A library of snippets
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The metaverse is important because it can “fundamentally change the medium through which we socialize with others, watch music performances, engage with fashion brands, learn and/or speculate on digital assets such as [non-fungible tokens] or in-game skins,” Morgan Stanley said in a research note.
From More Firms Embracing the Metaverse and Gaming Stocks Have Already Benefited, Morgan Stanley Says:
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NFTs as collateral. The metaverse is here,
Lastly, we have platforms like NFTfi that are offering NFT collateralized loans. By putting up any ERC-721 token up for collateralization, other users can begin offering you a loan. Once accepted, the ETH gets paid to you and the NFT is locked in the NFTfi smart contract, only to be returned once your loan is paid. If you can’t pay back the loan then the NFT is then transferred to the lender. NFTfi has already supplied nearly $4 billion USD in loans.
From Web3 Report Q3 2021:
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Market estimates project that by the end of 2021, the financial services market is likely to reach $22.5 trillion, growing at a rate of 9.9% from the previous year.2 This is lower than previous projections, due to the recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic. With global GDP expected to reach $93 trillion in the same year, that would mean that financial services comprise about 24% of the world’s economy.3
From What Percentage of the Global Economy Is the Financial Services Sector?:
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Mercator Advisory Group has released a new primary research report titled 2021 U.S. North American PaymentsInsights: The State of the Consumer Market – Prepaid/Gift, Credit, and Debit Cards, summarizing the findings from the Summer 2021 North American PaymentsInsights survey of 3,001 U.S-based adults.
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Highlights of this document include:
The average dollar amount loaded onto retailer-specific prepaid cards
was $126.
Over half of respondents that used a retailer-specific gift card had spent the entire value on the card in just one shopping trip.
Over 60% of credit card users reported using their credit primarily to get rewards, while slightly over half said that they use a credit card only to build credit history and that they try to pay off the full balance every month.
Cashback was perceived to be the most important reward by greatest share of those that participate in credit card rewards programs (41%).
Only 32% of debit card users have used their debit card to get cash back from a merchant in the past 12 months.
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“I am bawling my eyes out. I can’t take a nude video,” Zoller wrote to the Ashly account. “I am going to kill myself, please you stole everything from me. Please give me my Instagram back please.”
Do you know about any other scams on Instagram or other social media networks? We’d love to hear from you. Using a non-work phone or computer, you can contact Joseph Cox securely on Signal on +44 20 8133 5190, Wickr on josephcox, or email joseph.cox@vice.com.
Then, the hacker told her to make a video promoting the Bitcoin mining scam in exchange for her account, according to Zoller’s mother. The hackers did not give Zoller her account back, and instead posted the video of Zoller to a Story.
“I can’t believe bitcoin mining is real, no cap you all should go give it a try, you should go and invest in bitcoin mining it [is 100%] safe and secure,” an image posted to Zoller’s story reads, along with a photo of a spread of $100 bills. The hackers also managed to break into Zoller’s Venmo, email, and banking apps, before sending themselves a $500 Venmo payment marked as an “Investment Fee” and buying $1,000 worth of Bitcoin with Zoller’s funds, according to screenshots shared with Motherboard.
From Hostage-Style Bitcoin Scam Videos Are Spreading Across Instagram:
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Three months ago, M-Pesa introduced its “Super App” across all its markets. It is described as one of M-Pesa’s “key service innovations’ and comes in the form of an overarching service that enables subscribers to complete a wide variety of tasks – “from shopping to accessing government services” – without having to download different apps for each task.
Development of M-Pesa continues apace. An open API is available and being used by more than 45,000 developers and 200,000 SMEs. Meanwhile the company is further growing its ecosystem to provide enhanced services to businesses large and small (and very small indeed).
As of today, more than 500,000 businesses transact more than £5 billion worth of services and sales of goods per month on the service and M-Pesa has now has a network of partners that allows subscribers to send and receive money from more than 200 countries and territories.
From Digital banking service M-Pesa is now the biggest fintech platform in Africa | TelecomTV:
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Brazil’s central bank has imposed spending limits on its new PIX instant payments platform in the face of a sharp increase in “lightning kidnappings”.
São Paulo has seen a 40% rise in lightning kidnappings – where people are grabbed on the street and forced to transfer money in exchange for their release – in the first six months of the year.
From Brazilian kidnappers take advantage of new PIX payments system:
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more than 8000 customers had received multiple low-value deposits, often of less than $1, with potentially abusive messages.
From CommBank implements AI tool to root out abusive messages in transaction fields:
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The Biden administration is considering ways to impose bank-like regulation on the cryptocurrency companies that issue stablecoins, according to people familiar with the matter, including prodding the firms to register as banks.
The administration is also expected to urge Congress to consider legislation to create a special-purpose charter for such firms that would be tailored to their business models, the people say.
From Biden Administration Seeks to Regulate Stablecoin Issuers as Banks – WSJ:
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Internet of Things Technology and Consumer Devices: Machine Triggered Payments Continue Growth in U.S. Households
Posted: September 21, 2021
Author: Shreyas ShaktikumarIoT transactions see continued growth in U.S. households.
The sustained growth of smart home devices in the U.S. has created a market for machine triggered, IoT purchases of household goods. New research by Mercator Advisory Group explores the implication of this development for the payments industry, focusing on the revenue growth potential caused by shifting consumer choices.
From Buffer:
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