Snippings

Maya

Yields for savings

Dex for trading

DAOs for investments

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The bank also calls central bank digital currencies “kryptonite for crypto” but it is intrigued by decentralized finance, which it says is “potentially more disruptive than Bitcoin.”

From Bank of America Sees DeFi ‘Potentially More Disruptive Than Bitcoin’:

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Right now, the most popular types of DeFi applications include:

• Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs) such as the one I use, Uniswap, which connects users directly so they can trade cryptocurrencies with one another without trusting an intermediary with their money. One popular token traded on these is “wrapped bitcoins” (WBTC), which are a means to send bitcoin across the Ethereum network so that it can be used in defi., although as I write the highest volume comes from the U.S. Dollar “stablecoin” USDC .

• One of the earliest use of smart contracts was for Prediction Markets: Markets for betting on the outcome of future events, such as elections.

• The main use of defi markets is savings and loans. Lending Platforms use smart contracts to replace intermediaries such as banks that manage lending in the middle. This allows for “yield farming”, where lenders lock up tokens from one currency to borrow tokens from another currency (because they think that the value of those tokens will rise).

  Yield farming is enabled through over-collateralization, meaning that the borrower must deposit assets with more value than their loan. When the collateralization ratio (value of collateral / value of the loan) falls below a certain threshold, the collateral is liquidated and repaid to lenders. This setup is optimal for speculators who want to obtain leverage. But it also ensures that lenders don’t lose money when borrowers default.

I rather like Coindesk’s description of decentralised finance applications as being “money legos” that can be connected together to build new, sophisticated and (it has to be said) complex financial products to trade in the defi marketplaces.

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The Federal Reserve’s system that allows financial institutions to send money back and forth electronically went down for several hours Wednesday, but appeared to be coming back online later in the afternoon.

The “operational error,” as the Fed described it, impacted multiple services, including its pivotal automated clearinghouse system, which connects depository and related institutions sending electronic credit and debt transfers.

From The Fed’s system that allows banks to send money back and forth went down for several hours:

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Account Services, Central Bank, Check 21, Check Adjustments, FedACH, FedCash, FedLine Advantage, FedLine Command, FedLine Direct, FedLine Web, Fedwire Funds, Fedwire Securities and National Settlement.

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Facebook and Google are teaming up with Indian firms Infibeam and Reliance Industries on an application to set up a national digital payment network in the South Asian country, according to the Economic Times.

The Reserve Bank of India has invited companies to create new umbrella entities (NUEs) that build payments networks that offer an alternative to the bank-owned not-for-profit National Payments Council of India.

From Facebook and Google eye Indian digital payment network – Economic Times:

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Data portability gives users the right to access and transfer their data from the companies that hold it. Back-end interoperability would require very large companies—those that dominate a particular market segment—to maintain interfaces that allow their users to interact fluidly with users on other services. Finally, delegability would require those large companies to build interfaces that allow third-party software to interact with their services on a user’s behalf.

From Privacy Without Monopoly: Data Protection and Interoperability | Electronic Frontier Foundation:

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When performing any transaction, the e-zwich device (ATM or POS), will demand the verification of the cardholder by comparing the fingerprint presented on the device scanner to any of those stored on the card.

From e-zwich.

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In this episode, we talk to the award-winning Archie Hesse, CEO of GHIPSS. GHIPSS is a subsidiary of the Ghanaian Central Bank with a mission to re-engineer Ghana’s payments system. Its mandate was to make it simple for citizens to access banking, ensure banking was flexible to use and secure. GHIPSS has transformed Ghana’s underlying infrastructure, ensuring that the Ghanaian banking system is truly world-class, modern and future-focused.

From Dave and Dharm DeMystify: EPISODE 16: TRANSFORMING FINANCE IN GHANA WITH ARCHIE HESSE FROM GHIPSS on Apple Podcasts.

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When performing any transaction, the e-zwich device (ATM or POS), will demand the verification of the cardholder by comparing the fingerprint presented on the device scanner to any of those stored on the card.

From e-zwich.

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This refers to money transferred from one e-zwich cardholders card to another. Card to card money transfers can be completed either online or offline. When completed online, the money is immediately available to the recipient. Where communication network is unavailable, card to card transfers can still be partially completed offline. The transfer is completed when the e-zwich device settles its transactions to the switch.

From Merchant/Agents info.

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“The right to issue and control digital currencies will become a ‘new battlefield’ of competition between sovereign states,” read an article in China Finance, the magazine of the central bank, in September. “China has many advantages and opportunities in issuing fiat digital currencies, so it should accelerate to seize the first track.”

From China Charges Ahead With a National Digital Currency – The New York Times.

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Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak on Friday unveiled details behind a plan to allow private industry to develop technology “innovation zones” that would include new cities with their own government that would use a “stablecoin” as its cryptocurrency

From Nevada Governor Lays Out Plans for a City Built on Blockchain – WSJ:

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Stripe is the real looming threat. In December, it launched Stripe Treasury with partners including Goldman Sachs and Evolve Bank & Trust as U.S. partners, and Citibank and Barclays globally, through which customers can create bank accounts, cards, ACH, wire transfer and bill pay. It already had a card-issuing service, and many fintech executives and investors believe Stripe will continue moving aggressively into banking-as-a-service.

“The 600-pound gorilla is Stripe,” Konduru said. “Everyone is waiting to see how their Treasury product develops.”

From Banking-as-a-service is a boon to fintech – Protocol — The people, power and politics of tech:

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The rare condition likely afflicting the Sarker family is called Adermatoglyphia. It first became widely known in 2007 when Peter Itin, a Swiss dermatologist, was contacted by a woman in the country in her late twenties who was having trouble entering the US. Her face matched the photograph on her passport, but customs officers were not able to record any fingerprints. Because she didn’t have any.
Upon examination, Professor Itin found the woman and eight members of her family had the same strange condition – flat finger pads and a reduced number of sweat glands in the hands. Working with another dermatologist, Eli Sprecher, and graduate student Janna Nousbeck, Professor Itin looked at the DNA of 16 members of the family – seven with fingerprints and nine without.
“Isolated cases are very rare, and no more than a few families are documented,” Prof Itin told the BBC.
In 2011, the team homed in on one gene, SMARCAD1, which was mutated in the nine printless family members, identifying it as the cause of the rare disease. Virtually nothing was known about the gene at the time. The mutation appeared to cause no other ill-health effects apart from the effects on the hands.

From The family with no fingerprints – BBC News:

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