#290
Using Your Devices Against You

UMA's USStocks DeFi project - learnings and next steps - A great Medium post from portfolio company Universal Market Access ("UMA") on what they learned from offering synthetic access to the top 500 U.S. exchange-listed equities by market capitalization, margined in Dai. Read more__

Plaid launches in U.K. to boost open banking on both sides of the Atlantic - Portfolio company Plaid is expanding across the pond! The expansion will enable fintech startups in the UK to take advantage of open banking rules, while also enabling companies on either side of the Atlantic to expand across the U.S., U.K. and Canada. Read more__

Easily integrate into the Plaid data network with Plaid Direct - Portfolio company Plaid is offering a new, lightweight integration that allows banks and fintech applications to quickly and easily become a data source in the Plaid network - enabling their customers to enjoy open banking-style connectivity across fintech apps. Read more__

In Baltimore and beyond, a stolen N.S.A. tool wreaks havoc - The Shadow Brokers leak, which is now the most destructive and costly NSA breach in history, has spawned a series of malicious actor attacks that now puts much of American cities' critical digital infrastructure at risk. Read more__

Venture capitalists bet big on the $1.9 trillion payments industry - Tech firms from Stripe to our own portfolio companies Extend and Flutterwave are trying to grab a slice of the $1.9 trillion payments industry. CNBC digs into the massive market. Read more__

Innovation driving digital acceleration in Latin America - A good read out of Swift's Latam regional conference where banks in the region are looking to increase digitization, while managing cyber and compliance challenges. Read more__

First American Financial Corp. leaked hundreds of millions of title insurance records - First American, a leading provider of title insurance, put 885 million PDFs including bank account numbers, statements, mortgage and tax records, Social Security numbers, wire transaction receipts, and drivers license images online, with no security at all! Read more__

Cryptocurrency Visa card could open a back door for dirty money - Visa’s latest cooperation with Coinbase for a UK crypto card will allow customers to “spend funds from your cryptocurrency wallets” anywhere Visa is accepted. The card’s spending limit starts at a whopping £10,000 a month. Read more__

Morningstar takes aim at rating giants with $669m DBRS deal - Morningstar accounts for just 0.1% of the credit-rating market. This will rise to 2.4% once the DBRS deal closes. By contrast, the big three of S&P Global, Moody’s and Fitch have a combined 96 per cent. Read more__

How governments are beginning to regulate AI - In a historic step last week, 42 countries came together to support a global governance framework for one of the most powerful emerging technologies of our time - artificial intelligence. Read more__

Bitcoin billionaires — return of the Winklevoss twins - Ben Mezrich’s "Bitcoin Billionaires" is a new account of the Winklevii's move into crypto. According to the FT it makes an easily digested cryptocurrency primer. Read more__

Indonesia launches QR code standards - The central bank has been developing QRIS, a more complex QR pattern that allows users from one payment service to transfer funds to any rival service, since early last year. Read more__