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Central bank cryptocurrencies offer cash-like potential: BIS
 New cryptocurrencies are emerging almost daily, and many interested parties are wondering whether central banks should issue their own versions. But what might central bank cryptocurrencies (CBCCs) look like and would they be useful? This feature provides a taxonomy of money that identifies two types of CBCC - retail and wholesale - and differentiates them from other forms of central bank money such as cash and reserves. It discusses the different characteristics of CBCCs and compares them with existing payment options.1

JEL classification: E41, E42, E51, E58.

Central bank cryptocurrencies (1:58) Morten Bech outlines the development of the "money flower", a taxonomy for classifying past, present and future forms of money.

In less than a decade, bitcoin has gone from being an obscure curiosity to a household name. Its value has risen - with ups and downs - from a few cents per coin to over $4,000. In the meantime, hundreds of other cryptocurrencies - equalling bitcoin in market value - have emerged (Graph 1, left-hand panel). While it seems unlikely that bitcoin or its sisters will displace sovereign currencies, they have demonstrated the viability of the underlying blockchain or distributed ledger technology (DLT). Venture capitalists and financial institutions are investing heavily in DLT projects that seek to provide new financial services as well as deliver old ones more efficiently. Bloggers, central bankers and academics are predicting transformative or disruptive implications for payments, banks and the financial system at large.2

Lately, central banks have entered the fray, with several announcing that they are exploring or experimenting with DLT, and the prospect of central bank crypto- or digital currencies is attracting considerable attention. But making sense of all this is difficult. There is confusion over what these new currencies are, and discussions often occur without a common understanding of what is actually being proposed. This feature seeks to provide some clarity by answering a deceptively simple question: what are central bank cryptocurrencies (CBCCs)?

To that end, we present a taxonomy of money that is based on four key properties: issuer (central bank or other); form (electronic or physical); accessibility (universal or limited); and transfer mechanism (centralised or decentralised). The taxonomy defines a CBCC as an electronic form of central bank money that can be exchanged in a decentralised manner known as peer-to-peer, meaning that transactions occur directly between the payer and the payee without the need for a central intermediary.3 This distinguishes CBCCs from other existing forms of electronic central bank money, such as reserves, which are exchanged in a centralised fashion across accounts at the central bank. Moreover, the taxonomy distinguishes between two possible forms of CBCC: a widely available, consumer-facing payment instrument targeted at retail transactions; and a restricted-access, digital settlement token for wholesale payment applications.4

But what might the two types of CBCC offer that alternative forms of central bank money cannot? For the consumer-facing kind, we argue that the peer-to-peer element of the new technology has the potential to provide anonymity features that are similar to those of cash but in digital form. If anonymity is not seen as important, then most of the alleged benefits of retail CBCCs can be achieved by giving the public access to accounts at the central bank, something that has been technically feasible for a long time but which central banks have mostly stayed away from.

On the wholesale side, the assessment of CBCCs is quite different. Wholesale payments today do not offer cash-like anonymity. In particular, transactions that occur in wholesale systems are visible to the central operator. Hence, the case for wholesale CBCCs depends on their ability to improve efficiency and reduce settlement costs. Here, the answer depends on a number of technical issues that still need to be resolved. Some central banks have experimented with wholesale CBCCs, but none has announced yet that it is ready to adopt this technology.

The first section presents the taxonomy underlying our definition. The following two sections discuss the features of the two basic CBCC types, retail and wholesale, drawing on historical examples and projects that are currently under way. A concluding section reflects on some of the issues that central banks need to consider in this area going forward.

A new form of central bank money

Our starting point for defining CBCCs is a report on cryptocurrencies published in 2015 by the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI (2015)).5 This report sought to provide a definition of the new class of currencies represented by bitcoin and altcoins (alternatives to bitcoin) that had emerged using the same technology. The report identifies three key characteristics of cryptocurrencies: they are electronic; are not the liability of anyone; and feature peer-to-peer exchange.6

Cryptocurrencies utilise DLT (Box A) to allow remote peer-to-peer transfer of electronic value in the absence of trust between contracting parties. Usually, electronic representations of money, such as bank deposits, are exchanged via centralised infrastructures, where a trusted intermediary clears and settles transactions. Previously, peer-to-peer exchange was restricted to physical forms of money.

Some - but not all - of these features are also common to other forms of money (Graph 2, left-hand panel). Cash is peer-to-peer, but it is not electronic, and it is a central bank liability. Commercial bank deposits are a liability of the bank that issues them. Nowadays, they are in electronic form and are exchanged in a centralised manner either across the books of a given bank or between different banks via the central bank. Most commodity monies, such as gold coins, may also be transferred in a peer-to-peer fashion but are neither the liability of anyone nor electronic.7

It may seem natural to define CBCCs by adapting the CPMI's definition to say that they are electronic central bank liabilities that can be used in peer-to-peer exchanges. But this ignores an important feature of other forms of central bank money, namely accessibility. Currently, one form of central bank money - cash - is of course accessible to everyone, while central bank settlement accounts are typically available only to a limited set of entities, mainly banks (CPSS (2003, p 3)). In this spirit, Bjerg (2017) includes universally accessible (ie easy to obtain and use) in addition to electronic and central bank-issued in defining the new concept of central bank digital currency (Graph 2, right-hand panel).

Box A What is distributed ledger technology? Distributed ledger technology (DLT) refers to the protocols and supporting infrastructure that allow computers in different locations to propose and validate transactions and update records in a synchronised way across a network. The idea of a distributed ledger - a common record of activity that is shared across computers in different locations - is not new. Such ledgers are used by organisations (eg supermarket chains) that have branches or offices across a given country or across countries. However, in a traditional distributed database, a system administrator typically performs the key functions that are necessary to maintain consistency across the multiple copies of the ledger. The simplest way to do this is for the system administrator to maintain a master copy of the ledger which is periodically updated and shared with all network participants. By contrast, the new systems based on DLT, most notably Bitcoin and Ethereum, are designed to function without a trusted authority. Bitcoin maintains a distributed database in a decentralised way by using a consensus-based validation procedure and cryptographic signatures. In such systems, transactions are conducted in a peer-to-peer fashion and broadcast to the entire set of participants who work to validate them in batches known as "blocks". Since the ledger of activity is organised into separate but connected blocks, this type of DLT is often referred to as "blockchain technology". The blockchain version of DLT has successfully powered Bitcoin for several years However, the system is not without drawbacks: it is costly to operate (preventing double-spending without the use of a trusted authority requires transaction validators (miners) to employ large amounts of computing power to complete "proof-of-work" computations); there is only probabilistic finality of settlement; and all transactions are public. These features are not suitable for many financial market applications. Current wholesale DLT payment applications have therefore abandoned the standard blockchain technology in favour of protocols that modify the consensus process in order to allow enhanced confidentiality and scalability. Examples of protocols currently being tested by central banks include Corda and Hyperledger Fabric. Corda replaces blockchain with a "notary" architecture. The notary design utilises a trusted authority and allows consensus to be reached on an individual transaction basis, rather than in blocks, with limited information-sharing.

We combine the properties discussed in CPMI (2015) and Bjerg (2017) to establish a new taxonomy of money. Our properties are: issuer (central bank or other); form (electronic or physical); accessibility (universal or limited); and transfer mechanism (centralised or decentralised, ie peer-to-peer). This taxonomy reflects what appears to be emerging in practice and distinguishes between two potential types of CBCC, both of which are electronic: central bank-issued and peer-to-peer. One is accessible to the general public (retail CBCC) and the other is available only to financial institutions (wholesale CBCC). Again, a Venn diagram is useful for illustration.8 The four-ellipse version in Graph 3, which we call the money flower, shows how the two potential types of CBCC fit into the overall monetary landscape.

In principle, there are four different kinds of electronic central bank money: two kinds of CBCCs (the shaded area) and two kinds of central bank deposits. The most familiar forms of central bank deposits are those held by commercial banks - often referred to as settlement accounts or reserves. The other form is, at least in theory, deposits held by the general public. Tobin (1987) refers to this form as deposited currency accounts (DCAs).9 So far, central banks have generally chosen not to provide DCAs.

