Snippings

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It was almost inevitable that taking away two key adjustment mechanisms, the interest and exchange rates, without putting anything else in their place, would make macro adjustment difficult.

From A split euro is the solution for Europe’s single currency – FT.com

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It is important that there can be a smooth transition out of the euro, with an amicable divorce, possibly moving to a “flexible-euro” system, with say a strong Northern Euro and softer southern euro

From A split euro is the solution for Europe’s single currency – FT.com

Who am I to argue with a Nobel prize-winning economist and former chief economist of the World Bank? So let’s take it as read that he right about this. I say let’s do: create the Northern Euro (the Anglo) and the Southern Euro (the Latino) as hard e-currencies. There’s no need to ever bother minting coins or printing banknotes.

But one thing that immediately springs to mind is: why stop there? Stieglitz talks about the digital economy enabled by modern technology, about “electronic trade tokens”. 

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Announced today, a group of international bitcoin companies have signed a letter of intent to form a federation that would find them supporting and contributing to the development of a smart contracts platform that would utilize the bitcoin blockchain.

Unveiled today, the RSK Federation is built around the RSK smart contract network created by Buenos Aires-based startup Rootstock.

From Bitcoin Smart Contract ‘Federation’ to Launch With 25 Startups – CoinDesk

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Commissioner Chris Giancarlo of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission said he doesn’t personally have a view on the open or closed evolution of blockchain. As a regulating body, the CFTC would seek to be a participant on the blockchain with a node that would allow it to see all transactions whether they’re closed or open.

From Banks’ Privacy Concerns Shaping Blockchain Vendors’ Strategies | American Banker

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The anonymity problem can in part be solved by retaining smaller notes and coins; enough for punters to keep buying porn, weed and birthday presents, but not so much as to buy property. The point about financial exclusion is trickier. In a near-cashless world vulnerable groups, such as the poor, the elderly and migrants, could become further marginalised, and those who are especially cash-dependent for income, such as churches, charities and the homeless, could expect to see a drop in their incomes.

From The Economist explains: Why some economists want to get rid of cash | The Economist

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“Today’s AML regime was mainly developed in the 1990s, and while it does recognise digital identity, the way that many firms have put it into practice can make it feel paper-based,” admitted [FCA Director of Strategy and Competition] Mr Woolard.

From FCA seeks to use ‘regtech’ to lessen reporting burden – FTAdviser.com

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arly on a sunlit summer’s morning in Japan, with the last cherry blossoms fading and the wisteria in bloom, more than 100 fraudsters strolled into convenience stores all around the country.

With fake credit cards cloned from the information of 1 600 South Africa Standard Bank customers, they made 14 000 transactions, drawing in total the equivalent of R300-million in Japanese yen from 1 400 ATMs in just three hours, between 5.00am and 8.00am local time.

The authorities, the bank and its customers in South Africa, still asleep, were none the wiser. The thieves had probably already skipped the country with the small fortune in yen, the most tradable currency in the world after the US dollar.

It was only a week later that a Japanese paper, Mainichi, reported on the theft, citing investigative sources. On Monday, Standard Bank confirmed it had been the victim of a sophisticated, co-ordinated fraud.

The bank said it had incurred a total R300-million loss,

From Standard Bank scam: R300-million ATM heist ups the ante | Business | Africa (Business) | M&G

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o discourage ticket scalping, event organizers ReedPOP required fans to authenticate themselves online before ticket sales began. Would-be buyers were asked to put down a number of credentials — including phone numbers, addresses, and credit card information — in what was dubbed the “fan verification process.”

From Comic Con Controversy Highlights Digital ID Opportunity for Banks | American Banker

This is precisely the sort of nonsense that perpetuates in the absence of a working digital infrastructure.

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In order to engage with our customers, ENOC in partnership with Beam, has rolled out Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons at our service stations to enable payment for fuel and convenience store transactions, allowing consumers to pay through their mobile phones,”

From Beam Wallet and MasterCard team up to offer an innovative and rewarding mobile payment experience in the UAE | Global Hub

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This is what I said about it back in 2008.

Some time ago, I pointed out that sensible retailers would use ID cards to cut payment schemes out of the transaction loop, by using ID cards as payment tokens and using the ACH network rather than Visa or MasterCard

From Digital Identity: I’m sure banks have a strategy for this kind of thing

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There’s now some evidence that police cameras reduce complaints and violence, which has led to editorial boards calling for more cameras on officers and some civil libertarians calling for every officer to wear a lapel cam while on duty.

From The ‘right to record’ is not a question of technology, but rather power and policy – TechRepublic

Note, however, that 

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Surprisingly, we found that the use of wearable video cameras is associated with a 3.64% increase in shooting-deaths of civilians by the police. We explain that video recordings collected during a violent encounter with a civilian can be used in favor of a police officer as evidence that justifies the shooting.

From Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths – Law Blog – WSJ

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The paper also looked at the use of smartphones and in-vehicle laptops that allow police officers to obtain crime data and suspect information on the fly. In contrast to their findings on body cameras, “smartphone use by officers is also associated with a 2.46% reduction in the shooting-deaths of civilians,” the study said.

From Study Links Police Bodycams to Increase in Shooting Deaths – Law Blog – WSJ

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