Charitable donations and the infrastructure supporting them
There exists specialized infrastructure to enable charities, for both operational and tax reasons.
There exists specialized infrastructure to enable charities, for both operational and tax reasons.
Revenue recognition for software companies is much deeper than many appreciate, and improbably implicates the age-old question "What is the economically useful life of an imaginary sword?"
You can't upload cash... or can you? Convenience stores function as hybrid offline/online spaces for payments and identify verification.
SWIFT operates a messaging protocol which ties banks together with correspondent banks. This collaboration enables most international wires.
SMBs are beginning to use financial services offered by SaaS platforms. This will be extremely big, for all concerned.
Many people believe some transactions are final. The reality is a bit more complicated, and involves technical, social, and legal factors.
Mortgages are popularly thought of as loans, but to understand the industry, it's better to model them as complex manufactured products.
BNPLs (Buy Now Pay Later) are an interesting, relatively novel payment method. Here is how they work.
Gift card marketplaces largely (and surprisingly) match professional buyers and sellers of gift cards, rather than casual users. This creates an interesting ecosystem in the shadow of large retailers.
Gift cards are a loosely-regulated quasi-financial product and frequently misunderstood. Here's how they operate under the hood.
Fraud is largely conducted by professionals operating in specialized firms, which have their own ecosystem of evil.
Bank transfers have exploded as a payment method in India and may become more common in much of the world.
The payments industry in Japan is evolving rapidly. Some trends are globally relevant.
Debit cards are a core piece of financial infrastructure and drive much of the innovation happening in fintech.
Credit cards make money through net interest, interchange, fees, and marketing contributions.
I write roughly biweekly on the intersection of tech, financial infrastructure, and systems thinking. It's free.