Universally accessible forms of money that are not issued by the central bank include (privately created) cryptocurrency, commodity money, commercial bank deposits and mobile money.10 Cryptocurrency borders CBCC given that only one of its properties differs. The other three currency forms are more removed because they are, in addition, either physical or "not peer-to-peer". A number of other forms of money are not universally accessible. Local (physical) currencies, ie currencies that can be spent in a particular geographical location at participating organisations, populate the right-hand petal of the flower. The upper left-hand petal contains virtual currencies, which are "electronic money issued and usually controlled by its developers, and used and accepted among the members of a specific virtual community" (ECB (2012)). There is also the possibility of a private sector wholesale version of cryptocurrency. It would be transferred in a peer-to-peer fashion by means of a distributed ledger, but only between certain financial institutions.

Box B uses this taxonomy to classify different examples of money from the past, present and future according to where they would fit in the money flower. The remainder of this feature discusses the two types of CBCC in further detail and highlights some of the many issues central banks will need to consider if they ever chose to adopt them. We start with the retail variant and then turn to the wholesale one.

Box B The money flower with selected examples Graph B fills out the money flower with examples of money from the past, present and possibly the future. Starting at the centre, we have Fedcoin, as an example of a retail CBCC. The concept, which was proposed by Koning (2014) and has not been endorsed by the Federal Reserve, is for the central bank to create its own cryptocurrency. The currency could be converted both ways at par with the US dollar and conversion would be managed by the Federal Reserve Banks. Instead of having a predetermined supply rule, as is the case with Bitcoin, the supply of Fedcoin would, much like cash, increase or decrease depending on the desire of consumers to hold it. Fedcoin would become a third component of the monetary base, alongside cash and reserves. Unlike Bitcoin, Fedcoin would not represent a competing, private "outside money" but would instead be an alternative form of sovereign currency (Garratt and Wallace (2016)). CADcoin is an example of a wholesale CBCC. It is the original name for digital assets representing central bank money used in the Bank of Canada's proof of concept for a DLT-based wholesale payment system. CADcoin has been used in simulations performed by the Bank of Canada in cooperation with Payments Canada, R3 (a fintech firm), and several Canadian banks but has not been put into practice. In Sweden, the demand for cash has dropped considerably over the past decade (Skingsley (2016)). Already, many stores do not accept cash and some bank branches no longer disburse or collect cash. In response, the Riksbank has embarked on a project to determine the viability of an eKrona for retail payments. No decision has yet been taken in terms of technology (Sveriges Riksbank (2017)). Hence, the eKrona is located on the border between deposited currency accounts and retail CBCCs. Dinero electrónico is a mobile payment service in Ecuador where the central bank provides the underlying accounts to the public. Citizens can open an account by downloading an app, registering their national identity number and answering security questions. People deposit or withdraw money by going to designated transaction centres. As such, it is a (rare) example of a deposited currency account scheme. As Ecuador uses the US dollar as its official currency, accounts are denominated in that currency. Bitcoin is an example of a non-central bank digital currency. It was invented by an unknown programmer who used the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and was released as open-source software in 2009 along with a white paper describing the technical aspects of its design (see Box A for further details). PokéCoin is a currency used for in-game purchases in the Pokémon Go game and an example of a virtual currency. Utility Settlement Coin (USC) is an attempt by the private sector to provide a wholesale cryptocurrency. It is a concept proposed by a collection of large private banks and a fintech firm for a series of digital tokens representing money from multiple countries that can be exchanged on a distributed ledger platform (UBS (2016)). The value of each country's USC on the distributed ledger would be backed by an equivalent value of domestic currency held in a segregated (reserve) account at the central bank. The Bank of Amsterdam (the Amsterdamse Wisselbank) was established in 1609 by the City of Amsterdam to facilitate trade. It is often seen as a precursor to central banks. A problem at the time was that currency, ie coins, was being eroded, clipped or otherwise degraded. The bank took deposits of both foreign and local coinage at their real intrinsic value after charging a small coinage and management fee. These deposits were known as bank money. The Wisselbank introduced a book-entry system that enabled customers to settle payments with other account holders. The Dutch central bank was established in 1814 and the Bank of Amsterdam was closed in 1820 (Smith (1776), Quinn and Roberds (2014)). The 1934 series gold certificate was a $100,000 paper note issued by the US Treasury and used only for official transactions between Federal Reserve Banks. This was the highest US dollar-denominated note ever issued and did not circulate among the general public. It is an example of non-electronic, restricted-use, government-backed, peer-to-peer money. Examples of privately issued local currencies include the Bristol Pound and BerkShares, located in the right-hand petal. Stores in Bristol, United Kingdom, give a discount to people using Bristol Pounds, whereas BerkShares are purchased at 95 cents on the dollar and are accepted at retail stores in the Berkshires region of Massachusetts at face value. Precious metal coins are examples of commodity money. They can be used as an input in production or for consumption and also as a medium of exchange. This is in contrast to fiat money, which has no intrinsic use. Although commodity money is largely a thing of the past, it was the predominant medium of exchange for more than two millennia. E-gold account holders used commercial bank money to purchase a share of the holding company's stock of gold and used mobile phone text messages to transfer quantities of gold to other customers. Payments between e-gold customers were "on-us" transactions that simply involved updating customer accounts. E-gold ultimately failed. But before it shut down in 2009, it had accumulated over 5 million account holders. Many current private mobile payment platforms, such as Venmo (a digital wallet with social media features popular with US college students) and M-pesa™ (a popular mobile money platform in Kenya and other East African countries), employ a similar "on-us" model. Users transfer either bank deposits or cash to the operator, who gives them mobile credits. These credits can be transferred between platform participants using their mobile devices or redeemed from the operator for cash or deposits. The daily number of M-pesa transactions dwarfs those conducted using Bitcoin. However, in terms of value, worldwide Bitcoin transfers have recently overtaken those conducted on the M-pesa platform (Graph 1, right-hand panel).

Retail central bank cryptocurrencies

Retail CBCCs do not exist anywhere. However, the concept of a retail CBCC has been widely discussed by bloggers, central bankers and academics. Perhaps the most frequently discussed proposal is Fedcoin (Koning (2014, 2016), Motamedi (2014)).11 As discussed in Box B, the idea is for the Federal Reserve to create a cryptocurrency that is similar to bitcoin. However, unlike with bitcoin, only the Federal Reserve would be able to create Fedcoins and there would be one-for-one convertibility with cash and reserves. Fedcoins would only be created (destroyed) if an equivalent amount of cash or reserves were destroyed (created) at the same time. Like cash, Fedcoin would be decentralised in transaction and centralised in supply. Sveriges Riksbank, with its eKrona project, appears to have gone furthest in thinking about the potential issuance of a retail CBCC (Box C).

A retail CBCC along the lines of Fedcoin would eliminate the high price volatility that is common to cryptocurrencies (Graph 1, centre panel).12 Moreover, as Koning (2014) notes, Fedcoin has the potential to relieve the zero lower bound constraint on monetary policy. As with other electronic forms of central bank money, it is technically possible to pay interest on a DLT-based CBCC. If a retail CBCC were to completely replace cash, it would no longer be possible for depositors to avoid negative interest rates and still hold central bank money.

Any decision to implement a retail CBCC would have to balance potential benefits against potential risks. Bank runs might occur more quickly if the public were able to easily convert commercial bank money into risk-free central bank liabilities (Tolle (2016)). There could also be risks to the business models of commercial banks. Banks might be disintermediated, and hence less able to perform essential economic functions, such as monitoring borrowers, if consumers decided to forgo commercial bank deposits in favour of retail CBCCs. These benefits and costs are, however, not unique to retail CBCCs. They are the same for DCAs. What, then, is the key difference between retail CBCCs and DCAs? The answer lies with the peer-to-peer aspect of CBCCs and, more specifically, with anonymity.

