Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) on digital money
The U.S. Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC) published an overview of the potential terminal effects risks of interest-bearing stablecoins and tokenized money funds, from a perspective of Treasury demand, USD hegemony, the expansion of dollar-backed payment stablecoins, and potential effects for insured depository institutions. Also, it’s worth taking a look at Coindesk’s monthly report of central bank digital currency (CBDC) and stablecoins for useful presentations of the raw data. [Read the TBAC here and the Coindesk report here]
Cash and catastrophe: are notes and coins really the best backup? (Substack)
David Birch argues that, contrary to popular belief, cash is not always the most resilient payment method during disasters such as fires, floods, or wars. Drawing on real-world examples-from Japanese tsunamis and Nigerian market fires to the ongoing war in Ukraine-the author shows that people relying on physical cash often suffer greater losses, while digital payment systems, especially those with offline capabilities, tend to be more robust as long as power and communications can be maintained. In Ukraine, for instance, the resilience of the payment system has been bolstered by widespread adoption of softPOS (mobile-based point-of-sale) and contactless technologies, even amid blackouts and cyberattacks. The article concludes that future-proofing payments should focus on enabling device-to-device digital transactions that work without network connectivity, such as offline central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), rather than simply stockpiling cash. [Read more at Substack]
VISA unveils find and buy with AI (VISA)
VISA launched a suite of integrated APIs and a commercial partner program to AI platforms, enabling developers to deploy VISA’s AI commerce capabilities securely and at scale. With VISA Intelligent Commerce, AI agents can find, shop and buy for consumers based on their pre-selected preferences. Each consumer sets the limits, and Visa helps manage the rest.” VISA Intelligent Commerce offers (i) AI-ready cards that replace card details with tokenized digital credentials, (ii) AI-powered consumer personalization (consumers share basic Visa spend and purchase insights with their consent to improve agent performance and personalize shopping recommendations), and (iii) simple and secure AI payments allowing consumers to easily set spending limits and conditions, providing clear guidelines for agent transactions. [Read more at VISA]
Why the future of finance calls for a permissionless architecture (Coinbase)
Coinbase published a paper that argues that the global financial system requires an update built upon permissionless systems, with tokenization at its core. They argue that building on open architecture provides benefits such as instant settlement, elimination of outdated processes, self-custody, increased transparency, improved transaction speed, programmability, and enhanced security and privacy through techniques like zero-knowledge proofs. The paper emphasizes the importance of base layer neutrality for fostering innovation and competition, while also addressing policy considerations such as integrating with traditional finance, enabling the tokenization of traditional assets, and recognizing the right to self-custody. [Read more at Coinbase]
And just a reminder that I produce a monthly digest of central bank digital currency (CBDC) developments exclusively for the official sector. So (only) if you work at a central bank, ministry of finance or international financial institution (e.g., the BIS, IMF, OECD, World Bank) and who would like to receive it by email on the first business day of every month, please DM me on LinkedIn or email me at john@kiffmeister.com.
