Snippings

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The number of AIS users each month climbed from 5.7m in September 2024 to 7.6m in September 2025 a 32% increase. I forecast 8.1m users in December this year and 10.9m at the end of next year.

From: Push it – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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Today, Brave Leo offers a new capability for cryptographically-verifiable privacy and transparency by deploying LLMs with NEAR AI Nvidia-backed Trusted Execution Environments (aka “TEEs”, see “Know more about TEEs” section below for details).

From: Verifiable Privacy and Transparency: A new frontier for Brave AI privacy | Brave.

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Brave uses NEAR AI TEE-enabled Nvidia GPUs to ensure confidentiality and integrity by creating secure enclaves where data and code are processed with encryption.

These TEEs produce a cryptographic attestation report that includes measurements (hashes) of the loaded model and execution code.

Chip manufacturers have enabled TEEs on CPUs (traditionally) and GPUs (recently). The combination of TEE-enabled CPUs (e.g., Intel TDX) and TEE-enabled GPUs (e.g., Nvidia Hopper) enables end-to-end confidentiality, and integrity-preserving computation of LLM inference with minimal performance penalty.

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There’s a new song doing the rounds, and in the immortal words of Kylie Minogue, you just can’t get it out of your head.
But what if it was created by a robot, or the artist themself is a product of artificial intelligence (AI)? Do streaming sites have an obligation to label music as AI-generated? And does it even matter, if you like what you hear?
A survey published last week suggested 97% of respondents could not spot an AI-generated song.

From: How can you tell if music is AI-generated?.

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Japan now produces more nappies for incontinent adults than for infants.

From: David Runciman · Are we doomed? The End of the Species.

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Charles Manus, Co-Founder of ClearBank

Hence, the evolution toward digital money represents not merely a transformation in how payments are made, but a seismic shift in the very infrastructure of our financial systems. Misconceptions about digital money, regulatory ambiguity and technological fragmentation threaten to delay its progress, yet the possibilities are too significant to ignore. Tokenisation is already redefining asset classes, turning traditional investments into liquid, 24/7 accessible instruments. Institutions such as BlackRock and central banks are paving the way, but the true potential lies in collaboration – across governments, financial entities, regulators and technology providers.

From: Why do we need digital money? – by Jonny Fry.

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The Real Estate Registry (RER), under the supervision of the Real Estate General Authority (REGA), has officially launched the Kingdom’s national infrastructure for property tokenization and digital ownership transfer, marking a historic milestone in the modernization of Saudi Arabia’s real estate sector and its alignment with the goals of Vision 2030.

From: Kingdom of Saudi Arabia launches national real estate tokenization infrastructure: a global first.

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Still, the push for stablecoin cards could present a threat to banks, which play less of a role and get less money from stablecoin-based transactions than they do from traditional debit card payments. Merchants pay the same fees they normally do, but they like stablecoin transactions because the money arrives faster.

For Visa and Mastercard, “where stablecoins really matter is it changes the post-transaction plumbing more than anything else,” something consumers aren’t aware of, said James Wester, co-head of payments at Javelin Strategy.

From: Visa and Mastercard Are Moving Fast Into Stablecoins — The Information.

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“We are considering options like a digitally enabled physical alternative for those without access to technology, as well as in-person onboarding support for those who struggle to engage digitally,” he said. “This may include Post Offices but that decision has not yet been made and will depend on several different factors.”

From: Government ‘considering physical alternatives’ for those unable access digital ID – PublicTechnology.

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Apple today announced the launch of Digital ID, a new way for users to create an ID in Apple Wallet using information from their U.S. passport, and present it with the security and privacy of iPhone or Apple Watch. At launch, Digital ID acceptance will roll out first in beta at TSA checkpoints at more than 250 airports in the U.S. for in-person identity verification during domestic travel, with additional Digital ID acceptance use cases to come in the future.
Digital ID gives more people a way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet even if they do not have a REAL ID-compliant driver’s license or state ID. Digital ID is not a replacement for a physical passport, and cannot be used for international travel and border crossing in lieu of a U.S. passport.

From: Apple introduces Digital ID, a new way to create and present an ID in Apple Wallet – Apple.

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Three Core Functions in the National Payment System
According to the BSPI 2030 document, Payment ID serves three main roles:

As a key identifier of actors in the payment system,

As a means of transaction data authentication, and

As a granular link between individual profiles and financial activity.

With the launch of Payment ID, Bank Indonesia aims to create a national payment system that is more efficient, transparent, inclusive, and trusted reinforcing the nation’s digital financial infrastructure for the future.

Based on the National Identity Number (NIK), this system enables full integration and transparency of individual financial activities, ranging from bank accounts to digital loans. In addition to simplifying credit applications and financial assessments, Payment ID also strengthens privacy protection through a user consent mechanism. This initiative serves as a foundation for building a safer, more inclusive, and more efficient digital financial ecosystem in Indonesia.

From: Bank Indonesia Launches Payment ID to Integrate and Detect Financial Profiles Starting August 2025 – Intimedia.

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