Anonymity

Bitcoin was designed to be a "peer-to-peer version of electronic cash" (Nakamoto (2009, p 1), and this allows transactions to be anonymous. All bitcoin transactions are publicly recorded using the payer's and the payee's public addresses.13 However, very much like e-mail addresses, bitcoin public addresses do not need to reveal the true identity of users.14 This means that a person sending bitcoin to a public address need not reveal his/her true identity to the recipient (counterparty anonymity) or to other members of the Bitcoin community (one form of third-party anonymity).15

Box C The case of Sweden Sweden has one of the highest adoption rates of modern information and communication technologies in the world. It also has a highly efficient retail payment system. At the end of 2016, more than 5 million Swedes (over 50% of the population) had installed the Swish mobile phone app, which allows people to transfer commercial bank money with immediate effect (day or night) using their handheld device (Graph C, left-hand panel; see also Bech et al (2017)). The demand for cash is dropping rapidly in Sweden (Graph C, right-hand panel). Already, many stores no longer accept cash and some bank branches no longer disburse or collect cash. These developments are a cause for concern for the Riksbank (Skingsley (2016)). Will the payment system continue to be safe and efficient without cash? Even if cash is not used every day, it is a backup option in crisis situations. Will those without access to bank services still be able to manage their payments? The Riksbank currently has a so-called eKrona project under way to determine whether it should supply digital central bank money to the general public. The project is considering different technical solutions, but no decision has been taken as to whether to focus on a DCA or a retail CBCC structure. The project is expected to be finalised in late 2019 (Sveriges Riksbank (2017)).

Kahn et al (2005) and McAndrews (2017) emphasise legitimate reasons for counterparty anonymity in transactions. Payees and payers may want to reduce the risk of identity theft, the possibility that the counterparty might follow them home and rob them, or more innocuous annoyances like directed advertising and solicitations (spamming). Similarly, a lack of third-party anonymity may be regarded as revealing too much information about a person's private activities. In his proposal for Digicash, David Chaum (1983) makes this argument by pointing out that "knowledge by a third party of the payee, amount, and time of payment for every transaction made by an individual can reveal a great deal about the individual's whereabouts, associations and lifestyle".16

Counterparty anonymity seems less controversial than third-party anonymity. Many observers have argued that third-party anonymity in payments should not be allowed because it facilitates criminal activity, such as tax evasion, terrorist financing or money laundering. Rogoff (2016) argues that $100 bills should be removed from circulation for the same reasons.

It is unclear how much consumers actually value anonymity of either sort in order to protect their privacy. Athey et al (2017) look at how much effort people make to protect their privacy in relation to digital currencies. In an experimental setting, they find that subjects, in general, do not devote the small amount of time needed to read through the e-wallet description that is necessary to meet their own stated preferences for privacy. Similar findings emerged from a survey of economics students at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on usage of Venmo (a digital wallet with social media features). Of the 669 respondents, 80% were users. Of these users, 44% allowed their Venmo transactions to be public (visible to everyone on the internet) and another 21% allowed all of their Facebook friends to see their transactions. Finally, while Digicash is regarded as a precursor to bitcoin, there may not have been sufficiently high demand for the third-party anonymity it provided as it was never widely adopted. It filed for bankruptcy in 1998.17

The technology behind CBCCs could allow central banks to provide a digital cash substitute with anonymity properties similar to those of cash. In its role as issuer, the central bank would need to decide whether or not to require customer information (the true identity behind the public address). This would determine the extent to which the retail CBCC would provide third-party anonymity.

While it may look odd for a central bank to issue a cryptocurrency that provides anonymity, this is precisely what it does with physical currency, ie cash. Perhaps a key difference is that, with a retail CBCC, the provision of anonymity becomes a conscious decision. It is worth recalling that the anonymity properties of cash are likely to have emerged out of convenience or historical happenstance rather than intent.

Wholesale central bank cryptocurrencies

While CBCCs for retail payments remain at the conceptual stage, some central banks have completed proofs of concept for DLT-based applications.18 One of the reasons for the interest in DLT is that many central bank-operated wholesale payment systems are at the end of their technological life cycles. The systems are programmed in obsolete languages or use database designs that are no longer fit for purpose and are costly to maintain.

Projects Jasper and Ubin

Project Jasper at the Bank of Canada (Chapman et al (2017)) and Project Ubin at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS (2017)) simulate real-time gross settlement (RTGS) systems on a DLT platform. In an RTGS system, payments are processed individually, immediately and with finality throughout the day (CPSS (1997)).

Unlike the retail payment applications discussed above, wholesale systems have restricted access, ie they are permissioned rather than permission-less. Usually, access is restricted to financial institutions. Moreover, the costly proof-of-work validation (Box A) needed to prevent double-spending in retail schemes is replaced by less energy-consuming alternatives, such as a trusted notary (eg the central bank).

A key challenge in any CBCC application is how to transfer central bank money to the distributed ledger.19 Both Jasper and Ubin chose a digital depository receipt (DDR) approach. A DDR is a claim on central bank reserves held in a segregated account against which the central bank issues digital tokens on the distributed ledger. In Jasper, the digital tokens - initially known as CADcoins20 - are created at the beginning of the day and redeemed at the end. In Ubin, banks acquire or redeem digital tokens at any point during the day and can keep them on the distributed ledger overnight. Hence, transfers on the DLT platform of the Singaporean proof of concept are not restricted to the opening hours of MAS.

Project Jasper also implements a liquidity-saving mechanism (LSM) on the DLT platform. While RTGS systems minimise settlement risk, they can be demanding in terms of liquidity. Consequently, many RTGS systems around the world are augmented by mechanisms that periodically seek to offset payments against each other in a queue and settle only the net amounts (Bech and Soramäki (2001)). Distributed ledgers are decentralised, so implementation of a centralised queue requires a clever work-around (Project Jasper (2017)).

The two projects show that central bank money can be transferred on a distributed ledger in real time, in realistic volumes and with an LSM. Nevertheless, none of the current initiatives to update or replace existing wholesale payment systems are considering the adoption of DLT. Both the Bank of England (2017) and Bank of Canada (Ho (2017)) conclude that DLT is not yet mature enough for current adoption. Yet most central banks that are considering modernising their core payment infrastructure stress the need to make new systems inter-operable with future DLT platforms.

Securities settlement

Looking beyond the immediate horizon, many industry participants see significant potential for DLT to increase efficiency and reduce reconciliation costs in securities clearing and settlement.21 One potential benefit of DLT-based structures is immediate clearing and settlement of securities, in contrast to the multiple-day lags that currently exist when exchanging cash for securities (and vice versa).22 Progress in this direction was recently achieved by a joint venture between the Deutsche Bundesbank and Deutsche Börse, which developed a functional prototype of a DLT-based securities settlement platform that achieves delivery-versus-payment settlement of digital coins and securities (Deutsche Bundesbank (2016)).

Conclusion

As it stands, cash is the only means by which the public can hold central bank money. If someone wishes to digitise that holding, he/she has to convert the central bank liability into a commercial bank liability by depositing the cash in a bank. A CBCC would allow consumers to hold central bank liabilities in digital form.23 But this would also be possible if the public were allowed to have central bank accounts, an idea that has been around for a long time.24 We argue that the main benefit that a consumer-facing retail CBCC would offer, over the provision of public access to (centralised) central bank accounts, is that the former would have the potential to provide the anonymity of cash. In particular, peer-to-peer transfers allow anonymity vis-à-vis any third party. If third-party anonymity is not of sufficient importance to the public, then many of the alleged benefits of retail CBCCs can be achieved by giving broad access to accounts at the central bank.

Whether or not a central bank should provide a digital alternative to cash is most pressing in countries, such as Sweden, where cash usage is rapidly declining. But all central banks may eventually have to decide whether issuing retail or wholesale CBCCs makes sense in their own context. In making this decision, central banks will have to consider not only consumer preferences for privacy and possible efficiency gains - in terms of payments, clearing and settlement - but also the risks it may entail for the financial system and the wider economy, as well as any implications for monetary policy (Bordo and Levin (2017)). Some of the risks are currently hard to assess. For instance, at present very little can be said about the cyber-resilience of CBCCs, something not touched upon in this short feature.

References

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Output: The peer-to-peer element of consumer-facing, retail central bank cryptocurrencies (CBCCs) could offer the anonymity of cash but in digital form, according to the Bank for International Settlements. In a blog post, it suggests the creation of CBCCs would require universal accessibility, thus removing the need for central bank clearance when transacting CBCCs. The BIS warned, however, that such a move could increase the threat of bank runs and may pose risks to the business models of commercial banks. Moreover, the impact of CBCCs is down to the public perception of the necessity for anonymous payments, otherwise broader central bank accounts would be sufficient.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

Input:
Employers should aid first-time buyers: Localis
 Employers and government must help first-time buyers save deposit money to break housing impasse, Localis urges

18/09/2017

To boost young people’s chances of getting on the property ladder, employers and government should both contribute to first-time buyers’ deposit-savings using auto-enrolment of monthly pay-packets – a think-tank has today urged.

