Issue #381 - Anonymous, But Together – And Driven By Data2022-09-15Coinjoin, a way to further anonymize transactions while cooperating with others. As we know, a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is not fully anonymous, since an expert can still track transactions and even manage to link a transaction to a specific IP address. Coinjoin allows us to pull transactions in order to mask single traders, and it’s a quite complicated process, but the point that most grabs our attention is that those who cooperate need to trust each other. A system born to avoid trust and guarantee privacy needs trust to allow full anonymity. Privacy and anonymity are not the same, but it seems that we have difficulties in reaching both if this means that we can’t have what we desire. Fintech is constantly operating in this contradictory environment, and blockchain technology in particular often manages to find a solution that satisfies everyone – except regulators. And interestingly enough, as you will see by reading our selections of fintech news and opinions, regtech seems to be the most resilient fintech sector even when global economic conditions don’t allow for the same flow of investments fintech witnessed in recent years. It seems that there is a cost if we want privacy, and we often have to make choices – informed or not – about what we want to really protect. In this number of FinTech Weekly, you’ll find new business partnerships, personalities of the crypto space that want to expand across the most thriving markets, the ease with which we share data as customers, and the costs we have to afford if we want to protect our privacy. Each piece of content will make you reflect on the role of privacy, the importance we give to anonymity, and the role played by fintech in this constantly evolving world. At the end of our newsletter, after discovering the fintech news and conferences FinTech Weekly selected for you, you might wonder if fame relies on alleged anonymity. |
Top Stories
Sustainable Finance
 | Edinburgh Showcased as a Hub for Sustainable Finance EducationSince we’re talking about sustainable finance, a European city was elected the center of sustainable finance education. The city is Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, where financial leaders recently met to address global financial issues. In particular, the University of Edinburgh Business School (UEBS) partnered with the Asian Banking School, which was looking for the right partner to create a new education program for current and future banking leaders that covers fintech and the future of finance, among other topics. |
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Podcasts and Videos
 | Analyzing Braina - An intelligent personal assistantCooperation doesn't involve only people, but also artificial intelligence. Braina is among the top essential software: Braina, a mix of “brain” and “artificial”, was created to be your personal virtual assistant. Realized thanks to AI modeling, it works on PCs and is able to recognize commands in different languages – as long as you speak naturally. |
Crypto
 | Crypto Custody Specialist Anchorage Digital Offers Japanese Yen StablecoinIn the meantime, regulation and cryptocurrencies meet also in Japan. Anchorage Digital, the crypto platform for institutions, cooperates with GMO-Z.com Trust Company to support the GYEN stablecoin. Anchorage Digital is a regulated crypto platform, and this new partnership favors new fintech use cases for a stablecoin that is fully backed by the Japanese yen. |
 | Is Cardano Expanding? Charles Hoskinson Is Working on “Something Really Cool” in Papua New GuineaAfrican fintech is a thriving market, no doubt about this. The founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson, knows that very well. During his pan-African tour, Hoskinson delivered several public speeches in support of new possible cooperations between African fintech companies and Cardano. And it looks like he’s “working on something really cool” in Papua New Guinea. |
Banking
 | Regulators appear to be growing increasingly wary of banks and fintech startups getting too cozyBanks and fintech firms are long-time competitors, but it seems that by offering people what they want, the two are partnering more than expected. What’s the problem with this? For regulators it is far more difficult to fully understand when and how to intervene. |
Fintech
 | UK fintech investment takes a diveIt’s no mystery that the fintech market is going through a difficult period: economic crisis, more aggressive regulatory frameworks, and higher inflation are affecting investments in the market. Even UK fintech investments are experiencing a slowdown, but interestingly enough it seems that the most resilient sector is regtech. |
 | Buy Now Pay Later Platform Market is Expected to Reach ~US$ 46.9 Bn, Growing at a CAGR of 22.4% by the end of 2031According to Future Market Experiences, the BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) market should reach a value of over $45 billion by 2031. Despite risks related to the amount of debt people can accumulate, and although regulators want to treat this service as traditional loans, people tend to prefer this business model and retailers can impressively benefit from it. Another concern of regulators is related to data shared by customers, but despite this, many startups were born to facilitate the adoption of this model and top companies integrated it with their businesses. An example is PayPal Holdings, which in September 2021 acquired Paidy, one of the top BNPLs in Japan. |
 | The Role Of Advanced AI In Digital Lending BusinessA pivotal element in digital lending is actually data analysis. To implement this kind of analysis, AI modeling and machine learning play major roles: to better assess the credit worthiness of each borrower, artificial intelligence is able to gather and analyze data that doesn’t seem to be directly connected to credit history, like social media profiles and digital behavior of each user. If this improves lending businesses to improve conversion rates, customers share a huge amount of data to use digital lending services. |