Very interesting guy. ED CATMULL CO-FOUNDER PIXAR ANIMATION STUDIOS

Stablecoins t.co/nkvmZqTVkH "Stablecoins are considered property for tax purposes, not money"

Governance in Payments | Noyes Payments Blog buff.ly/c4LtHfF Superb analysis from Tom. "Agentic commerce will be an early driver of a shift in governance, as a new party collapses the marketing funnel [and] payment risk tools like device ID atrophy completely "

A new age of the train buff.ly/dcryc4a n September 27 1825 a steam train crowded with excited passengers travelled 26 miles from Shildon via Darlington to Stockton in north-east England... the journey is recognised as the birth of the railway age,

Super-interesting post on open banking data (and beyond) by @dgwbirch.bsky.social dgwbirch.substack.com/p/open-banki...

Australia’s central bank threatens securities exchange intervention after outages buff.ly/0zg56Zi "Australia’s central bank may intervene directly at the Australian Securities Exchange... following an outage of its settlement system in December" Wasn't the blockchain supposed to fix this?

Goochelaar Huren? Chris Tyler - Goochelaar & Mindreader buff.ly/pRuwnmk Oh my god. This guy was AMAZING. Blew me away - and all of my friends at FIME last night - BOOK HIM!

New on the not-a-newsletter... Open Banking? We Need Open Everything! buff.ly/aA7M58S The not entirely unexpected news that Plaid have agreed to pay JPMC for customer data has implications across the fintech sector.

Your phone gets stolen. Your crypto may be next  buff.ly/pyncBVJ In the UK, one in four people aged 18 to 34 own crypto, according to a survey last year. Men are three times as likely to do so than women. The London thieves’ tactics seem to target this demographic "

are you high-agency or an NPC? buff.ly/wXp63SE "The opposite of an agent is an NPC or a 'non-player character'. This term, too, has roots in video games" Really? I was using the term "NPC" in Dungeons & Dragons 40 years ago!

Bonjour.

New on Forbes: The Google AP2 Payment Protocol Will Trigger Interesting Innovation buff.ly/ZMCuCS3 The Google AP2 announcement is another step towards an economy dominated by machine actors, with agents using smart wallets to pay other agents directly for the services they require.

EU to block Big Tech from new financial data sharing system buff.ly/eP3ovvD "the EU is going to limit consumer choice and entrench legacy players who already hold ‘gatekeeper’ power over customer data." Give BigTech API access to bank data but only if banks get API access to BigTech data.

Ade Edmonson is absolutely superb in “Alien Earth”. Just saying. #AlienEarth

This is really interesting if you are interested in this sort of thing (which I am). Contactless is evolving buff.ly/YCPl0vf "C-8 isn’t just about consolidation and cost saving. It’s a major upgrade in security and functionality." Gary knows what he's talking about.

Reflections on the Gartner Hype Cycle buff.ly/f6fRvG9 Good perspective on strategies around generative AI from Heather.

Russia revives barter trade to dodge Western sanctions buff.ly/trlEOzR "Chinese cars were traded for Russian wheat." Goodness me. Haven't these people ever heard of Bitcoin?

My back-on-the-train-again-but-hey-it’s-Friday jam open.spotify.com/track/4bTWoB...

Crédit Agricole first French bank to settle ‘cum cum’ tax fraud probe buff.ly/DsWnyDS Looks like the FT will need age verification soon as well.

Sliced Bread - Dough - The Future of Clothing - BBC Sounds buff.ly/2cKibbD Hey, the brilliant Tracey Follows is on my wireless. Cool.

ChatGPT developing age-verification system to identify under-18 users after teen death buff.ly/5OvyKk3 "Altman said… some users “in some cases or countries” may also be asked to provide ID to verify their age."

New on the not-a-newsletter: The Non-Human Resources Department buff.ly/TM1Aa9Q Personally, I suspect that the Non-Human Resources Department will find life much easier than the Human-Resources Department.

#Money2020 one of my favourite topics…

How chatbots are changing the internet buff.ly/t9FMVL5 "Verifying someone’s online identity is one of the hardest challenges of our time." Disagree. We have all the tools we need to do this, we just do not use them.

Popped in at #Money2020 in #Riyadh to listen to my pal Brett.

Stop talking about wealth taxes — make these reforms instead buff.ly/rTfNmFC "Replace it with a modest, broad-based land value tax assessed on site value, not buildings." YES.

New on Forbes: "The iPhone’s New Camera? Whatever. The iPhone’s New Wallet? Cool." buff.ly/lhxiytr At an event last week Apple released its new iPhone 17 series. But I do not really care about my phone’s form factor any more. What I care about is its wallet.