The call comes as centre-right think-tank Localis produces the interim findings of its report ‘Disrupting the Housing Market’.

The report will present three key policy recommendations: –

Extension of principle of auto-enrolment from pensions to saving deposits among 18-40 year olds to radically speed up the time it takes young people to earn the deposit for their first house;

Let local authorities re-designate greenbelt land through the creation of ‘yellowfield registers’ – allowing the sustainable release of land for new homes in areas where green belt protection is unwarranted;

Providing greater protections to private-rented tenants by allowing them to choose their initial tenancy length at six month intervals up to thirty-six months, with a one month break option after six months.

Jack Airey, senior researcher at Localis, said: “Whether out of choice, or simply because they do not have enough money at the end of each month to do so, a majority of people are not building any financial capacity with which to get a mortgage and purchase a home in the future.

“This crisis of saving transcends people of all tenures, ages, regions and socio-economic classes yet these consequences are underappreciated, least of all by non-homeowners themselves. Under this auto-enrolment scheme, rather than relying on the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’, employers and government would help young people onto the housing ladder.”

Liam Booth-Smith, chief executive at Localis, said: “The available evidence overwhelmingly points to the vast majority of people still wanting to own a home. It is an important life ambition, one that recent generations have enjoyed and future generations should too.

“The housing market is everyone’s problem – those who already own their home are dependent on someone else buying it. If the first rung of the housing ladder is lifted too high, there will be fewer and fewer buyers to sell to in the future.

“A Burkean intergenerational contract needs to be restored between those who wish to own their home, those that already do; and those that want to leave for retirement.”

Read more; for a full breakdown of the interim housing report findings, please visit : https://www.localis.org.uk/news/policies-for-a-fairer-housing-market/

Output: Employers should help younger people save for a deposit on their first home, according to London think-tank Localis. The centre-right organisation included the recommendation in the interim findings of its forthcoming report, titled Disrupting the Housing Market. The policy would extend the principle of auto-enrolment currently in place for pensions, and would be aimed at helping young people build up the funds needed to get on the housing ladder. "This crisis of saving transcends people of all tenures, ages, regions and socio-economic classes yet these consequences are underappreciated, least of all by non-homeowners themselves", said Jack Airey, senior researcher at Localis.


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Hewlett Packard and GE to provide cybersecurity support in Africa
 Johannes Koch, MD, Middle East and Africa for HPE, and Ali Saleh, senior vice president and chief commercial officer for GE Digital MEA.

Information technology enterprise Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has entered into three-year partnership with General Electric (GE) to provide cyber security solutions in the Africa, Middle East and Turkey regions.

According to the two companies, the partnership, which is valued at $25 million, is the first collaboration of this scale and scope in the region and will see GE Digital's industrial solutions de-ployed in the areas.

The companies will use a combined network of more than 1 500 partners in the region to deliver the solutions. "HPE's Partner Ready Program will ensure that more than 340 HPE specialists and channel partner technical and sales resources will be trained and certified on GE Digital solutions to deliver the solution on HPE storage and server infrastructure. In addition, HPE's own security capabilities for information technology infrastructure will complement the solutions provided by GE for the operational technology environment," the companies said.

Ali Saleh, senior vice president and chief commercial officer for GE Digital MEA, adds that in the first year, the partnership will be focusing on South Africa, Northern Africa, the Gulf, Levant and Turkey. "This partnership will enable our most important customers and partners in the region to begin the journey of digital transformation in a secure environment. HPE has the strongest partner programme among peers to manage a partnership of this scope and scale, to bolster a secure digital ecosystem, and reach customers quickly through an innovative business model."

According to the pair, one of the first solutions that will be focused on is OpShield from GE Digital. OpShield is an operational technology cyber security solution that is specialised to protect critical infrastructure and reduces risk of cyber-related unplanned downtime; heightens asset protection from cyber-related damage; helps safeguard protected health information and reduces risk of damage to reputation and intellectual property theft due to cyber incidents.

The companies further announced that discussions around bringing Predix-based applications to the market are currently underway. Predix is a cloud-based operating system for the industrial Internet that was purpose-built for the digital industrial era. It captures and analyses the "unique volume, velocity and variety of machine data in a secure, industrial-strength cloud environment".

Johannes Koch, MD of HPE in the Middle East and Africa, notes that the partnership is mutually beneficial. "This agreement for Middle East, Africa and Turkey builds on our global partnership with GE to help our customers and partners take advantage of the industrial Internet of things and drive digital transformation across their business. The requirement for security in both information technology and operational technology environments, and the need to protect critical infrastructures, makes this an ideal opportunity for our partners."

Output: UK-based IT company Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has announced a three-year partnership with General Electric (GE) to develop cybersecurity systems for projects in Africa, the Middle East and Turkey. The $25m deal will involve making GE's digital solutions available to HPE's existing partners and combining the companies' security capabilities for IT infrastructure. GE's OpShield system, which is designed to protect critical infrastructure from cyber-related damage, will be among the first products to be offered. The companies also intend to develop applications for GE's Predix, a cloud-based operating system designed for digital industries.


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Electric rickshaws and buses to take to the streets of India
 A sales executive talks about Mahindra's electric car "e2o Plus", on display at a showroom in New Delhi

India will roll out nearly 100,000 battery-powered buses and autorickshaws onto its sulphurous city streets in the coming weeks, setting it on the bumpy road to making new vehicle sales all-electric by 2030.

India, one of the world's most polluted nations, has one of the most ambitious plans to kick its fossil fuel addiction.

Analysts say the target is "daunting".

Transport is a major source of India's carbon emissions and the Greenpeace group blames at least 1.2 million deaths a year in the country on pollution.

Getting off diesel and petrol would improve the nation's health and bolster India's bid to meet the bold climate change targets it pledged in Paris in 2015.

India is not alone in wanting all-electric cars, though it is aiming to go faster than others.

Britain and France have said they want to end the sale of fossil fuel cars by 2040.

But electric and hybrid models make up just three percent of all cars on the road worldwide, say London-based consultancy firm PwC.

That figure is even lower in India, underscoring the enormity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's electric challenge.

On top of gradually bringing in electric rickshaws and buses in New Delhi, the government has issued a tender to auto makers for 10,000 cars to replace pollution producers at four government ministries.

"To go all electric is a daunting task," said PwC partner Abdul Majeed.

Ankur Bhatia (R), head of marketing at Mahindra Electric Mobility, checks his mobile phone while driving Mahindra's electric car "e2o Plus", in New Delhi

"Electric vehicles have a few huge challenges to deal with before they can take off in a big way."

Low-cost solutions

The government does not want to pay for a network of charging stations for millions of future green motorists to power up depleted car batteries.

Instead it hopes private energy companies will invest in "swapping bays", where drivers can exchange empty batteries for fresh ones, Ashok Jhunjhunwala, principal advisor to the power minister and the official spearheading the efforts, told AFP.

It plans to lease batteries separately for public transport and taxi fleets. It also wants more work on smaller, easier to use batteries.

Amara Raja Batteries, an Indian battery manufacturer, would be part of the "swapping model", said its chief executive S. Vijayanand.

"The headache of managing and charging the battery will not be with the driver then," he said.

Other ideas include setting tougher efficiency standards so new vehicles use less power.

"The idea is to keep it as low-cost as possible," Jhunjhunwala said. "Vehicles and chargers must happen without subsidies and must make business sense."

Mahesh Babu, chief executive at Indian conglomerate Mahindra, said it was an exciting project but government efficiency targets are "idealistic and might lead to compromise on consumer needs and safety."

Others are more optimistic.

Mahindra's electric car "e2o Plus" is plugged in for charging, at a showroom in New Delhi

Reductions in the size and cost of electric vehicles, coupled with rapid technological advances, mean India's ambitions were "very feasible", said Bill Hare, chief executive of the Berlin-based Climate Analytics consultancy.

'India's challenges'

Foreign car majors are not ready to bring their electric offerings to India.

Mercedes said it needs a reasonable timeline and improved incentives for motorists—currently a tiny sum that could be withdrawn at any time—to bring in electric cars.

Tesla boss Elon Musk—who in July launched Model 3, a mass-market version of Tesla's pricier cars—has postponed entry to the Indian market.

But at $35,000, even the cheapest Tesla is out of reach for most Indians. Most of the three million new cars added to India's roads every year are far cheaper, compact vehicles.

