A library of snippets
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When you used a verifiable credential to prove something about yourself, the verifier can know cryptographically: (1) the identifiers for the issuer, (2) the credential hasn’t been tampered with, (3) the credential was issued to you, and (4) the credential hasn’t been revoked. These four checks are important because their establish the fidelity of the data being transferred. They don’t, however, tell them whether they can trust the issuer.
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The Chinese generative AI model “DeepSeek”identifies itself as ChatGPT (!) because, presumably, it was trained using a ot of output from ChatGPT, output which woul dof course have contained hallucinations. Oh dear. As Mike Cook (a research fellow at King’s College London specializing in AI) has pointed out, the practice of training models on outputs from rival AI systems can be “very bad” for model quality. He likens the process of taking photocopies of photocopies, lose more and more information each time and severing the connection to reality,.
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In short, participation is not a verdict on crypto, but rather offers a glimpse into how investment banks weigh the three Rs of deal selection: risk, reward and reputation.
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There remains an unwritten code of respectability in banking. Certain businesses — such as adult entertainment — are shunned, even if perfectly legal. Cannabis companies, too, have struggled to convince big-name banks to underwrite their offerings. The reluctance isn’t rooted in moral outrage; it’s pure optics. Bankers know that certain businesses invite more public heat than they’re worth.
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But risk alone doesn’t dictate behaviour. Fees matter. And in bitcoin capital markets, they are now substantial. More than $13bn of crypto-related convertibles have been issued in 2024, with most coming in the last quarter, according to IFR data. This translates into a fee pool that I estimate to be at least $200mm. And MicroStrategy’s $21bn equity offering is paying fees of 2 per cent to the banks handling the sales. That kind of potential revenue makes reputational reservations feel like a luxury.
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A massive data leak involving over 800,000 Volkswagen electric vehicles (EVs) has left sensitive user information, including location data and personal contact details, unprotected on the internet. The data breach, which remained unnoticed by VW for months, involved precise GPS data and personal information linked to owners of VW, Audi, Seat, and Škoda vehicles.
From: Massive Volkswagen Data Leak Exposes 800,000 EV Users.
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‘Bank Transfer by Worldline’ has been operating in pilot mode during the last nine months and is now integrated into around 500 of Worldline’s existing merchants’ online payment services and pay-by-link services.
Covering both online and invoice payments, the product features low-code integration, rapid settlement notifications, hassle-free refunds, and consolidated payout, reporting, and reconciliation for both domestic and cross-border transactions.
The launch takes in Austria, Belgium, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Slovenia and Spain, with Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary set to come onstream later this year.
From: Worldline moves into account-to-account payment market.
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Several factors, however, make it harder to create agents than chatbots. One is data. Unlike chatbots, which scrape information from the web to answer questions, agents require data on the way tasks are performed, including the sequencing of actions and the reasoning behind them. For routine tasks, such as processing a customer order, that may be straightforward. In many cases, though, it will be difficult to find sufficient data to train the tool.
A second problem is trust. Checking whether a chatbot has given a right or wrong answer is usually easy. Determining whether an ai agent has booked the best restaurant or holiday it could within your budget may be more difficult. Google deliberately prevents Mariner from spending money in case it garbles the decision. Users may also balk at providing ai agents with sensitive information about, say, their purchase history, which may be required for the tools to function properly.
A final problem is cost. In order to reason, plan and solve problems on behalf of users, ai agents need access to models that can handle complex tasks. They also require low latency and the ability to interact with other tools such as a web browser, as well as plenty of memory to provide a service tailored to the user. All that is tricky and expensive to build, and requires lots of computing power to run.From: What do the gods of generative AI have in store for 2025?.
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As “Stranger Things” attests, a generation of storytellers who grew up playing d&d are coming of age. David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the creators of the tv adaptation of “Game of Thrones”, both played d&d as teenagers; Jon Favreau, director of “Iron Man” and creator of Disney’s “The Mandalorian”, has also attributed his creative chops to the game. “People learn something about how to administer fantastic worlds and shepherd characters through them from playing this game,” says Mr Peterson, the game historian.
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Since its invention 50 years ago, d&d has been seen as a niche, geeky pastime. But recently the game has made the jump from nerd culture to popular culture. It has been adapted into a Hollywood film and a video game. The movie, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves”, grossed more than $200m. “Baldur’s Gate 3”—the bestselling game of 2023 on Steam, a pc gaming platform—made an estimated $660m. According to Wizards of the Coast, the firm behind d&d, the game has more than doubled its fan base in the past five years, from 40m to 85m globally.
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