Fintech Daily Digest

Facebook is seeking a professional researcher with a PhD degree in economics to "initiate and execute projects around topics such as auction design, economic incentives in consensus protocols, market concentration, and macroeconomic aspects of the Libra currency,"

Former Banque de France deputy governor Jean-Pierre Landau argues that the network effects created by the aggregation of a vast range of activities in financial "platforms" create externalities very similar to those that underlie the creation of money. The report highlights three implications. First, the financial system could become "payment centric" - with bank deposits no longer the dominant form of private money. Second, digital interconnectedness may create around such networks digital currency areas, a development that could fragment some monetary systems. Third, national borders may not constrain such digital currency areas, and the currencies of those countries where digitalisation proceeds fastest (and where networks become the biggest) may become more widely used internationally - "digital dollarisation".

Philippines' central bank reported that e-wallet penetration is growing faster in the Philippines and has surpassed credit card numbers.

Goldman Sachs is now hiring a cryptocurrency project manager. The firm wants their new project manager to lead the development of Distributed Ledger Technology. The Wall Street bank's foray into cryptocurrency is part of its GS Accelerate initiative.

Japanese crypto exchange Bitpoint has suspended all services after losing $32 million in a hack involving XRP, Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies.

For the first time, it seems, a sitting US president has acknowledged Bitcoin as a threat. Ironically, this indicates progress for crypto. "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." Mahatma Gandhi

Fidelity Digital Assets, the crypto-focused branch of the major asset manager, is looking to boost its team with the addition of 10 new blockchain professionals.

Fidelity, Deloitte, Amazon, and 20 other firms are backing a new blockchain accelerator program to mentor budding entrepreneurs in the space.

In a dramatic bit of stagecraft, BitMEX has finally released the "tapes" from its so called Tangle In Taipei, a July 3 debate between CEO Arthur Hayes and NYU Professor and so-called Dr. Doom, Nouriel Roubini. It even comes with dramatic fight music."

For a moment, it worked as planned. As CoinDesk reported last summer, a user in South Africa could pay their mom's electricity bill in Uganda using a crypto-powered payments app called Wala. But despite early traction in facilitating remittances and other small payments for Africa's underbanked, Wala was effectively broke by early 2019, laying off its staff and closing access to the company's flagship app in February."

Peer-to-peer Bitcoin transactions in Zimbabwe recently reached a new high after President Emmerson Mnangagwa reinstated the Zimbabwe dollar. The ban also prohibits the settlement of local transactions in the British pound, South African rand, the US dollar, and other foreign currencies.

The FSB is developing a toolkit of effective practices relating to a financial institution's response to, and recovery from, a cyber incident. The toolkit aims to provide financial institutions and authorities with a set of effective practices and will be based on the shared experience and diversity of perspectives gathered by the FSB, including through responses to its survey of industry practices.

Ghana has recently become the fastest-growing mobile money market in Africa, with registered accounts increasing six-fold between 2012 and 2017.

United States-based payments startup Fold has made Lightning Network (LN) payments possible at Amazon, Starbucks, Uber and other big name retailers. The news was revealed in an official blog post published on July 10.

The number and nature of the pending question marks around CBDC underlines the relevance of continued efforts to satisfactorily understand this matter as well as its potential consequences... We are dealing with an issue with potential major implications and still many unknowns.

The Kenya Information Communications (Amendment) Bill, 2019 is seeking the registration of mobile money services as separate business units. It would compel the telecommunications regulator to ensure that mobile money services are licensed as banks.

After a year of fine-tuning, which included user trials at 27 branches in Brooklyn, JPM is releasing on Wednesday a digital investing service called You Invest Portfolios. For an annual fee of 0.35% of assets, or 35 basis points, JPM will put users into an investment portfolio made up of the bank's ETFs

In an application security, privacy, and compliance probe, testing firm ImmuniWeb highlighted the concerning state of security at the worlds largest financial institutions, handing only three an A+ result for SSL encryption and website security.

With mainstream society increasingly accepting Bitcoin (BTC) as a means of payment, financial firms are increasingly seeking to offer a frictionless and convenient means for consumers to make payments using crypto.

The biggest threat to Facebook's financial inclusion plans are the government authorities in those developing countries. Furthermore, individuals without access to bank accounts in those countries are typically those with bad credit history or those who fail to comply with AML/CFT/KYC requirements