Nissan Motor is test driving its Leaf model to see how it performs on Indian roads and copes with pollution and extreme weather conditions.

That leaves the field wide open for Mahindra, currently the only company selling electric cars in India.

Its hatchback, sedan and van sell in Delhi from $11,000 to $15,000, after a subsidy of $2,300.

The company hopes to sell up to 5,000 units this year, including autorickshaws.

So far it has tied up with cab firms in a handful of cities, logistics firms and start-ups that offer a sharing system of self-driving cars.

"We want to meet India's challenges," Babu said.

© 2017 AFP

Output: India is to put almost 100,000 battery-powered autorickshaws and buses into service in the coming weeks. Rather than set up a network of charging stations, the government wants to create battery-swapping points, where drivers deposit a depleted battery in exchange for a fully charged one. The government intends all new vehicles on sale to be electric by 2030. Some 1.2 million deaths a year in India are caused by pollution, according to Greenpeace.


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Christian Candy remortgages and sells £340m of property assets
 The controversial property mogul Christian Candy, whose luxury developments attracted some of the highest prices ever paid for London real estate, has sold and mortgaged assets worth an estimated £340m in less than a year.

The sum is a significant part of the £600m joint fortune Christian and his elder brother and business partner, Nick, disclosed to a British court last year.

A trawl through the land registry, property websites and news reports suggests that eight homes and developments have been sold, borrowed against or placed on the market between July 2016 and June of this year.

They include a villa on the French Riviera, a penthouse above the Plaza Hotel in New York, and a seven-bedroom, seven-bathroom house in London with a swimming pool and staff quarters.

Known as the “brothers bling” for their private jet, their yachts and collections of Swiss watches and sports cars, the Candys were the poster boys for London’s super-luxe real estate boom. Their developments, including One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge, attracted oligarchs, Nigerian petro-bosses and Middle Eastern royals.

But the five-year high-end property rush has stalled, with too many competing developments and an oil price slump curbing interest from potential buyers. Christian Candy, it seems, has decided to cash in some of his chips.

Nick and Christian Candy at the launch of their One Hyde Park development in 2011. Photograph: Dave M. Benett/Getty Images

“Players at this level often shuffle their chess pieces around,” said property agent and market commentator Henry Pryor. “The market, even for the Candy brothers, is no longer as sweet as it was a couple of years ago – but, having enjoyed some of the most impressive returns over the years, they can probably weather a modest downturn.”

However, the disposals have prompted legal letters from the businessman Mark Holyoake, who is suing the brothers for £132m in damages after they fell out over a loan. The trial was held in February and March, and judgment in the case is expected in October.

Many of the transactions took place during and after the trial. Holyoake’s solicitors wrote to the Candys in July threatening to ask for a court ruling to freeze their assets. Such an order would prevent the brothers from making any further disposals. However, Holyoake has yet to take any such action.

His spokesman said: “We are extremely concerned at the level of recent Candy property disposals in the UK and abroad. Mr Holyoake and his legal team are currently investigating these issues as a matter of urgency and will not hesitate to take appropriate action if assets are being dissipated.”

The Candys declined to comment on the disposals and dismissed Holyoake’s concerns as misplaced and without foundation. They have fully defended the claims brought by Holyoake and expect to be successful in their defence. They say their remaining assets would, after the disposals, be sufficient to cover any penalty were Holyoake’s case to succeed.

Loans have been taken out against properties, including a two-floor penthouse in block D at One Hyde Park, where security measures include iris scanners and SAS-trained guards. The proprietor is a company registered at the Guernsey address used by Christian Candy’s CPC Group.

In July 2016, it raised a mortgage from the Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank, according to the title deed, which states that the bank is under obligation to “make further advances”.

The Plaza hotel in New York, where Christian Candy sold a £31m apartment. Photograph: Lisa Carpenter

This June, Christian Candy was reported to be under contract to sell his three-floor Plaza penthouse for just under $40m (£31m). The property, which occupies the attic floors of a famous New York hotel once owned by Donald Trump, was acquired for $25m in 2012 and, after a revamp, was placed on the market a year later with a price tag of $59m. A buyer was found after a decision to drop the price earlier this year, according to reports.

In May, Villa l’Horizon in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, one of the most expensive locations on the French Riviera, was sold to an undisclosed buyer – for nearly 30% less than the original €35m (£31m) asking price.

Hugh House on Eaton Square was refinanced in March with Swiss bank UBS. It appears to have been put up for sale and then withdrawn. Once the property of Lily Safra, widow of billionaire banker Edmond Safra, it was marketed at £45m by the estate agent Savills, according to an advert which states it has now been “removed by the agent”.

Clermont Trust (Switzerland) SA, which appears to be a Geneva-based wealth manager, is now named as the proprietor of three other addresses.

A large property at Cornwall Terrace, used by Christian as his London family home, has been transferred to Clermont for just over £39m according to a land registry entry from December 2016. The Swiss group is also named on the title deeds of two associated houses at Cornwall Terrace Mews: one was acquired for £2m, and the other, valued at £1.2m, previously belonged to Christian Candy’s wife Emily Crompton.

Cornwall Terrace next to London’s Regent’s Park. Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Finally, the Financial Times reported in June that the Duke’s Lodge development was for sale. The 1930s mansion block was bought for £85m, according to the title deed, and Christian Candy’s CPC Group obtained planning permission to refurbish the building as luxury flats. Rather than developing the property itself, CPC is now reported to be seeking buyers at a discounted £75m.

In 2016, a judge imposed restrictions on disposals by the Candys. He forbade them from selling assets worth more than £1m without notifying Holyoake first, after deciding there was “risk of dissipation” ahead of the damages trial, which took place in the high court in February and March of this year.

The judge later varied the restriction significantly, including allowing for no notice on “transactions in the ordinary and proper course of business”. In October the court of appeal decided the notification order should be completely lifted, with a judge concluding there was “insufficient evidence showing a real risk of dissipation”.

One Hyde Park, London. Photograph: View Pictures/REX

The properties

1. One Hyde Park Penthouse D, London – valued at £120m in 2011, was refinanced in July 2016 according to the land registry

2. Plaza Penthouse, New York – reported in June 2017 to be under contract with a buyer at just under $40m

3. Hugh House, London – mortgaged in March 2017, advertised for sale at £45m

4. Villa L’Horizon, Cap-Ferrat – the French Riviera villa was originally marketed at €35m, but reported in May to have been sold for €25m

5. Cornwall Terrace, London – Britain’s “most expensive terraced house”, overlooking Regent’s Park, was bought for £35m in 2012. In February of this year it was recorded as transferred to Clermont Trust (Switzerland) SA, at a value of £39m.

6. Cornwall Terrace Mews – Originally in the name of Emily Crompton, Christian’s wife, the property was transferred in February 2017 to Clermont Trust for £1.2m.

7. Cornwall Terrace Mews – a second mews house associated with the main property at Cornwall Terrace was transferred to Clermont Trust for £2m in January 2017.

8. Duke’s Lodge, London – The 1930s mansion block in Holland Park was bought for £85m in 2015, and refinanced with a loan from Credit Suisse in February 2017. A newspaper report says it is now on the market for £75m.

Output: UK property mogul Christian Candy has mortgaged and sold up to £340m ($460m) worth of assets, including a villa on the French Riviera, a penthouse above the Plaza Hotel in New York and a seven-bedroom house in London. A spokesman for businessman Mark Holyoake, who took legal action against Christian and his brother Nick Candy after they fell out over a loan, said Holyoake was "extremely concerned" at the reshuffle. Judgment in the case is expected in October.


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Device measures atmospheric carbon compounds from fossil fuels
 Carbon atoms occur in heavy and light forms, or isotopes, and measuring the relative amounts of each can reveal the source of the carbon. Oxygen atoms are represented in gray and carbon isotopes are in orange. Credit: Kelly Irvine/NIST

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a laboratory instrument that can measure how much of the carbon in many carbon-containing materials was derived from fossil fuels. This will open the way for new methods in the biofuels and bioplastics industries, in scientific research, and environmental monitoring. Among other things, it will allow scientists to measure how much of the carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) in the atmosphere came from burning fossil fuels, and to estimate fossil fuel emissions in an area as small as a city or as large as a continent.

