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The Iranian state is therefore effectively selling its energy reserves on the global markets, using the Bitcoin mining process to bypass trade embargoes.

From How Iran Uses Bitcoin Mining to Evade Sanctions and “Export” Millions of Barrels of Oil:

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In 2019 Iran officially recognised cryptoasset mining, later establishing a licensing regime that required miners to identify themselves, pay a higher (but still very low) tariff for electricity, and to sell their mined bitcoins to Iran’s central bank. Thousands of unlicensed mining farms have subsequently been identified and shut down – including in mosques, which receive free electricity.

From How Iran Uses Bitcoin Mining to Evade Sanctions and “Export” Millions of Barrels of Oil:

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Alex “Sandy” Pentland, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

These platforms and digital currencies will reveal the values of each society: How much anonymity is there, what do you have to do to be able to unmask information, who gets to do that and under what conditions? And who should get the long-term value of the digital currency — banks? Citizens? The nation as a whole?

From How We Digitize Finance Will Reveal Society’s Values – BRINK – News and Insights on Global Risk:

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The European Central Bank on Wednesday described cryptoassets’ “exorbitant carbon footprint” as “grounds for concern”. In a paper earlier this month, Italy’s central bank said the eurozone’s payments system, Tips, had a carbon footprint 40,000 times smaller than that of bitcoin in 2019.

From Bitcoin’s growing energy problem: ‘It’s a dirty currency’ | Financial Times:

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“He used a number of methods such as creating fake email trails from customers requesting for their crypto to be sent to external wallets. These wallets were in fact controlled by [him].”

From Uphold Exec Accused of ‘Fraudulently Misdirecting’ $700K in Funds – CoinDesk:

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Ismail is alleged to have photoshopped a fake seizure order from the U.K.’s National Crime Agency (NCA) for £103,000, and also created a fake invoice for a crypto asset license from the FCA for £10,000.

From Uphold Exec Accused of ‘Fraudulently Misdirecting’ $700K in Funds – CoinDesk:

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TrueLayer, the London startup that offers a developer-friendly platform for companies, including other fintechs, to utilise open banking, is disclosing $70 million in new funding.

TrueLayer says the Series D brings the total investment to date to $142 million. The injection of capital will be used to continue scaling its open banking network, which brings together payments, financial data and identity to enable companies to build new products that improve “how we spend, save, and transact online”.

This will include further development of premium open banking-based services that go beyond simply accessing open banking APIs and will enable more innovation across financial services, including embedded finance and payments more generally.

From TrueLayer raises $70M for its open banking platform | TechCrunch:

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But most tech firms have opted against banking licences. They are instead skimming the cream off the top. “Core banking”, the heavily regulated, capital-intensive activity of banks, makes around $3trn in revenue worldwide, and generates a 5-6% return on equity (roe). Payments and product distribution, the business of the tech firms, yields $2.5trn in sales but with a roe of 20%.

From How fintech will eat into banks’ business | The Economist:

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Yet as Agustín Carstens, boss of the Bank for International Settlements, a club of central bankers, said in March, “Data can substitute for collateral.”

From How fintech will eat into banks’ business | The Economist:

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The first blow to banks is that both companies earn as little as 0.1% of each transaction, less than banks do from debit cards. Interchange fees around the world have tumbled because of such firms. “It was very lucrative for fintechs to come in and compete these fees away,” says Aakash Rawat of the bank ubs. “In Indonesia they have fallen from 200 basis points to just 70.” But the bigger threat is that payment platforms may become a gateway allowing tech platforms to attract more users. Using data that payment transactions provide, Ant, Grab and Tencent can determine a borrower’s creditworthiness.

From How fintech will eat into banks’ business | The Economist:

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