Snippings

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Smart contracts are not “smart”, as they are merely computer codes that execute tasks upon the fulfilment of preconditions, in which the preconditions pertaining to the terms of the contract may be inputted by humans (Mik, 2017; Grimmelmann, 2019); the smart contract cannot “think for itself” so to speak. The inclusion of the term “contract” in smart contract is also misleading, since smart contracts are not contracts in the legal sense (Bacon et al, 2018). Finally, the term “smart contract” is also somewhat redundant, as the term is used to bring across a concept which is analogous to that of “programmability”. Indeed, the notion of programmability and thus programmable means of payments/payments is not something that is necessarily exclusive to the crypto-verse or crypto-verse technologies/innovations. In other words, the notion that “programmability” is synonymous with forms of DLT is misguided.

From: SUERF – The European Money and Finance Forum.

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AI enhances risk assessment by using predictive analytics to foresee potential financial threats. These insights can help in proactive planning, allowing financial regulators to better shield the system from unforeseen risks. With AI’s capability to analyse large datasets quickly, risk modelling becomes more precise and timely. The Atlanta Fed published an interesting perspective AI’s role in future risk evaluation and management and it seems to me that, rather as computers seem to be better at driving cars than people are, they may be better than people at minimising systemic risks.

Maria Lucia Passador — Department of Law, Bocconi University; Harvard Law School and European Banking Institute — wrote a paper about this called “AI in the Vault: AI Act’s Impact on Financial Regulation” in which she advances that view that AI haas the potential to improve banking supervision by enhancing the efficiency, effectiveness and consistency of practices and tools. Across a rapdily evolving financial landscape, AI can overcome some of the challenges to, and constraints of, the existing supervisory framework by streamlining processes such as data collection, analysis, and reporting. Furthermore, AI can enhance the effectiveness of supervision by improving the quality of risk assessment and monitoring helping to proactively detect (and, hopefully, prevent) risks and misconduct.

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Across all scam types reported by Barclays customers, the majority – 75 per cent – originated on social media and tech platforms.

From: One-in-five consumers lost money to scammers in 2024.

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The issue of digital credentials, which I see as being central to the evolution of fintech, is not solely about improving interactions in the online economy. It is also about trust and accountability throughout society. He is an example to show what I mean: the BBC report the sad story of woman who is suffering after botched aesthetic facial work carried out by an unqualifed person. It should be easy, in a world of smartphones and digital signatures, for people to check anyone’s professional qualifications.

The unfortunate woman was quoted saying that she did “all the right things” to check the reputation of the clinic, which on it’s website reported that it had won “Best Aesthetics Clinic in Yorkshire” at the England Business Awards in 2022. The person who administered the treatment was certainly a doctor, but unfortunately his doctorate is an honorary one. And it’s in business consultancy and he bought it online.

 

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But the gallery’s owner has revealed how her livelihood and reputation were ‘ruined’ after the Pierce Brosnan with whom she spent months negotiating the exhibition of a lifetime turned out not to be the Bond star but a ‘deepfake’.

Simone Simms has spoken for the first time about how she fell for the elaborate artificial intelligence (AI) scam which resulted in her losing her £30,000 Long Eaton gallery.

From: Revealed: The sinister story of how an AI deepfake of 007 star Pierce Brosnan has left an art gallery owner’s world in tatters | Daily Mail Online.

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A tenant, who stole the identity of a woman called ‘Poonam Grover’, then paid a deposit and was able to pass the reference report with a forged driver’s licence.

From: I watched in horror as my tenant from hell sublet my flat on Airbnb before turning it into party pad and stealing my furniture… police said I had a ‘clear’ case but STILL took no action | Daily Mail Online.

This sort of nonsense goes on all the time. Showing a fake driving licence to someone who has no idea how to check whether a driving licence is real or not is a form of security theatre, not actual security.

 

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A 61-year-old woman has been arrested after allegedly dressing up in a series of wigs and disguises to take Life in the UK tests on behalf of others.
Immigration enforcement investigators arrested the woman at an address in Enfield on Monday on suspicion of fraudulently completing the citizenship tests for at least 14 applicants, both male and female.
She is alleged to have completed the tests across multiple test centres in the UK, disguising herself and doctoring ID documents to evade detection.

From: Enfield: Woman held for taking Life in the UK tests ‘in disguise’ – BBC News.

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Even if the stablecoins are in USD for now, retailers and sellers in these continents will be more than happy to accept USD stablecoins if it is easy to do so and without needing to open a USD bank account, especially if it exposes their online businesses to a global customer base.

From: Stablecoin to Heaven – by Jeremy Light – Agenda: Payments.

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The recent announcement by Stripe to create a payment SDK for AI agents joins similar moves by Coinbase, Circle, and soon OpenAI and Perplexity, signaling a growing wave of interest in combining AI agents with payments. Fintechs, AI and crypto firms alike are diving into this space, betting that agents and payments could become a major category. But what exactly are agent payments, and why would agents need the ability to pay? And what challenges stand in the way of realizing this vision?

From: Why AI Agent Payments is the Next Big Category.

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The CFTC in 2023 barred Kalshi, a retail-focused futures market, from offering contracts that allowed investors to bet on congressional elections. A US judge lifted the ban after the company sued the agency.

“I have strong concern” around contracts related to elections, assassination, terrorism and gaming, Behnam said. As technology and high retail demand drive growth in these markets, “the line is going to be very blurred about what is legal, what’s illegal”.

From: US regulator warns of oversight ‘gap’ on cryptocurrencies.

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Global banks will cut as many as 200,000 jobs in the next three to five years as artificial intelligence encroaches on tasks currently carried out by human workers, according to a market survey conducted by Bloomberg Intelligence.

From: AI threatens as many as 200,000 jobs in global banks – Bloomberg.

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A standout achievement made possible by our proprietary speech tech was our recent deployment of AI-powered assistants to make payment reminder calls to customers with loans in early stage delinquency. In 3Q of 2024 they handled over 40% of such loans, delivering efficiency gains while maintaining conversations that most customers couldn’t distinguish from real humans.

From: Interview: TBC Bank’s Oliver Hughes on what makes Uzbekistan an exciting market – GlobalData.

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Tether has made a $775 million “strategic investment” in video platform Rumble which, given the backers of Rumble, might well signal something really new in the media space: stablecoin payments for content. This could create a platform for testing some of those new busines models and contribute to a mindset shift away from “free” media, perhaps even using “smart” “contracts” to automate conditional subscriptions, such as payment only after a certain amount of visits, or automatic membership if other conditions have been fulfilled. We find Noelle Acheson point about content providers paying each other, without going through payment hubs, especially interesting. New types of content bundlign and sharing could be just around the corner. Now put this functionality at the disposal of agents and we could be looking a wholly new business models that have been beyind speculation up until now.