Tag: payments
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Inside the Bloody Ocean of Cashless Payments
There is a quiet assumption in finance today that the world is steadily moving toward a cashless future. Mobile wallets, digital currencies, and fintech apps are framed as inevitable winners in a linear transition away from physical cash. That assumption is wrong. The payments landscape is not a clean transition. It is a competitive battlefield…
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What’s Wrong With Cash?
Cash has been the backbone of commerce for centuries. It is simple, universally understood, and does not require electricity, internet connectivity, or banking infrastructure to function. Yet despite these advantages, governments and financial institutions around the world have increasingly promoted digital payments. The reason is not that cash is broken, but that it creates structural…
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Jam-Dex versus Bitcoin
Introduction Money has always existed in physical form — notes and coins issued by a central bank. Today, many countries are exploring ways to issue this same money digitally, creating what is known as a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). In Jamaica, this digital currency is called Jam-Dex. One technology developed for this purpose is…
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Why Isn’t JAM-DEX Taking Off?
Last week my attention was drawn to a news item concerning JAM-DEX, so I paid close attention to the details. In the article, Bank of Jamaica Governor Richard Byles blasts banks for not doing enough to drive adoption of JAM-DEX as a method for paying for goods and services across the Jamaican economy. The Jamaica…