Snippets

Now, of course, when techno-determinist mirrorshaded hypester commentators (eg, me) say that the future of money might be somewhat different to the Bretton Woods II structure and that perhaps the decentralising nature of computer, communications and cryptographic (CCC) together mean that there might be currency issuers other than central banks (as, for example, I did in Wired magazine two decades ago), this might be dismissed by scenario planners and strategists as cypherpunk-addled babble. It seems to me, however, that the reflections of sensible, knowledgable and powerful players is tending int the same direction. Mark Carney, governor of the Bank of England, recently gave a speech at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in which he said that [ Central Banking ] a form of global digital currency could be "the answer to the destabilising dominance of the US dollar in today’s global monetary system”. Wow. Mr. Carney went on to talk about the idea of “synthetic hegemonic currency” (abbreviate...

xxx "HSBC UK customers can request a national sort code that cannot be traced to a particular bank branch, if they are concerned an abuser could use these details to find out their location." From "'The bank sent my safe house address to my abusive ex' - BBC News" . xxx

xxx "To understand this let’s take an analogy. Imagine that SCA in face to face commerce had been mandated on banks, but no technological solution was provided. Instead of chip and PIN each bank created its own solution such that every time a consumer approached a PoS device the authentication method they used would be dependent on which bank they chose to interact with. Can we imagine the confusion on adoption day? But this is, in essence, the experience that has been regulated into existence with PSD2 in on-line commerce. The problem is even worse for third-parties trying to build a business using the PSD2 APIs – because in the middle of their smooth, optimised customer journey their customers are redirected to a bank SCA experience which can vary dramatically in terms of friction and user experience. To solve this the regulators need to take a step back, temporarily drop anti-competition laws and insist that banks come up with a minimum standard for SCA in online commerce, s...

xxx "To address the leakage, Russia built two huge data centres and legislated so that companies had to submit every invoice between businesses. It also mandated every retailer to buy new cash registers that were linked securely and directly to the data centres." From "Russia’s role in producing the taxman of the future | Financial Times" . xxx

xxx "Apple’s VP of Apple Pay Jennifer Bailey today announced a new NFC feature for iPhone: special tags that trigger Apple Pay purchases when tapped" From "Apple announces support for Apple Pay NFC stickers, partners with Bird scooters and more - 9to5Mac" . Alternative to QR coes

xxx "‘It’s easier to order there,’ she motioned to self-ordering kiosks that accept credit cards." From "Cashless SF stores now must take cash: ‘They’re not making it easy’ - SFChronicle.com" . xxx

xxx "Brick-and-mortar businesses, a.k.a. 'any place of business operating at a fixed, permanent physical premises,' must accept cash in San Francisco. They may not charge a fee or place any other conditions on its acceptance of cash." From "SF 'Cashless Ban' FAQ: How to pay cash at Amazon Go, and more questions answered - SFGate" . xxx