Free Republic

The European Central Bank is inviting experts in identification and authentication to contribute to the development of rules for the digital euro. A ‘workstream’ is being set up to establish identification and authentication requirements for the digital currency, with the goal of enabling best-in-class user experience and security. Impact assessments for various existing approaches to identification and authentication will also be carried out. The EU’s planned digital currency is expected to be stored in the EU Digital Identity Wallet, with support for peer-to-peer transactions. The Chair of the Rulebook Development Group is setting up several dedicated workstreams to support the...

Major US banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan, and others, will push into the digital wallet space in the second half of this year to take on Apple Pay and PayPal. Early Warning Services LLC (EWS), the bank-owned company that operates the money-transfer service Zelle, will be managing the new digital wallet, according to WSJ. The wallet has yet to be named but will be separate from Zelle and allow shoppers to pay at merchants' online checkouts with linked debit and credit cards. EWS plans to offer the new digital wallet later this year and can handle up...

The European Commission will on Thursday announce plans for a digital identity wallet to allow Europeans to access public and private services, prompted in part by the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen a massive surge in online services. The move also seeks to counter the growing popularity of digital wallets offered by Apple, Alphabet unit Google, Thales and financial institutions which critics say could pose privacy and data protection concerns. The digital identity wallet “can be used anywhere in the EU to identify and authenticate for access to services in the public and private sectors, allowing citizens to control what...

One of the chief benefits of living in a capitalist society is seeing those greedy corporations actually compete for your business.  Every so often, we get to enjoy a true cataclysmic battle between titans of commerce, and the one that’s shaping up between Apple and Walmart is a doozy that could put money in your pocket. In Apple’s corner, we have the Visa and MasterCard associations, American Express, Bank of America, Capital One, Chase, Barclays, and soon a host of other card issuers.  In Walmart’s corner, there’s a line-up of heavy-hitter retailers, like CVS, Rite-Aid, Best Buy, Circle K, Lowe’s,...