A library of snippets
xxx
The article continues by noting that banks do not seem to be making as much of this interesting new technology as they might and that “what may prove to be more serious is the determination to cling to time-honoured procedures”. Well, yes indeed.
From: Editing “Ledgers and innovation in banking” – Substack.
xxx
xxx
Today at Google I/O 2026, we shared more about intelligent eyewear: glasses that deliver help in the moment without taking you out of it. There will be two types of intelligent eyewear: audio glasses that offer spoken help in your ear, and display glasses that show you the information you need, right when you need it. Both let you stay hands-free and heads up, and get you help from Gemini just by asking.
xxx
The Trump administration has just annouced that it is awarding $2 billion in grants to nine quantum-computing companies in deals that include U.S. government equity stakes, with $1 billion going to IBM. In other news, nearly one-third of all Bitcoin in circulation (worth over $469 billion at the time of writing) is vulnerable to theft if powerful quantum computers become a reality, according to research from blockchain analytics firm Glassnode.
xxx
“Perhaps there is an ulterior motive for putting those messages out; raising money or whatever,” Hassabis says. “From my point of view, from DeepMind and Google’s point of view, if engineers are becoming three or four times more productive, then we just [want to] do three or four times more stuff.”
xxx
xxx
The double-spending problem is quite a problem. It is a general problem, not only about money, and fundamental to digital property. You have to go to inordinate lengths to make sure that if I send you some data on the Internet the data is now yours and not mine. It is a very difficult problem, much more complicated than sending pictures of cats, but the good news is that it is a solved problem.
From: (3) Sending Money is harder than Sending Pictures of Cats.
xxx
In the US, median spending on security for C-level executives had already gone up 16% to a record $106,530 in 2024 with coverage going from a quarter of those executives to a third. Technology companies had the biggest growth in implementing security measures for executives, with a three-quarters jump in those receiving the benefits, and that was long before someone opened fire on Sam Altman’s house.
xxx
HUMAN Security’s April benchmark found ecommerce accounted for 38.20% of observed agentic traffic, while checkout and payment routes represented only 3.16% of agentic route interactions
From: The Agentic Commerce Frontier 📅 | April 27 – May 11 2026.
xxx
xxx
Only around 4% of recorded fraud offences were referred to police forces for investigation in the year ending March 2025, reflecting what the report describes as longstanding concerns over prioritisation and resources.
xxx
xxx
De Nederlandsche Bank will sign a major contract tomorrow with Schwarz Digits, the IT arm of Lidl owner Schwarz Group. DNB aims to reduce its dependence on American cloud companies. As a major Dutch organization, it is opting for a European partner, but how will this play out?
From: Dutch central bank chooses Lidl for European Cloud – Techzine Global.
xxx
xxx
The launch of the new in-app feature follows the introduction in April 2025 of a three‑stage warning letter process – under the Faster Payments Service framework. This was developed to address abusive payment references and the misuse of repeated low‑value payments to maintain unwanted contact and control.
From: Nationwide gives abuse survivors the power to block harmful payment messages.
xxx
Snippings