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Over time, tech firms will build a more complete social and economic system, competing more aggressively with the state and further diminishing its ability to deliver material assistance to its citizenry. They are already attempting to end the state’s monopoly on issuing currency. In the present moment of state profligacy, cryptocurrency evangelists are urging investors to flee national currencies for the security of what they propagandistically call “decentralized finance” (the aggressive tenor of the abbreviation—“DeFi”—is not accidental). Apple and Google already offer banking services, while Facebook’s embryonic currency, the libra, could provide a means of exchange for two billion Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp users. (WeChat Pay and Alipay already perform this function for China’s private online societies.)

From [Essay] The Silenced Majority, By Rana Dasgupta | Harper’s Magazine:

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And over a hundred years later, Edward Prescott delved into the topic, too. In a 1999 paper (which mentions the Cheque Bank), Prescott discusses the idea of opening up an inexpensive type of bank account called an Electronic Transfer Account (ETA) so that all Americans, particularly the unbanked, might receive Federal benefit payments digitally. (Prescott was skeptical that ETAs might work out. The program, introduced in 1999, was discontinued in 2018 and has been replaced with a prepaid debit card program.)

From Moneyness: The unbanked, the post office, and fintech in the 1880s:

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So that lays out the cast of characters in 1880. It includes exclusionary banks, hoards of unbanked, a set of opposed economists in Jevons and Fawcett, fintechs like the Cheque Bank, and a post office on the verge of issuing a novel product; postal orders.

2020 seems very much like 1880. To help connect the large population of American unbanked to the financial system, a number of modern day Fawcetts (Morgan Ricks, Mehrsa Baradaran, Rohan Grey) have floated public payments solutions including a return of postal banking, central bank digital currency (CBDC), or central bank-accounts-for-all.

From Moneyness: The unbanked, the post office, and fintech in the 1880s:

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Chairman of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) Naci Ağbal, found a significant statement about digital coins. Ağbal stated that it is an R&D project initiated by the CBRT and that they are working on it. Ağbal announced that they will organize a test study for digital money.

Digital money good news came from Ağbal 
Speaking at the TBMM Plan and Budget Committee, Ağbal made a digital money statement following the questions directed to him. In the continuation of his announcement Ağbal gave the good news that pilot tests for digital money will begin in the second half of 2021.

“There is an R&D project initiated on digital money. Currently, the conceptual phase of this project has been completed. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021. “

From Digital Money Statement by CBRT Governor Naci Ağbal: “We Aim to Start in 2021” | Coin Bulletin:

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Chairman of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) Naci Ağbal, found a significant statement about digital coins. Ağbal stated that it is an R&D project initiated by the CBRT and that they are working on it. Ağbal announced that they will organize a test study for digital money.

Digital money good news came from Ağbal 
Speaking at the TBMM Plan and Budget Committee, Ağbal made a digital money statement following the questions directed to him. In the continuation of his announcement Ağbal gave the good news that pilot tests for digital money will begin in the second half of 2021.

“There is an R&D project initiated on digital money. Currently, the conceptual phase of this project has been completed. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021. We aim to start pilot tests in the second half of 2021. “

From Digital Money Statement by CBRT Governor Naci Ağbal: “We Aim to Start in 2021” | Coin Bulletin:

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Meanwhile, banks simply don’t fully appreciate the value of their payments data. Their approach to the massive amounts of data they hold remains disjointed. Payments data is sprawled across the organization in marketing, loyalty, fraud and credit risk silos.

From Banks Can Compete Effectively with Big Tech in the New Smart Financial Ecosystem | PaymentsJournal:

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The US Treasury has for years expressed worry about the potential decline of the dollar’s dominance following excessive use of blocking sanctions.

From 2020 letter | Dan Wang.

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The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced the launch of iAM Smart (internet Access by Mobile in a Smart way), a digital identity service that enables users to leverage the biometrics in their smartphone to act as proof of identity for all types of digital services including financial firms. A website has been created to explain the service to Hong Kong residents. iAM Smart is available for download as an App.

From Hong Kong Monetary Authority Launches Digital ID Service iAM Smart, Calls Service Key Milestone in Fintech Development.

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From a fraud perspective, we are seeing two things:

First-party fraud. Each business was supposed to only be able to make one bounce back application, but there are no controls to restrict a business to one application. There are businesses that have applied 3, 4, 5 times, so they are getting multipliers on the £50K or 25% of annual turnover they’re supposed to get. Some business owners may be ready to cash out and could have received 5 loans for 125% turnover.
Impersonations. I could pretend to be a director of your company and start making applications for loans on your company. You might not even find out that this has happened until you need to start paying next spring. Fraudsters will try to put mail redirection on businesses, so that people at the company won’t get the mail confirming the loan. But in fact, as we’re in lockdown, those bounce back loan confirmations may be sitting in vacant offices. When people get back to their offices, they might find a bounce back loan letter. That means there’s a big balloon potential for fraud next spring when the payments start coming due.
The program was a great success,

From Bounce Back Loan Fraud – What Should The Uk Do? | FICO:

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Today, the frontrunners are just bots. Tomorrow, it will be miners.
Miners today leave money on the table by not acting on these opportunities. In the future, they will reorder and submit transactions in their mempools for their benefit.

From Ethereum is a Dark Forest. A horror story. | by Dan Robinson | Medium:

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