Snippets

xxx "The [HMRC Report] found widespread infiltration of government agencies, to obtain false identities and 'sensitive information'. From one company investigators found '20 potential internal fraud cases including [gang] members in government agencies', one intelligence summary said. Another said two Post Office employees seemed to be helping falsify documents, concluding: 'infiltration is widespread'." From "Gangsters with links to the 7/7 London bombings stole £8billion from British taxpayers | Daily Mail Online" . xxx

xxx "Russian police are searching for a plastic surgeon with 'fake qualifications' who left her patients 'disfigured,' say reports." From "Russian police hunt 'Frankenstein' plastic surgeon who 'left her patients disfigured' | Daily Mail Online" . xxx

I notice that in the considerable press comment concerning the possible introduction of a Facebook payment system and perhaps even a Facebook currency of some kind, commentators continually refer to a Facebook “stablecoin”. I am certain that they are wrong to use this term, because it does not mean what they think it means. I may well be facing a losing battle about this, but I am stickler for correct currency terminology. So. Stablecoin. What? In the Bank of England’s excellent “Bank Underground” blog, there was a post on this topic that said "The chances of a stablecoin keeping a stable price depends on its design. There are generally two designs of stablecoin: those backed by assets, and those that are unbacked or ‘algorithmic’”. They are right, of course, but I have slightly more granular classification of designs: Algorithmic Currencies, in which algorithms manage supply and demand to obtain stability of the digital currency. This is what a stable cryptocurrency is: si...

xxx I have no idea why my debit card has either a magnetic stripe or embossing, and it’s not clear to me why it has my name and bank account number on it either, and I don’t know why it has a signature strip on the back when I don’t want to use it for signature transactions under any circumstances. From Counterfeit card fraud in the US will fall, eventually | Consult Hyperion . xxx

xxx Why doesn’t my bank put a token in my Apple Pay that doesn’t disclose my name or any other personal information, a “stealth card” that I can use to buy adult services online using the new Safari in-browser Apple Pay experience? This would be a simple win-win: good for the merchants as it will remove CNP fraud and good for the customers as it will prevent the next Ashley-Madison catastrophe. Keep my real identity safe in the value, give me blank card to top shopping with – a simple use case that will test the viability of the concept. From Tired: Banks that store money. Wired: Banks that store identity | Consult Hyperion . xxx

Crazy Cards Six years  I said that " I have no idea why my debit card has either a magnetic stripe or embossing, and it’s not clear to me why it has my name and bank account number on it either, and I don’t know why it has a signature strip on the back when I don’t want to use it for signature transactions under any circumstances ”.  Then in 2014, I asked “ Why is there a magnetic stripe on my card at all? ” as I could not see even then why my debit card had a magnetic stripe on it and I had no intention of ever using my debit card (the subject of the discussion) in a POS terminal at all, let alone a POS in the USA where there was no chip. It’s all different now, of course, because the US has gone over to chip and PIN as well.   Putting numbers and signatures on cards helps criminals. There’s no need for it. A couple of years later, I asked in " Tired: Banks that store money. Wired: Banks that store identity ” why my bank didn’t put a token in my Apple Pay that doesn’t d...

xxx Know ID Workshop, Part 1: Will Robots Need Passports? from David Birch xxx Know ID Workshop, Part 2: Who Will Give Robots Passports? from David Birch xxx