and beyond, and, as planned, we are launching the strategic review for the payment terminals business unit.
From France’s Worldline looking to divest POS terminal business:
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French payments firm Worldline is in the final stages of a talk to sell its point-of-sale (POS) terminal business to Apollo Global Management, reported WSJ.
The potential deal would see Apollo buy hardware that enables consumers to make purchases using their mobile phones and payment cards, for about $2.3bn, people with knowledge of the development told the publication.
From Worldline in talks to offload POS terminal business to Apollo:
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Finally, we calculate the number of physical qubits required to break the 256-bit elliptic curve encryption of keys in the Bitcoin network within the small available time frame in which it would actually pose a threat to do so. It would require 317 × 106 physical qubits to break the encryption within one hour using the surface code, a code cycle time of 1 μs, a reaction time of 10 μs, and a physical gate error of 10−3
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. To instead break the encryption within one day, it would require 13 × 106 physical qubits.
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It’s not just the incumbent point of sale and other financial service providers who need to take notice of Apple’s announcement, but governments too
From “Tap to pay” becomes “Tap to prove” …? – new tech observations from the UK (ntouk):
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In his first public comments on leaving the global anti-money laundering standard setting body after six years, David Lewis told ACAMS moneylaundering.com that there is considerable appetite both inside and outside FATF for steering national AML frameworks towards truly risk-based, intelligence-led decision-making and measurable, real-world results.
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On 2 June 2021, Suarez tweeted: “Check out this on the first CityCoin being of course MiamiCoin!!!!!!!!!” [Twitter]
MiamiCoin was promoted locally on banners, signs and truck billboards.
CityCoins is built on Stacks — formerly BlockStack — which is a smart contract platform built atop Bitcoin, run by Muneeb Ali. MiamiCoin is a token running on Stacks. [Stacks; CoinTelegraph]
From CityCoins — free magical money for your city! Maybe – Attack of the 50 Foot Blockchain:
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Other cities such as New York and Philadelphia are actively looking at the same or similar ideas.
(It does seem odd that these same cities are at the same time passing laws to force merchants to accept physical currency in compulsory tender, which is simultaneously an anti-competitive backstop and a stealth tax on business.)
Last year I wrote that an economy that is a network of cities will demand different financial services and institutions from one based on national economies and I pointed to Jane Jacobs’ seminal work on “Cities and the Wealth of Nations” from a generation back as well as more recent work, such as the Canvas8 report on “The city an an identity anchor” and the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2017 report that “Cities, not nation states, will determine our future survival”.
Given this background, it’s obvious why I have been interested in development in the decentralised finance world at the intersection of cities and cryptocurrencies. While cryptocurrency is forcing us to consider the relationship between money and the nation state (as I am fond of pointing out, a pretty recent arrangement) it seems to me the imminent nexus of cryptocurrencies and cities is a more interesting and potentially more radical stimulant for innovation.
There have been some high profile experiments already. MiamiCoin was a high profile example, launched to some fanfare when Mayor Suarez tweeted: “Check out this on the first CityCoin being of course MiamiCoin!!!!!!!!!”. CityCoins is built on Stacks, which is a smart contract platform built on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. MiamiCoin is implemented as a token running on Stacks. Other cities, including New York and Philadelphia, are actively looking at the same or similar ideas.
(It does seem odd that these same cities are at the same time passing laws to force merchants to accept physical currency in compulsory tender. These are simultaneously anti-competitive backward-looking measures and a stealth tax on business, because if it was cheaper for businesses to accept cash, they would.)
These kinds of initiatives are rather uninteresting though. If cities create cryptocurrencies as speculative instruments they are really only taking baby steps. If a city were to issue its own money and, for example, demand that taxes be paid in that money or that certain city services could only be paid for using that money, or the money was backed by some city assets or or other, that would be much more interesting. I can imagine that this is a big step to take for an existing city though, so perhaps it makes sense to look to new spaces for this kind of experiment. Perhaps on an island somewhere? Indeed, this where certain utopians are already looking, having abandoned the idea of floating seasteads to sit beyond national waters. One such plan is to take a three million square metre island in the Vanuatu archipelago and transform it from undisturbed rainforest into a “sustainable smart city”, filled with multistorey apartment blocks and offices for cryptocurrency investors from around the world.
