Beiträge

Will Blockchain change everything? Or not?

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finextraI have so far not made a secret out of the fact that I find Blockchain interesting – but not too convincing and that I do not believe an open-source sort of approach to ledgers is the right way nor that single ledger tech will solve any real world issues. I also know that I am not alone, yet Blockchain IS interesting and in case the fundamental shortcomings are solved it could become something big. If not, it will die and we will talk about the next big thing.

Discussions like this are very fruitful; therefore I would like to share this piece from Finextra, titled „Blockchain will change everything, but only if we find the right talent„. I like this thought because it implies that we need the brightest of the brightest to find solutions to the many short-comings Blockchain technologies bear today.

Worth keeping that discussion going.

Payment innovation requires merchant providers to be a Jack of all trades

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Michael Doron, Managing Director of North America at Payworks, wrote a great piece on why merchant providers need to gear up for the increasingly clustered payments industry. Great read at Paymentsource.com, which you find here.

Cash HAS a future, as it seems. Interesting research by Pymts.com

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Source: Cash Product Office

Source: Cash Product Office

Traveling the world I have seen that what many predict – the cash-less society – feels like it is very, very far away. A prime example for me is Sweden and the discussion that they possibly want to get rid of cash altogether within short. Not going to happen. When you are outside the bigger cities, hardly any small store likes you to pay by card. Mobile wallets are not to be found. It is the culture to have little markets and community cafés and when you try to pay your coffee and cinnamon bun with anything but cash they tell you where the next ATM is (in such cases usually some 30km away).

The more interesting I found this article by Pymnts.com, titled „With Millennials Picking Cash Over Cards, Cash Gains Steam“. Their research shows that while one would expect that older folks would use more cash, the exact opposite is the case. Worth mentioning is that the cash seems to be used mostly for small transactions while bigger ones are paid with cards – to keep the amount of change in your pocket in check. All this makes much sense to me – great read.

Great Summary by ValueWalk: The Stripe Ecosystem In One Giant Visualization

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valuewalkSometimes it is hard to get to a core of a phenomenon – and then it is good that someone spends some time thinking it through and putting it into simple terms. Now, ValueWalk has done just that with the Stripe-Phenomenon. I believe reading this is time well spent. You find the article here.

Could new payments authentication rules scupper European Digital Single Market?

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Peter Bayley, EVP Risk Management at Visa, asked this question on Politico. This is about the plans of the EU Commission to enforce strong user authentication for payments transactions with PSD 2. Its a great read and shows good alternative paths, which do not cause frustration and additional steps for the consumer. While this is sponsored content (and I guess it is sponsored by Visa), I still believe it is very relevant in the discussion.