Snippings

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Yes, we pay a credit-card fee on every transaction, but removing the mental anguish of having to deal with cash makes it more than worth it.

[From

Tribeca Citizen | Tribeca’s First No-Cash Restaurant

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in Massachusetts. A state law on the books since 1978 states that no retailer “shall discriminate against a cash buyer by requiring the use of credit.”

[From

No cash allowed: Stores refusing to accept money – The Boston Globe

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Stores don’t have to accept paper money. Despite the greenback’s apparent claim, the right for a store to refuse cash is supported both by the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve.

[From

If cash is king, how can stores refuse to take your dollars?

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1. The terminal sends a random number to the EMV chip along with the total dollar value of the transaction, if it is known. The trick here is that the total value is often unknown so early in the checkout process. So to enable the chip card to be removed from the point-of-sale (POS) terminal, the POS provides the chip a “predetermined amount” for that merchant, which is typically the same value for all payment networks. The EMV chip, using the predetermined amount, encrypts the authorization request using its crypto key and delivers this ARQC message to the POS.

2. The POS holds on to that ARQC message and indicates to the EMV chip that this transaction will be conducted as a “deferred authorization.” The EMV chip card can now be removed from the POS. The POS terminal retains the ARQC message until the checkout process has determined the total dollar value of the transaction. At that time the POS constructs an authorization message that includes the ARQC crypto-encoded message (added to Field 55), the final correct dollar value into the non-chip data field (Field 4), as well as all other required data elements. This message is sent to the issuing bank.

[From

A New Specification Enables a Fast Dip for EMV and Speeds EMV Certification. Here’s How. – PaymentsJournal

]

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Over the years, nonbanks have had surprisingly little difficulty replicating basic bank services.

From ‘Banking Is Necessary–Banks Are Not’ Why has banking become less and less important to America? Let us count the ways. – May 11, 1998

That’s from almost two decades ago. It was clear then that banks had only the regulatory moat to defend their 

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Most importantly, over half of WeChat users have been persuaded to link their bank cards to the app. That is a notable achievement given that China’s is a distrustful society and the internet is a free-for-all of cybercrime, malware and scams. Yet using its trusted brand, and putting to work robust identity and password authentication, Tencent was able to win over the public.

From WeChat’s world | The Economist

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Here’s another one of this elite milestones that don’t seem much at the time, but when you look back on it from the future it will be seen in retrospect as a key moment.

We’re excited to announce TransferWise’s integration into the UK’s Faster Payments Service (FPS) as technical partner to Raphaels Bank… The integration has been made possible by the Faster Payment Scheme Limited’s (FPSL) New Access Model.

From TransferWise the first tech company with direct access to UK Faster Payments Service – TransferWise

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The American chip and PIN rollout seems to be pottering along nicely. Whereas in England, for example, you pay at gas pumps by inserting a chip card and entering your PIN, or in certain technologically-sophisticated parts of the country (e.g., Addlestone) by using your Shell mobile app, and despite it being several years since to my certain memory my colleagues at Consult Hyperion had a Dresser Wayne pump control with a contactless interface down at CHYP End, in Texas you pay using a trivially-counterfeitable magnetic stripe card. Naturally, freelance card data entrepreneurs know which they prefer.

At least five Exxon stations in the North Dallas area recently have been targeted by tech-savvy criminals who installed Bluetooth-equipped skimming machines on gas pumps, authorities told Fox 4 News… To avoid becoming a victim, police told Fox 4 News that it is advised to pay inside and use cash when possible.

From Criminals using Bluetooth to steal credit card info at gas stations, police warn | Fox News

There you go. In 2016, the official police advice for dealing with card fraud is… use cash instead.

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But it’s biggest problem are those trolls. They’re winning. Too often Twitter’s users are subject to pernicious streams of abuse and harassment. This dissuades new users from wanting to sign up, drives formerly loyal tweeters to close their accounts, and gives advertisers pause as they consider where to place their brand dollars.

From Stopping Trolls Is Now Life and Death for Twitter — Backchannel

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The 1,000-year-old practice of recording laws on goat and calf skin may be saved, after the House of Lords said it would consider an offer from the Cabinet Office to pay the costs of carrying on the tradition.

From Tradition of recording UK laws on vellum may be saved | Politics | The Guardian

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