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"Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) have been widely adopted by the sports, arts, music, gaming, fashion, and other industries. Behind the hype is a fast-developing ecosystem of technical and commercial innovation that is embracing the promise of bridging physical world concepts of uniqueness and scarcity with the digital world. The NFT market has seen enormous growth in recent years, with sales of NFTs reaching $25 billion in 2021 by one estimate, and this is only expected to grow as creators and brands craft their plans for the metaverse in which NFTs are expected to play a critical role...."

The eSIM ecosystem offers an equivalent level of security and protection to that provided by the removable SIM card. The protocols are based on state-of-the-art cryptographic mechanisms and secure the privacy of the end user. A public key infrastructure (PKI) governed by the Global System for Mobile Communications Association (GSMA) provides a secure authentication of the entities of the ecosystem. Manufacturers or providers of eSIM solutions have to undergo GSMA certification in order to be admitted into the ecosystem.

Crunchfish has recently implemented and patented a novel approach with balance reconciliation. Private transactions are encrypted and sent to the backend, but where the keys used for the transaction are wallet keys, in contrast to prior art using public keys controlled by either the issuer or an escrow agent. In this way the payer is in full control of the privacy of their transactions even if all private transactions are sent to the online ledger encrypted. In this innovative way, regulatory requirements for transactional traceability are balanced with requirements for privacy where the payer is in full control of the encrypted transactional data for amounts below defined thresholds, defined by the issuer and the regulator. If the issuer suspects an attack by the payer, the issuer can contact the payer for permission to decrypt the data. In case the payer is not willing to grant access, the issuer may decide to lock the wallet or disallow any more private transactions.

Bangladesh could benefit from the use of insurance and reinsurance structures including catastrophe bonds as a way to secure much needed capacity enabling it to better respond to natural disasters and climate related risks, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Moody's warns that reliance on retrocession capital is growing but that it considers increased reliance on retrocession to sustain a normal reinsurance underwriting business to be risky and weaken the capital quality of those dependent on it for support.

"You might be wondering: what is an NFT, anyhow? After literal hours of reading, I think I know. I also think I'm going to cry."

The North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) latest catastrophe bond has now upsized by 150%, with the Cape Lookout Re Ltd. (Series 2021-1) transaction set to provide it $250 million of reinsurance from the capital markets. At the same time, the spread on the cat bond notes dropped considerably thanks to ILS investor appetite, with the pricing eventually fixed at the bottom of reduced guidance, indicating a roughly 13% decline in pricing during marketing.

The United States Treasury continues to explore its options for terrorism risk sharing with private markets, with terrorism catastrophe bonds once again under discussion at committee level.

Amazon has partnered with Legal & General to create a blockchain system for managing corporate pension deals. The insurer will make use of the Amazon Managed Blockchain for its bulk annuity transactions.

Arbol, a platform that allows farmers to hedge weather risks, is integrating Chainlink data oracles. With blockchain, settlements and payouts can be instant, whereas in the centralized world, participants may have to wait weeks, if not months. Farmers can hedge against various adverse weather conditions having a negative impact on their crops. They can buy a hedge - for example, if a temperature in their region reaches a critical level, which will trigger an automatic payout. By adding Chainlink's oracalized weather data feeds, the company's platform has become more decentralized and resilient.

Ripple Labs received a patent for a smart contract that can use oracles to connect a distributed platform to a variety of different real-world data. Originally filed in June 2018, one example of a use case provided includes using the smart contracts to automatically settle options contracts when pre-agreed conditions are met, such as a company's debt-to-equity ratio hitting a certain threshold. Another example, for the oil industry, is feeding data on the density of a specific crude oil shipment to help a smart contract determine whether to make a trade. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&d=PALL&S1=10,789,068&OS=10,789,068&RS=10,789,068

A Bank of Spain report has scrutinized and reflected on the entrance of El Salvador into the Bitcoin world. Although El Salvador was not the first country to consider adopting Bitcoin as legal tender, it has pioneered its implementation, serving, in the eyes of many, as a testing ground for jurisdictions with weak currencies or fully dollarised economies that hope to end their reliance on the US dollar. The report concludes that a significant challenge will be overcoming the technical barriers associated with bitcoin usage, with little over 50% of the population having internet access and smartphone penetration barely reaching 40%. Also, it is unclear whether the $150 million stabilization fund at the state development bank, will be able to absorb such fluctuations, nor the outcome once the fund is depleted.

"After four years of development, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is set to roll out its digital currency project. The launch will reportedly happen on the occasion of the country's 61st Independence Day celebration on Oct. 1."

USAA is looking to issue at least $375 million of Residential Reinsurance 2022 Limited (Series 2022-1) four-tranche four-year CAT bonds. It will provide four-years of coverage on an aggregate indemnity basis, against losses from multiple US perils. Initial plans were for a five-tranche deal with one tranche, now dropped, providing a year of annual aggregate and indemnity trigger based coverage.

"There are many guides to what NFTs are, including my own. Simply put, a non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on blockchain technology, which certifies a digital asset to be unique and therefore not interchangeable."

Cayman Islands-based Oxbridge Re sold $2.4 million of DeltaCat Re tokenized reinsurance securities, representing fractionalized interests in reinsurance contracts written by its Oxbridge Re NS reinsurance sidecar. They are tokenized on the Avalanche blockchain.

New York-headquartered TransRe has become the latest to see its prices rise above initial guidance, with all three tranches of its Bowline Re Ltd. (Series 2022-1) deal having their coupons elevated while being marketed to investors. TransRe is looking to issue at least $175 million three-year CAT bonds covering US perils on a per-occurrence basis and Japanese earthquakes on an annual aggregate basis, on an industry loss trigger basis.

Bermuda's Longitude Exchange and Dedomainia, a technology company offering longevity swap solutions, are to collaborate on techniques and processes for monitoring, administering, and valuing index-based longevity risk hedging transactions.

US-based primary insurer Allstate has upsized the issuance target for its Sanders Re III Ltd. (Series 2023-1) from $225 million to $250 million, but there are now only two four-year interest-paying tranches. Allstate was also looking to issue a one-year zero-coupon tranche. They will cover US named storms, earthquakes, severe weather events, wildfires, volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts, all on an indemnity trigger basis.

"Oxbridge Re Ltd., the Cayman Islands based reinsurance firm with a Gulf Coast risk focus, has begun the initial offering of digital or tokenized reinsurance securities named DeltaCat Re, with the capital set to support collateralized reinsurance contracts underwritten via its sidecar structure, Oxbridge Re NS."