Snippings

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Today, shell money has been replaced by the almighty US dollar for day-to-day transactions like grocery shopping. But for more conceptual exchanges, like rights or customs, stones remain a vital currency for Yap’s 11,000 residents.

From BBC – Travel – The tiny island with human-sized money.

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In the future, the most significant factor in the battle between challengers and incumbents will be technology, which is driving a fundamental transformation of financial services.

From Technology not size is key to banking success.

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As with Bitcoin, Zcash has transparent addresses (t-addresses) but gives users the option to hide the details of their transactions using private addresses (z-addresses).

From “The pool’s run dry” – analyzing anonymity in Zcash – Bentham’s Gaze.

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Speaking at the Tomorrow’s Transactions conference in London this week, Kelly Olson, director of the distributed ledger technology group at Intel, discussed ways it is possible to use a “secure enclave”, similar to what Apple uses for its Touch ID, to increase blockchain security.

From Intel Conducting Experiments to Massively Scale Blockchain – CoinDesk.

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Kelly was kind enough to mention Consult Hyperion’s work for Intel on this project. We couldn’t tell you about it before, because it was confidential until very recently, but I hope Kelly won’t mind me saying that Intel’s foresight in starting this project some time ago is impressive.

From There’s more than one way to skin a blockchain | Consult Hyperion.

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Figures from the Electoral Commission show there were just 28 allegations of impersonation in 2017 out of nearly 45 million votes in 2017 – or one case for every 1.6 million votes cast. Only one of these allegations resulted in a conviction.

From Thousands of voters turned away from polling stations in mandatory ID trials – Electoral Reform Society.

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Nigerian-born Omar was previously charged with dangerous driving, using a motor vehicle without third party insurance and driving without a licence.

At Westminster Magistrates’ Court today, another charge of possessing a false passport, driving license and a Public Carriage Office licence to prove his identify in order to get a private hire licence was added to the rap sheet.

From Uber driver ‘who ploughed into 11 people in South Kensington’ in court | Daily Mail Online.

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Wim Nauwelaerts, a lawyer with Sidley Austin in Brussels, says each country has enough discretion under GDPR that there could still be a lot of differences, forcing companies with operations across Europe to comply with multiple, potentially contradictory privacy regimes. “What was the purpose, then,” Nauwelaerts asks, “of having a GDPR in the first place?”

From It’ll Cost Billions for Companies to Comply With Europe’s New Data Law – Bloomberg.

 

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Consequently, rather than increasing competition, the nature of transaction costs implied by privacy regulation suggests that privacy regulation may be anti-competitive.”

It is quite likely, that, blinded by their hatred of the American-dominated tech world, EU lawmakers have elected to ignore this research.

From Dealing with the privacy paradox – Monday Note.

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The world’s 500 biggest corporations are on track to spend a total of $7.8 billion to comply with GDPR, according to consultants Ernst & Young.

From It’ll Cost Billions for Companies to Comply With Europe’s New Data Law – Bloomberg.

 

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As Anthony Jenkins (former CEO of Barclays) accurately predicted years ago, mobile phones are going to replace cards before they replace cash.

From Cardmaggeddon in China (and Canada) | Consult Hyperion.

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While credit card use was already declining thanks to technology like Apple Pay, Mr McQueen said even that will soon be replaced. He said Square’s Pay By Name system, which detects when a known mobile phone is in range, identifies the buyer, and displays his or her face on a screen so that the person behind the register can simply tap the picture to complete the transaction, was the way of the future. But he said mobiles would also be removed from the equation soon, in favour of biometric technology which will recognise our voices, fingerprints or retinas as we walk into a store, which will kickstart the automation process.

From Futurist Michael McQueen on everyday items that won’t exist soon.

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