Free Republic

Satisfied with IAM systems after a six-team trial last season, the U.S. National Football League appears ready to go league-wide with biometric ID verification. The pilot came at the end of 3.5 years of digital IAM testing by the NFL. No sports leagues like to lose money when people get unpaid-for stadium access, but NFL owners are particularly upset by it compared to others. League owners are expected to set up a centralized facial recognition IAM service based on its Express Access authentication platform in the 2024 season. That would be for all 30 stadiums for the 32 teams, beginning...

Ten banks in the United States are working with the New York Innovation Center (NYIC), part of the Federal Reserve, to test the regulated liability network (RLN), a digital currency platform that will replace cash. RLN would use distributed ledger technology to improve financial settlements and would include commercials and central banks, the firm said earlier this month.

Ten members of the banking community are working with the New York Innovation Center (NYIC), which is part of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to explore the feasibility of the regulated liability network (RLN) — an interoperable digital money platform. The proposed RLN would use distributed ledger technology to improve financial settlements and would include central banks, commercial banks and regulated non-banks, the participating firms said Tuesday (Nov. 15) in a press release. “The 12-week PoC [proof of concept] will test a version of the RLN design that operates exclusively in U.S. dollars where commercial banks issue simulated...

DENVER (KDVR) — Some people are not getting their paychecks Friday due to a banking system issue. Deposits are reportedly delayed at multiple banks across the U.S. The Federal Reserve is reporting an issue with the Automated Clearing House, which is the primary system agencies use for electronic funds transfers. Customers of Bank of America, Chase, U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo and other banks have been reporting issues with deposits on X, formally Twitter, and Downdetector. Both Chase and Bank of America gave statements to CNN, confirming that some deposits may be delayed. The Fed reported a batch of transfers had...

Square, a company that supplies point of sale (POS) systems to small businesses that allow for credit card processing, has been down all day Thursday, affecting users in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, France, and Spain. Square is one of the largest suppliers of POS systems to all kinds of businesses, like restaurants, salons, tattoo parlors, boutiques, and much more. According to the website, Square is “Trusted by millions of businesses worldwide.”Without the ability to process credit cards, many businesses have reported turning away customers who don’t have cash—or taking an enormous risk and writing down credit card...

Well, to put it bluntly, this sucks. I was in our local Aldi store earlier today and they were in the midst of going to all digital pricing. That is, there's essentially a bar code on the shelf under each group of boxes of items, or under the 2% milk rack, etc., which you scan with a smart phone to get the price. No printed prices are on the shelves, and won't be, according to the employee I spoke with.

The Fed is becoming quite crafty when it comes to digital currency. They’re aware that it’s not popular, mainly because Americans are wary about handing control of their finances over to a government that could cut them off with a flick of a switch. So, in typical globalist fashion, they plan to “coax” you into using it by introducing the infrastructure as an option they know you’ll love. That’s precisely what they’re doing as we speak with this new FedNow program. This payment system, recently rolled out by the Federal Reserve, sets the foundation for the US government to essentially...

The United States Federal Reserve has confirmed a July launch date for its long-awaited instant payments system, seen by some as an alternative to central bank digital currencies and stablecoins. The instant payment network will settle payments in seconds and can support transactions between consumers, merchants and banks. It does not rely on blockchain technology. It’s a significant step for the government, as it is controlled by the Federal Reserve. Clearing House’s RTP network, which also offers real-time payments, is operated by a consortium of large banks. According to a March 15 announcement, the U.S. Fed said the debut of...

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Getting the design of a digital pound right is a bigger priority than a rapid launch, Britain's Financial Services Minister Andrew Griffith said on Tuesday. China has pushed ahead with piloting a digital yuan and the European Central Bank is studying a digital euro, piling pressure on Britain to do the same and keep abreast of advances in financial technology. The finance ministry is due to launch in the coming weeks a public consultation on the attributes of a digital pound.

In an interview aired on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen predicted that "the current inflation will not go on indefinitely. History has shown that sooner or later it will have to come down. Whether this will be due to saner government policies or total collapse of the current monetary system remains to be seen." Yellen observed that "1920s Germany is an example where the money collapsed. By the mid-1920s it took a shopping cart full of cash to buy a loaf of bread. Ultimately, the money became worthless and the government had to issue completely new money. The...

The United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the post office, was “not legally authorized” to conduct blanket keyword searches of social media for terms such as “protest,” “attack,” and “destroy,” an inspector general investigation found, because it is only supposed to investigate cases with some connection to the post office or the mail. The USPSIS is the oldest police agency in the country, called the United States Postal Inspection Service, or USPIS. Its job is to police the mail and crimes related to the mail such as mail fraud. USPIS dates back to a time when...

Apple Pay and Google Pay no longer work on Moscow's metro system, leading to long queues as people fumble about for cash (funny!)

The future of money might be a digital version of the cash that’s already in people’s wallets—potentially upending the currency system that the world has known for many decades. Such a future, of course, might be a disappointment to many libertarians and tech-savvy investors who are pinning their hopes (and in some cases their money) on private cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. Instead, central bankers and governments—the entities that cryptocurrencies’ backers hoped to render obsolete—are increasingly warming to the idea of “digitizing” their own national currencies. That is, they would issue money that would exist only virtually, without a paper or...

Digital money society or a one-world currency Sweden seemed to be at the forefront of the newest globalist scheme digital money v. cash, advocating a cashless global economy with a one-world currency. A CBS World News article reported in 2012 that a small number of businesses in Sweden accepted only credit cards, including some churches, even though elderly people prefer cash, especially in rural areas. Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former rocker, stated that cash encourages theft, citing his own son who was the victim of armed robbery three times. Cheating and cash theft may have declined in Sweden but cybercrime around...

Sweden seemed to be at the forefront of the newest globalist scheme digital money v. cash, advocating a cashless global economy with a one-world currency. A CBS World News article reported in 2012 that a small number of businesses in Sweden accepted only credit cards, including some churches, even though elderly people prefer cash, especially in rural areas. Bjorn Ulvaeus, a former rocker, stated that cash encourages theft, citing his own son who was the victim of armed robbery three times. Cheating and cash theft may have declined in Sweden but cybercrime around the world is indisputably on the rise....

Analysis Why does Bitcoin work? Fraudsters should have left it in cinders years ago, and might have done, if it wasn’t for two things: spam and the Byzantine Empire. A Bitcoin is basically an entry in a ledger that is distributed across a network of computers. Bitcoins are transferred between parties by noting the transaction in the ledger. This might sound just like any other banking system except there’s a crucial difference: no one is in charge of the ledger. It’s held across a network of computers and anyone can add their computer to the network when they wish -...