This is possible because carbon atoms occur in heavy and light forms, or isotopes, and measuring the relative amounts of each can reveal the source of the carbon. Using carbon isotopes in this way is not a new idea, but it requires extremely precise—and expensive—measurements. The new instrument, developed by NIST chemists Adam Fleisher and David Long and based on a technology called cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS), promises to dramatically reduce the cost of those measurements. They described the instrument's performance in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters .

"Measuring carbon isotopes is an extremely useful technique, but until now, it has found limited use because of the cost," said Long. "Lowering the cost will open the way for new applications, especially ones that require testing a large number of samples."

The key to these measurements is carbon-14, a radioactive (yet harmless) isotope of carbon that is formed in the upper atmosphere. That carbon-14 finds its way into all living things. Unlike regular carbon, carbon-14 is unstable, with a half-life of 5,730 years. When living things die, they stop incorporating carbon into their bodies, and their carbon-14 starts to decay away.

Scientists can calculate how long ago something died by measuring how much carbon-14 is in its remains. That technique is called carbon dating, and scientists use it to date things like Neanderthal bones and ancient plant fibers.

Fossil fuels also are the remains of living things, mainly plants that died hundreds of millions of years ago. Virtually all their carbon-14 decayed away eons ago, so anything derived from them is marked by the absence of measurable amounts of carbon-14.

But carbon-14 is extremely rare, and to use it for identifying fossil fuels, scientists need to be able to measure it at concentrations as low as 1 part in 10 trillion. That's the equivalent of a single grain of sand in 60 dump trucks full of the stuff.

To measure concentrations that low, you need an extremely sensitive measurement technique, and such a technique already exists. Archaeologists have been relying on it for decades. But that technique requires a particle accelerator to separate the isotopes (the heavier carbon-14 accelerates more slowly than everyday carbon-12), along with a facility to house it and a team of PhDs to run it.

The CRDS instrument that Fleisher and Long have developed can sit on a laboratory benchtop and is relatively inexpensive to operate.

Credit: Kelly Irvine/NIST

CRDS instruments analyze gases by detecting the wavelengths of light they absorb. For instance, CO 2 that contains carbon-14—so-called heavy CO 2 —absorbs a slightly different wavelength than regular CO 2 .

To measure how much heavy CO 2 you have in a CO 2 sample, you first inject the sample into the instrument's measurement cavity (the "C" in CRDS), which is a tube with mirrors inside at either end. You then tune a laser to the exact wavelength that only heavy CO 2 absorbs and shoot a burst of it into the cavity. As the laser light bounces between the mirrors, some of its energy is absorbed by the gas. The greater the absorption, the greater the concentration of heavy CO 2 .

To achieve the required sensitivity, Fleisher and Long enhanced existing CRDS technology by engineering a system that chills the cavity to a uniform minus 55 degrees Celsius and minimizes temperature fluctuations that would throw off the measurement. Making the cavity very cold allows their instrument to detect very faint signals of light absorption, the same way that you might be able to hear a pin drop if you made a room extremely quiet.

This and other improvements boosted the instrument's sensitivity enough for accurate carbon dating.

To test biofuels and bioplastics, you would first burn those materials, then collect the resulting CO 2 for analysis. This would allow you to test a fuel mixture to determine what fraction of it is biofuel. In the airline industry, for example, this would be useful because some countries require that aviation fuels include a specific biofuel percentage. Such tests could also be used to verify that bioplastics, which sell for a premium, do not contain petroleum-derived compounds.

To estimate fossil fuel emissions in a geographic area, you would collect many air samples across that area and analyze the atmospheric CO 2 in those samples. Areas with high fossil fuel emissions, such as cities and industrial zones, will have below-normal concentrations of heavy CO 2 .

"Fossil fuel emissions dilute the concentration of heavy CO 2 in the air," said Fleisher. "If we can accurately measure that concentration after it's been diluted, we can calculate how much fossil fuel emissions are in the mix."

A report from the National Academy of Sciences estimated that 10,000 samples a year, collected at carefully chosen locations around the United States, would be enough to estimate national fossil fuel emissions to within 10 percent of the actual value. Such a system of measurements can increase the reliability of national emissions estimates. This would be especially useful in parts of the world where high-quality emissions data are not readily available.

"There is a need for this type of measurement in many industries," Fleisher said. "We've demonstrated a path to meeting that need in a cost-effective way."

More information: Adam J. Fleisher et al. Optical Measurement of Radiocarbon below Unity Fraction Modern by Linear Absorption Spectroscopy, The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.7b02105 Journal information: Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters

Output: Scientists at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a device that can measure the level of fossil fuel-derived carbon in the atmosphere, according to an article published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. The team made several changes to cavity ringdown spectroscopy technology, including chilling the cavity to minimise temperature fluctuations, to improve its sensitivity, before injecting a sample of heavy CO2 and measuring the wavelengths of light absorbed. Possible applications include the airline industry and bioplastics.


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Quantum tech raises hydrogen productivity from water splitting
 Fossil fuels accounted for almost 90 percent of energy consumption in 2015. Credit: Lancaster University

Physicists at Lancaster University are developing methods of creating renewable fuel from water using quantum technology.

Renewable hydrogen can already be produced by photoelectrolysis where solar power is used to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen.

But, despite significant research effort over the past four decades, fundamental problems remain before this can be adopted commercially due to inefficiency and lack of cost-effectiveness.

Dr Manus Hayne from the Department of Physics said: "For research to progress, innovation in both materials development and device design is clearly needed."

The Lancaster study, which formed part of the PhD research of Dr Sam Harrison, and is published in Scientific Reports, provides the basis for further experimental work into the solar production of hydrogen as a renewable fuel.

It demonstrates that the novel use of nanostructures could increase the maximum photovoltage generated in a photoelectrochemical cell, increasing the productivity of splitting water molecules.

Dr Hayne said: "To the authors' best knowledge, this system has never been investigated either theoretically or experimentally, and there is huge scope for further work to expand upon the results presented here."

Fossil fuels accounted for almost 90% of energy consumption in 2015, with absolute demand still increasing due to a growing global population and increasing industrialisation.

Dr Manus Hayne said: "Fossil-fuel combustion releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, causing global climate change, and there is only a finite amount of them available for extraction. We clearly need to transition to a renewable and low-greenhouse-gas energy infrastructure, and renewable hydrogen is expected to play an important role."

Photovoltaic solar cells are currently used to convert sunlight directly into electricity but solar hydrogen has the advantage that it is easily stored, so it can be used as and when needed.

Hydrogen is also very flexible, making it highly advantageous for remote communities. It can be converted to electricity in a fuel cell, or burnt in a boiler or cooker just like natural gas. It can even be used to fuel aircraft.

More information: S. Harrison et al, Photoelectrolysis Using Type-II Semiconductor Heterojunctions, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-11971-x Journal information: Scientific Reports

Output: Scientists at Lancaster University are turning to quantum technology to find innovative ways of developing hydrogen fuel using water and sunlight. In a recent study, published in Scientific Reports, physicists increased the productivity of splitting water molecules by demonstrating how the novel use of nanostructures could increase the maximum photovoltage generated in a photoelectrochemical cell. "To the authors' best knowledge, this system has never been investigated either theoretically or experimentally, and there is huge scope for further work to expand upon the results," said Dr Manus Hayne from the department of physics.


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Brazil registers 48 GW of renewables projects for December auction
 Brazil’s energy agency EPE has registered 574 solar PV projects, totalling 18,352MW in capacity, for it’s A-4 Reserve energy auction that will be held in December.

Wind energy saw strongest interest with 954 projects registered totalling 26,604MW, and covering more than half (55.5%) of the capacity submitted by all technologies.

There were 1,676 projects submitted across all technologies combined, including biomass, wind, solar and hydro. This came to 47,965MW.

The states with the highest solar registrations were:

Bahia – 4,758

Piaui – 3,354

Rio Grande do Norte 2,978

Ceara – 1,575

Sao Paulo – 1,243

Mato Grosso do Sul – 1,220

Pernambuco – 1,201

Minas Gerais – 1,145

Until 15 November, EPE will be analysing submissions to be able to technically qualify projects for the auction and participate effectively in the auction. The Auction will take place on 18 December. Grid-connection for winning projects is due by January 2021.

The other power auction, the A-6 for hydro, biomass, coal, gas and wind, will take place two days later on 20 December, and has seen 53,424MW of capacity registered.