Check out AI Catapulse Intelligence buff.ly/YXx49ko "Our Mission: To provide UK business leaders with curated, strategic AI intelligence that cuts through the noise and delivers actionable insights for confident decision-making."

How loyalty programmes are keeping America’s airlines aloft buff.ly/E8K0jis This continues to fascinate me. What will happen when it is AI that is choosing which card to sue? Which miles to buy and when to redeem them?

Fraudster faked 'get out of jail' letter buff.ly/2KoZjNn "'Catch Me If You Can' conman who posed as a doctor to rent a £2million home escapes prison - by faking his own get-out-of-jail letter." When it comes to identity, authentication and authorisation, everything is broken. Everything.

Google admits the open web is in ‘rapid decline’ bit.ly/47H5UQh In a court filing... "harming publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue." Time to start thinking about micropayments again?

on.ft.com/3I6b7GR Stop talking about wealth taxes — make these reforms instead (this is by the excellent Dan Neidle - but I reckon there’s only a slim chance of sensible decisions like these)

AirPods Pro 3 buff.ly/0It1gEw "Charging case. Next-generation Ultra Wideband technology increases the distance of Precision Finding by 1.5x so you don’t lose track of your AirPods." #UtlraWideBand #UWB

From A2A to B2B buff.ly/Bm26eUd "Anyways, the critical point here is that bots will take over everything between accounts... Dave Birch picked up on this years ago" Thanks for the kind words Chris. I really do think there is a paradigm shift coming.

When Nike and Disney disappear, and a new GDPR right for citizens buff.ly/UNsySvP "Social media is our generation’s smoking." Although it generates less tax revenue.

The money must be going into a merchant account, should be easy for the Met to find them.

New on the not-a-newsletter... Retailer Stablecoins buff.ly/KotNucJ Whether they succeed in launching stablecoins or not, the fact remains that retailers may have a much bigger role in the future of fintech.

Will Payment Stablecoins Mean the End of State Money Transmitter Licensing? – FinTech and Blockchain Law Watch buff.ly/vcp6MVx "the ability of appropriately qualified non-banks to issue payment stablecoins in order to settle or redeem payments provides a powerful tool for fintechs"

A rebel-held Congolese city uses damaged banknotes due to a cash shortage buff.ly/50yZtO4 I am so fascinated by stories about money because many of them (such as this one) are really about identity, reputation and trust. Hat tip Noelle Acheson.

Wealthsimple data breach exposes customer information buff.ly/LVWz7OX "Contact details, government IDs, financial information such as account numbers, IP addresses, Social Insurance Numbers, and dates of birth were all exposed" But "No money was stolen" Phew! That's OK then.

Looks like there will be some new iPhones on Tuesday. I don't care about the cameras, I care about... iOS 26 Brings Digital IDs to Apple Wallet: Will This Push Adoption? buff.ly/hHURTnI "a secure, standards-based platform for verifying identity both online and in person."

Fear of Fraud Costs UK SMEs £6.15billion in Lost Sales, Tink Research Reveals | The Fintech Times

Digital identity is the infrastructure crisis no one admits buff.ly/ZJa8JJL "true digital identity must be portable, composable, and tied to both humans and AI agents" And companies.

New on Forbes: Next-Generation Financial Markets: Stablecoins For Bots, Not People. buff.ly/wPgOXH3 In the near future "he biggest user of stablecoins is going to be AI. It's not only me who are thinks this. by the way.

ID Cards? Come on Mr. Blunkett - I know there’s an Oasis reunion but it’s not the 1990s (or the 1940s) anymore. What our United Kingdom needs is a privacy-enhancing digital identity infrastructure. Let’s hope the Labour government brings in actual experts (eg, me) this time round

“Natural Bitcoin”

Digital Identity: Can the UK Get It Right This Time? buff.ly/ULeKgsE "In this episode of When Technology Goes Wrong, host Paddy Dhanda sits down with David Birch, global authority on digital identity..."

Next-Generation Financial Markets: Stablecoins For Bots, Not People. buff.ly/wPgOXH3

Stripe's Tempo And The Ghost Of Facebook’s Libra’s Past buff.ly/eLZXZfa "If corporate chains like Tempo and Arc succeed, it will mean the crypto experiment was not a revolution, but a failed coup."

Apropos nothing, "Some monarchical nicknames" buff.ly/tRrKEsb "Edgar the Peaceful or Peaceable (959-975)" "Basically, if you caused trouble, Edgar would have the lads f*ck you up. This would, among other things, keep the peace."