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One result of this could be is that we see consumers starting to more and more use the Direct Debit system

From Frictionless Payments: Will they become a Mirage | David Parker | Pulse | LinkedIn

David is completely right to point out that SCA just doesn’t fly – it just doesn’t work in the modern world. But as it stands it means that you will have to re-authenticate when you get out of an Uber. There’s no concept in the legislation of the “cardholder was present” token-in-device options for payments. What the Commission wants, of course, is for you to opt out of the “proprietary” (i.e., American) card options and use the direct-to-account options instead.

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The transport secretary says that he wants all train companies to make available these Oyster-card style cards to commuters by the end of 2018

From Commuters to get smart cards to travel across country by 2018 and Network Rail to lose sole control of track network, Chris Grayling says

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The man, despite being twice ruled a threat to national security, has defeated repeated attempts to deport him by illegally keeping his true identity secret.

From Terror suspect dodges deportation by refusing to reveal his real identity for 23 years

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Interior Minister Aryeh Deri published a memorandum on Thursday recommending that all Israeli citizens be required to obtain a biometric identity card, with personal details stored on a digital database.

From Government plans mandatory biometric ID | The Times of Israel

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The government is concurrently working on developing a common mobile phone app that can be used by shopkeepers and merchants for receiving Aadhaar-enabled payments bypassing credit and debit cards, PIN and password.

From Govt plans Aadhaar-based app to replace debit, credit cards, PIN numbers – Livemint

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The BBA, which represents 200 banks managing £7 trillion in UK assets, wants MPs to “lower the threshold” for intelligence-sharing and make it easier for institutions to help each other spot criminal transactions.

From Bank chiefs demand new legal powers to help stop terrorists laundering money through London firms | London Evening Standard

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Forum friend Ian Grigg, who I always take very seriously indeed on any such topic, wrote about Corda on his blog and concluded with a powerful statement.

Bitcoin told the users it wanted an unstoppable currency – sure, works for a small group but not for the mass market. Ethereum told their users they need an unstoppable machine – which worked how spectacularly with the DAO? Not. What. We. Wanted.

Corda is the only game in town because it’s the only one that asked the users. It’s that simple.

From Financial Cryptography: Corda Day – a new force

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It seems to me, however, what Ian is pointing to as the greatest strength of their approach is also the greatest weakness. A staple feature of unimaginative management consultants presentations about innovation is some variation on the statement by Henry Ford that if you had asked users what they wanted, they would have asked for faster horses coupled with some variation on the statement by Steve jobs that it was pointless asking users what they wanted, you just have to show them. In the context of the disruptive innovation analysis that we have all is a fair criticism of our 3 to say that they have been caught between two stools. On the one hand, their members want them to solve for problems that they already have in a context that they understand. Hence they want quarter to, essentially, emulate the kind of database solution that they are familiar with, potentially with some cost savings and some improved performance. But the more I think about it, and I think about it a lot, my experiences working with senior management teams in a variety of industries to help them to develop their strategies towards the general class a shares latest technologies and the specific technology of the block chain is that this new technology will have an impact not by making marginal improvements to the way in which markets function at present but by stimulating the creation of, in these new kinds of markets, the control transparency of transactions will have the most impact. This is why keep going on and on about ambient accountability.

 

I think am coming round to the point of view that block chain is a ragtag, not a thin tech.

 

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In the UK, there have been robberies in which large quantities of gold and silver have been stolen from homes (here’s some I wrote about a few years ago)

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Why would anyone mess about with physical gold that you can drop, lose, have stolen etc. And I bet it’s hard to buy anything from Amazon with it. I’m more than happy for people to send me gold (you’re welcome to try the experiment) but generally speaking I’d prefer the dematerialised version sent to my Goldmoney account.

From Just popping out to get some gold | Consult Hyperion

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Even i

 

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A return to the gold standard may be impractical or even undesirable, but the idea of new technology monetising the store of value that is gold seems altogether a different proposition.

From There have been worse ideas, surely? | Consult Hyperion

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The Royal Mint and CME Group, the diverse derivatives marketplace, are collaborating on a “digitised gold offering” which will be traded on a blockchain – to be made available at some point in 2017. The blockchain-based gold product, called Royal Mint Gold (RMG) will transform the way traders and investors trade, execute and settle gold, said a statement.

From The Royal Mint and CME to launch digital gold on blockchain

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[The Mint] will issue RMG as a digital record of ownership for gold stored at its highly-secure on-site bullion vault storage facility. CME Group will develop, implement and operate the product’s digital trading platform.

From The Royal Mint and CME to launch digital gold on blockchain

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Douglas Jackson is the Chairman and Founder of e-gold, one of the very first attempts to create an alternative electronic currency based on gold.

From Douglas Jackson, e-gold | Consult Hyperion

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Social media users should be forced to reveal their real names so police can track down jilted lovers who post “revenge porn”, a peer has said.

[From Revenge porn: Peer says Twitter users must reveal real names – Telegraph]

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Police later discovered Ghani and Mahmood carried out the fraud after stealing three utility bills from Mr To’s mailbox.

From Stockport identity fraud victim’s £500k home put on market – BBC News

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