Ciel & Terre Brasil, a subsidiary of French floating PV specialist Ciel & Terre, recently completed Brazil’s first floating solar project.

Output: EPE, Brazil's energy agency, has registered 1,676 renewable-energy projects amounting to 48 GW of capacity for an auction to be held in December. Wind accounted for the majority, with 954 projects totalling 26.6 GW. There were 574 solar projects with 18 GW of capacity. The remainder were hydropower and biomass.


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Medicaid pilots telehealth programme for new mothers in Arizona
 Care1st Health Plan Arizona has launched a pilot program offering Pacify Health’s live video chat app to new and soon-to-be mothers enrolled in the state’s Medicaid program.

The Pacify service, which is also available to consumers on Android and iOS platforms, quickly connects users to lactation consultants, dietitians, and other pregnancy management specialists. The video chat service is now available to all of the health plan’s expectant mothers and those up to 12 months postpartum, explains Pacify Health CEO Ben Lundin, and on average will connect mothers and experts in 25 seconds at any time of the day or night.

“When it’s 2 o’clock in the morning and you’re struggling with breast feeding, the last thing you want to see from an application is that the first available appointment is tomorrow at five,” Lundin told MobiHealthNews. “The moms who are creating these accounts and accessing these services are experiencing a radically higher level of care, and are showing much higher levels of satisfaction as a result.”

Traditionally, new mothers in need of assistance during off hours had few options outside of calling a knowledgeable friend, visiting an emergency room, or waking up their doctor during the middle of the night, Lundin said. A service capable of offering 24-7 consulting is capable of not only reassuring hysterical mothers, he continued, but would also greatly reduce unnecessary emergency services and their accompanying expenses.

“The key component to the technology development has precisely been solving that issue: how do you take a service like lactation consulting or dietetics … and connect them in under 30 seconds to the moms who need them?” Lundin said. “It’s partly an Uber-like technology for call routing and availability identification … and it utilizes a lot of push notifications."

While Care1st Health Plan Arizona is the first in the state to work with Pacify, the company currently has arrangements with additional insurers. What’s more, Lundin said that his company is comfortable working within the framework of Medicaid, public health networks, and regulations.

“We don’t see state Medicaid agencies as a hurdle at all,” Lundin said. “What we’ve found is that state regulators are overwhelmingly excited about programs that can transform the level of care in these populations. So many technology companies out there are providing fee-for-service or high-cost platforms that are targeting the commercial market or wealthier families, and it’s really awesome to be able to offer a program like this that is accessible in the Medicaid space and that has the possibility of transforming the way Medicaid participants access care.”

Along with live video chat, Pacify also features regular push notifications, alerts, and various educational resources related to prepartum and postpartum wellbeing.

Output: A live video chat service for new and expectant mothers is being piloted in Arizona for those on the state's Medicaid programme. The Pacify service is available around the clock and connects users to lactation consultants, dietitians and other pregnancy management specialists. It operates on Android and iOS platforms and also features push notifications, alerts and other educational resources. While developer Pacify Health has arrangements with other insurers, CEO Ben Lundin said it's "awesome" to be able to make the technology accessible through Medicaid, whose users tend to be less affluent Americans.


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Instagram verification increasingly elusive for emerging brands
 To many brands, a verification badge on a social media platform represents that they are legitimate businesses. Out of all platforms, a verification badge on Instagram has become the most exclusive. Agency executives say Instagram is only becoming more secretive and selective.

The main way agencies and brands get verified is by proving to a rep their Instagram accounts are being impersonated or are likely to get impersonated, said multiple agencies. Major brands seeking verification can use their size and popularity to prove fake accounts are impersonating their own. Strong connections with Facebook and Instagram and big budgets don’t hurt either. “The easiest way [to get verified] is to, frankly, spend money on advertising,” said Matt Britton, CEO at digital agency Crowdtap.

Small brands, however, cannot as easily demonstrate that other accounts want to steal their identities, and they are finding more and more roadblocks to verification.

The process

Instagram introduced verified badges to brands and celebrities in December 2014 to deter users from impersonating real accounts. Users could apply for verification, just as they would through Facebook or Twitter, according to Britton. But in September 2015, Instagram suddenly started prohibiting users from applying for badges, leaving agencies and brands to go through a rep at the platform. “It’s not currently possible to request or purchase a verified badge,” reads the platform’s current help page.

Allison Brito, associate director of media and marketing at Wondersauce, works with emerging brands on getting verified accounts on Instagram and noticed the process has become even more mysterious and rigid in the past year. She recalled that in early 2016, she contacted her Facebook rep directly without speaking to someone at Instagram when she wanted to get clients verified on both platforms.

“We were told from our Facebook rep that because Facebook and Instagram are the same company, that getting verified on Facebook was the easy way in,” she said. Essentially, because a brand was verified on Facebook meant it was likely the brand would also get verified on Instagram. But an “in” with a rep at Facebook no longer necessarily means a brand can get verified on Instagram, she said. “It’s not necessarily a shoo-in anymore,” said Brito, who is now undergoing the process for a client. “They are talking about the two platforms separately.”

Agencies also claim they are no longer notified whether or not a brand will be verified. Instead, verification badges will randomly appear on accounts, regardless of whether brands are working for them. “It’s like it’s a complete surprise, like, ‘Oh, we woke up one morning, and [the badge] was there,'” said Brito. And rather than taking a few days, agencies said the process can last from a few weeks to a few months.

A status symbol

Being verified on Instagram is of utmost importance for brands, numerous agency executives said. The blue check gives brands credibility in consumers’ eyes, especially now that Instagram users are accustomed to seeing blue badges next to familiar brands. “A user may be less inclined to reach out to a brand that isn’t verified,” said Jill Sherman, svp of social strategy at DigitasLBi.

Verification helps brands gain credibility among industry peers, too. “Being able to say we are recognized as a legitimate brand that other people would want to impersonate is important to get recognition within their industry,” said Brito.

What’s more, brands with verification badges receive early access to Instagram features that can help monetize accounts, like outgoing links on Instagram Stories. Instagram’s algorithms are also rumored to favor verified brands, with their content getting better placement and more engagement, said Gil Eyal, CEO of agency Hypr.

Jason Schlossberg, managing director at digital agency Huge, said that if a brand is not verified, it sends the message that the account is not significant enough to verify. “The verification itself becomes an implied endorsement that the brand or celebrity is ‘worthy’ of verification,” he said.

The desire for verification has led to the use of shady methods to get it. At the beginning of September, Mashable uncovered a black market where middlemen with contacts at Instagram have charged up to $15,000 for verification. But that approach is in jeopardy. One influencer named James, who sells verifications for up to $7,000, told Mashable that Instagram is firing employees involved in this scheme. While he could pass five names per week to his Instagram contact a year ago, he can now only send two names a week.

Brands have complained on their blogs or to Instagram itself about the difficulty of becoming verified. Amber Boyes, PR account supervisor and content strategist at creative agency Marcus Thomas, follows home organization e-commerce brand The Home Edit on Instagram. She said she saw the brand ranting about not being verified a few weeks ago on its Instagram Stories. Since then, The Home Edit brand has received a badge, and Boyes presumes it’s because the brand spoke out. The brand could not be reached for comment.

‘No official system’

Because of the mysterious nature of the Instagram verification process, agencies don’t know why they experience roadblocks. “There’s no official system,” said Schlossberg. “It all goes on behind the scenes.”

Mostly, experts believe that as the platform attracts more businesses, it wants to remain in complete control of its verification process, ensuring fake branded accounts don’t become as prevalent as they were in its early days.

Stephen Boidock, director of marketing and business development at digital agency Drumroll, believes the platform is making the verification process harder, but notes the platform is doing the same with its application programming interface approval process. Although Instagram would not comment on whether it is strengthening its grip on the verification process or how many requests it receives, a spokesperson said, “We take spam, inauthentic and other abusive behavior very seriously.”

Another belief is Instagram doesn’t have time to review all requests. Indeed, businesses have joined Instagram at an impressive rate. Nearly 71 percent of U.S. businesses are using Instagram this year, nearly double the amount of businesses (about 49 percent) that used the platform in 2016, according to eMarketer. At the end of July, Instagram announced it had 15 million business profiles, up from 8 million in March. With more new business users, the platform is likely seeing more verification requests, making it harder for emerging brands to receive it, said Eyal.

