March, 2026

• 17 March

  Payments 3.0: Facts And How to Handle Them

  

  The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein once wrote “you pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue.” In a time of government shutdowns, AI slop, and post-truth narratives, facts can be hard to find. Nonetheless, as companies develop strategies, there are guideposts for triangulating your position …
• 17 March

  Security Notes: Hidden Wealth and Social Health

  

  Humanity faces a long list of existential threats, from global warming to viral epidemics, nuclear war, and crushing meteorites, not to mention running out of ketchup. Here is another entry for the list, one that fails to get serious attention: hidden wealth. Before there was digital money, to open a …
• 17 March

  Klarna Looks to Banking Services

  

  Klarna AB released numbers in February that indicate the payments company’s processing breadth is growing rapidly. News of Klarna’s fourth-quarter 2025 performance also came as the company looks to further its growth as a global digital bank. “We’ve been executing on a clear plan: acquire customers through seamless payments, then …

February, 2026

• 1 February

  PayPal Looks to Set Up an Industrial Bank

  

  PayPal Holdings Inc. is embarking on another stage in its evolution with its application for a Utah-chartered industrial loan company to be called PayPal Bank. The charter would enable PayPal to make its U.S. business-lending service more efficient and reduce its reliance on third parties. Currently, PayPal’s U.S. loans are …
• 1 February

  Payments 3.0: How New Charters Are Impacting Traditional Banks

  

  The floral and fauna of the payments industry will be much more diverse in the future. New kinds of institutions are being chartered by both the states and the federal government. These institutions have a variety of purposes and powers, and they are lining up to compete against traditional banks. …
• 1 February

  Security Notes: How to Disrupt Public Protocol Digital Money

  

  Bitcoin rose to prominence because no government was or is minting it, so no government can unmint it. Bitcoin is minted by a public protocol that cannot be a defendant in a lawsuit, so freedom reigns, or so declares the theology of public-protocol money systems. Indeed, bitcoin is created by …

November, 2025

• 1 November

  Security Notes: Evolutionality: a Fundamental Need for Digital Money

  

  Digital money bursts with a bang in the realm of cyberspace, opening new gates, unveiling unthinkable possibilities, becoming a central societal feature—and determining of pulse of life in the years to come. There are thousands of digital coins, and countless applications. Countries are looking into shifting their national currency into …
• 1 November

  Online, Yet Card Present

  

  Universal Air Travel Plan Inc. (UATP) last month announced it has partnered with Burbank, a United Kingdom-based fintech, to deploy an app that enables mobile devices to act as a POS terminal to process card-present transactions over the Internet. The app is embedded in the merchant’s mobile app, which eliminates …
• 1 November

  Payments 3.0: How Emergencies Spotlight the Need for Wage Access

  

  The latest government shutdown shows why workers need options for accessing their money independently of employer-set pay periods. From the start of the shutdown, many government employees were still working, but without the promise of a paycheck. Unfortunately, their bills did not stop when their paychecks did. They still needed …

October, 2025

• 1 October

  Security Notes: Cryptology: The Battle of Wits May Be Ending

  

  It has been going on for thousands of years. Smart people build secret codes, and smarter people crack them. New codes are put forth, smarter cryptanalysts show up. This long-lasting battle of wits has decided the fate of two world wars, as well as ancient conflicts. This smart-versus-smart drama is …