A library of snippets
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Stablecoins are a creature of regulation in the same sense that money market funds were created in the 1970s to get around government limits on interest banks could pay retail depositors while the economy was running at double-digit inflation.
From Crypto: Regulators Are Taking the Wrong Approach to Stablecoins – Bloomberg:
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To that end, J.P. Morgan Chase Global Head of Payments Technology Mike Blandina and Global Head of Payments and Commerce Solutions Max Neukirchen said the trends in digital payments set in motion well before 2021 will bring innovations beyond the confines of marketplaces and consumer-focused super apps well after 2022 ends.
Looking back on 2021, they noted that the great digital shift has its roots pre-pandemic, when new payment methods started to gain broader acceptance and multi-site marketplaces became a major economic force.
One would have thought that COVID-19 would have upended everything. As Neukirchen noted, at the end of 2020 and lurching into 2021, vaccines were just starting to be rolled out, and no one was sure how the year might play out.
“Then we saw a strong rebound in the economy, which was reflected in the payment space,” he said. “The strength was reflected not only in volumes, but also with continued innovation, particularly within digital payments.”
Blandina and Neukirchen said the past several months have seen the continued “embedding” of payments, rendering them virtually invisible in various use cases and B2B workflows. And while there’s been much discussion and attention focused on the rise of the consumer super app, as Blandina noted, “there’s a future ‘merchant super app’ out there.”
From Super Apps Set Stage for Consumer-Focused Commerce | PYMNTS.com.
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As Blandina noted, for the marketplaces, “it really starts with what we call trust and safety — which rests with federated identity, which gives you the real understanding of who it is you’re really working with.”
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Criminals have stolen close to $100 billion in pandemic relief funds, the U.S. Secret Service said Tuesday.
The stolen funds were diverted by fraudsters from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program and a another program set up to dole out unemployment assistance funds nationwide.
From Criminals have stolen nearly $100 billion in Covid relief funds: Secret Service.
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One potential path is an open public-private effort to explore the tokenization of the U.S. Treasury market and related funding processes. Imagine the efficiencies and regulatory enhancements provided by real-time trading, clearing and settlement in the U.S. Treasury market. How about the many efficiencies and welfare-enhancing products that could be built off tokenized interoperability among the Federal Reserve, regulated financial institutions, other financial services providers, investors, savers and consumers? Imagine the benefits to the U.S. from modernizing current payment markets rather than waiting for new ones to develop. Imagine the investment and human capital that would flow in the direction of U.S. ingenuity, virtually immediately, if such an effort were announced.
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Ok fine, the story that WoW removing Siphon Life was the direct inspiration to Ethereum is exaggerated, but the infamous patch that ruined my beloved warlock and my response to it were very real!
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“You have to have an approach an AML [anti-money-laundering] KYC approach that’s commensurate with the risk, and for lower transactions, we don’t want to disenfranchise people,” Weiss said. “We want everyone to be able to buy $50, $100, $200 of bitcoin, regardless of their immigration status and regardless if they have an ID.”
From Bitcoin ATMs: Criminals target cryptocurrency transactions:
The thing is, if I am a drug dealer or corrupt politician, I will just set up a bunch of wallets and deposit a couple of hundred bucks into each one. Then when I feel like it, I can have a bot move the cash between the wallets and send it off to wherever.
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“The FBI has seen an increase in scammers directing victims to use physical cryptocurrency ATMs and digital QR codes to complete payment transactions,”
From Bitcoin ATMs: Criminals target cryptocurrency transactions:
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North Korean authorities have recently stepped up efforts to alleviate public distrust in money vouchers, or donpyo. Even the country’s government officials are uncertain why the vouchers were issued, which has led the authorities to convene lectures aimed at educating them about the new currency.
South Korean media first revealed the creation of donpyo in September. Initially, observers speculated that the vouchers were a strategy to absorb foreign currency, comparing them to “donpyo exchanged for foreign exchange” issued in the late 1970s. Recently, however, the leading opinion is that they are temporary banknotes to ensure the smooth circulation of currency.
However, ordinary people and even cadres have failed to comprehend what the money vouchers are for, and many are avoiding them altogether. Amid growing distrust in the “untrustworthy banknotes,” merchants, for example, are treating KWP 5,000 vouchers like they are worth just KPW 2,500 or KPW 3,000.
From North Korea steps up efforts to increase public trust in money vouchers – Daily NK:
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Ok fine, the story that WoW removing Siphon Life was the direct inspiration to Ethereum is exaggerated, but the infamous patch that ruined my beloved warlock and my response to it were very real!
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The NSW government has earmarked $8.9 million to begin work on a personalised digital wallet that will allow citizens to prove their identity and share decentralised credentials.
The funding, which will be sourced from the state’s $2.1 billion digital restart fund, was revealed in the NSW half-yearly budget update [pdf] yesterday.
The Department of Customer Service first revealed plans for the digital wallet or “credential vault”, last month, when it issued an expression of interest to find the necessary underpinning platforms.
From Service NSW gets funding to begin work on digital ID wallet – Strategy – Software – iTnews.
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