Another approach is, rather than escape the nation-state, to create new cities within it. In America, crypto billionaires are talking about smart contracts owning land in Wyoming and building new crypto-cities in Nevada. In Africa, the noted rap music star Akon is about to begin building another crypto city in Africa. He already started work on a city in Senegal and the new one will be in Uganda. These cities (which will run on Stellar rails using the “Akon” cryptocurrency) fascinate me. I had the opportunity to ask Akon about them recently, and I
2. It seems to me that it takes amazing vision to think about founding a city! Who were your inspirations in thinking of such a grand endeavor? NOTE: this might be a better first question? Start with the vision, then go to the action?
As an artist, I’m a creator, a connector and a problem solver. I want to create, I want to build and I want to help people rise up, reach their true potential. This is what Akon City is: the chance for the world to see the true potential of the people of Africa and inspire more Africans to join in. As such, there really wasn’t any one individual who inspired me, as much as many. I’ve always surrounded myself with amazing minds and people of different exceptional skill sets and experiences. When I tackle any new problem, I go to these different sources to help me bring new ideas into reality and the future. In terms of Akon City, when I could see that Africa wasn’t getting a fair shake on the global stage, especially given all of the natural resources and human power we have there, I knew there was a solution that could begin to tackle this. My goal is to build not just one Akon City but many around the world, creating hubs of African innovation and excellence, honoring our history and putting the continent in the spotlight. I want Akon City to be the blueprint for a modern and equitable Africa.
1. I am very curious about the relationship between your cities and your currency, but which of these ideas came first? Were you already thinking about new cities before cryptocurrencies came along?
I’d been visualizing and thinking about building a city in Africa for a long time, way before I had even heard about cryptocurrencies. Building a forward-thinking and futuristic city is very very important to me as this is a crucial building block for establishing Africa as a global leader.
I am a person of action–when I saw the need for electricity, I found ways to create solar opportunities via Akon Lighting Africa. That led me to wanting to showcase and share Africa even more–its beauty, its people, its potential. And the best way to do that is to draw people to Africa so they can see for themselves. Akon City is that draw, not solely as a tourist destination, but as a model for other cities to see, understand and capitalize on the potential of the African people. This city offers pride, strength and dreams while delivering innovation and reality.
My vision for Akon City is to put a spotlight on African excellence, create hubs of commerce and tourism, and to create opportunities on the continent, supported by the Akoin cryptocurrency. Once I began learning about cryptocurrencies, it was a lightbulb moment in terms of how uniquely it could be used to empower and unite Africa’s, the puzzle pieces all started coming together.
Our Akoin cryptocurrency is the fuel that empowers and connects the people within the city to all they need within and beyond Africa thereby creating action, reaction and impact in an ongoing process that benefits all.
3. How will your cities improve the lives of the average person who lives in them? What will be the fundamental changes that your cities will bring to them?
The Akon City model brings technology and massive opportunity into the lives of those living in and around these cities. These cities will be placed in targeted areas around the African continent that allow them to become hubs, much needed in these areas. There’ll be tourism, and there’ll be commercial traffic, there will be global businesses establishing their presence here, all the way to education and cutting edge health facilities and entertainment. This will all lead to more jobs and more opportunity, and money flowing through the city and into the hands of every person living in them. I want Akon City to be vibrant and inviting, and to offer opportunities to both those located inside and around it. Ultimately, I want Akon City to be the example and standard for modern smart cities in Africa, showing on the global stage what Africa can offer, and has been offering, to the world. I’m doing this for Africa, but it’s really all about the people.
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