Experts believe Instagram’s verification system is not automated, with human beings reviewing each account, no easy feat with all the new businesses. Plus, the platform fields verification requests from influencers and celebrities. When Instagram introduced verification badges, it had 300 million users. Today, it has 700 million users. “Instagram must be inundated with these kind of requests,” said Schlossberg.

Instagram might not be the only platform becoming stricter about verifying accounts. Brito recently saw Twitter’s verification process become more tedious as well. Around three months ago, Wondersauce sent a brand’s Twitter handle to its rep at the platform for verification. The rep said the handles “go to a separate team” and that they would review the brand’s account, according to Brito. After “several doors closed,” the brand has still not been verified. “These platforms are looking for more authentic ways of verifying and not just giving out a badge because you apply,” Brito said. “I don’t think it’s just with Instagram anymore.”

Output: Smaller businesses seeking verification on Instagram are finding it increasingly difficult, thanks to the "mysterious and rigid" nature of the verification process, and the sheer number of business users on the social media site, according to several advertising executives. Instagram verification, which gives brands and celebrities a blue tick, is regarded as a mark of credibility, and is of the "utmost importance for brands". At the end of July 2017, Instagram said it had 15 million business profiles, compared to eight million in March.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Apple restricts ad trackers to 24-hour window
 Ad industry groups are pissed off at Apple, but there’s not much they can do about it.

Apple is limiting ad tracking in its Safari browser, which will make it harder for ad buyers to target niche audiences. Although this move protects users’ data privacy, it’s likely to hurt advertiser conversions and reduce CPMs for publishers that rely heavily on third-party data.

On Tuesday, Apple will update the operating system of its web browser Safari so users can’t be tracked by third parties for more than 24 hours after visiting a website. In response, six ad industry groups let Apple know they were frustrated, publishing an open letter last week stating that this move will sabotage the internet’s economy. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Apple’s Safari update is just the most recent example that displays company’s ambivalence about digital advertising. In 2014, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticized ad supported businesses like Facebook. Last year, Apple shut down its mobile ad platform iAd. While other tech giants like Amazon and Google are growing their revenue by creating new ad products, Apple has fully invested in getting people to pay for products like $1,000 cellphones.

Julie Rezek, North American president at ad agency HackerAgency, said Apple’s restrictions on retargeting data could hurt conversions and reduce reach by making it harder for advertisers to find users who fit specific demographics. Two other ad buyers said Apple’s reduction of third-party tracking will make it harder for them to drive sales and that if their ad performance declines, publishers will ultimately suffer since their CPMs will drop due to a reduction in demand.

But not all publishers will be harmed. Publishers that rely on third-party data vendors to sell the majority of their ads programmatically on open exchanges are most likely to be affected. The issue doesn’t hurt publishers that get most of their revenue from direct sales, said Todd Sawicki, CEO of native ad platform Zemanta.

Just as the General Data Protection Regulation will force advertisers to buy ads on sites with recognizable brands rather than target audiences whenever they wind up on the web, Apple’s data-gathering restrictions could benefit premium publishers not reliant on hypertargeting, said a product head at a comScore 200 publisher.

Although Ranker gets about 90 percent of its revenue through programmatic, Apple’s new rules should only affect 1 to 2 percent of its revenue, said Ranker CEO Clark Benson. This is because Ranker, like many publishers, is ramping up its private marketplace deals where it sells its proprietary data to advertisers. Meanwhile, Apple is clamping down on third-party data collection, which Ranker does not depend on in its PMPs.

By protesting Apple, the trade groups show they’re upholding their members’ interests, said media industry analyst Rebecca Lieb.

“But Apple is uniquely positioned to not care,” said Lieb, referring to how the vast majority of Apple’s revenue comes from selling devices, unlike Facebook, Google and Amazon. If Apple wants to change how users can be tracked in its browser, there’s really no one in ad land who can stop it, she said.

By making advertising slightly more difficult on the web, Apple is playing its card against ad giants like Amazon, Facebook and Google, Sawicki said. But unlike how Facebook algorithm changes can suddenly cut off a publisher’s primary revenue stream, the impact of Apple’s ploy will be more subtle, given that only 4 percent of desktop traffic and 29 percent of mobile traffic runs through Safari, according to NetMarketShare.

“As always in these kind of situations, the industry is saying, ‘The sky is falling,’” said independent ad tech consultant Brad Holcenberg, noting that Google’s Chrome browser is also restricting intrusive advertising by blocking the sound on autoplay videos. “Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t, but the industry has to be prepared to evolve quickly to a more user friendly one. Only a few companies hold the keys to users on the internet, and as [Google and Apple] show, that means changes can come fast and have broad implications.”

Output: Apple is changing the rules for ad tracking through its web browser Safari, in a move that advertisers say will harm their ability to target effectively. Third-party advertisers won't be able to track users for more than 24 hours after they land on a website, once the rules come into effect. Six advertising industry groups have published an open letter warning that the move will severely damage online business, gutting advertisers' ability to categorise users under particular demographics.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Google rolls out sound-enabled cash-transfer app Tez in India
 Google has introduced a new payment app in India called Tez (the Hindi word for “fast”). Tez features a technology called audio QR that allows users to transfer money using sounds to pair two devices. Called the “cash mode option,” phones negotiate a connection using audio to identify the payer and payee. (The sounds should be inaudible to human ears though because they’re sent using ultrasonic frequencies, according to the Financial Times.) The feature is therefore similar to cash transactions which don’t require the exchange of personal details like bank accounts and phone numbers. Cash Mode works with any phone with a mic and speaker and Tez app installed, and doesn’t require an NFC chip. Google’s Audio QR technology is similar to Chirp, which also sends data encoded in ultrasonic audio.

There are 300 million smartphone users in India, and phones with NFC are still relatively rare and expensive, with many users instead favoring entry-level and mid-tier devices. Tez is a step beyond Android Pay, because it allows users to link payment apps from Indian banks — it works with all of the country’s 55 banks on India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI). UPI is a system that allows numerous bank accounts to be linked into one mobile app, and enables secure peer-to-peer payment. According to Bloomberg, digital transactions have surged after the Indian Government banned high-value cash notes late last year.

Tez also facilitates bank-to-bank payments and is protected by Tez Shield, a data security platform from Google that detects fraud and protects user identity. Tez behaves like a chat app, using your contact list as a way to keep transaction history organized. People or businesses you’ve sent or received cash from grouped together “like a conversation,” Google says.

Output: Google has rolled out Tez, a payment app for the Indian market that uses sound to identify a transaction. When set to the Cash Mode Option, app-enabled phones negotiate connections via ultrasonic frequencies that should be inaudible to humans. All that's required is a handset with a microphone and speaker, rather than near-field communication chips, which are rarely used by Indian consumers. Available on iOS and Android, Tez works with all 55 banks on India’s Unified Payments Interface, enabling secure, peer-to-peer payment. Google said it plans to also introduce the service in Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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MTN deal enables mobile payments into Uganda's pension fund
 MTN and NSSF partner on mobile payments

MTN Uganda and the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) have announced a partnership that enables payment of social security contributions using Mobile Money.

The partnership enables NSSF members on the NSSF Voluntary Membership Plan as well as small and medium sized entities to conveniently make payments using MTN Mobile Money. NSSF on the other hand will be able to receive contributions promptly, thus enhancing its contributions process efficiency.

At a joint press conference today held at Workers House, Wim Vanhelleputte, the MTN Uganda CEO noted that this was part of fostering financial inclusion through easing the payments process of pensions that are critical to avoiding poverty in old age.

“In the last eight years, MTN Mobile Money has had significant impact in the transformation of people’s lives. Now we are further enabling people to pay for their NSSF Contributions using MTN Mobile Money. This will enable a significant part of our customers pay their pension and ensure they don’t retire into poverty,” Wim said.

Adding, “MTN Mobile Money is an enabler and we believe that on top of facilitating transactions, we can also have real impact on the lives of people.”

NSSF Uganda Managing Director Richard Byarugaba also emphasized that the MTN Mobile Money payments will ease the payments process since it is convenient.

“MTN Mobile Money benefits both our members and the Fund. In a survey we conducted last year on voluntary contributions, 67% of respondents cited mobile money as a preferred transaction method when remitting their social security contributions.”

Adding; “in addition to guaranteeing convenience for our voluntary contributors, it will ease reconciliation with an option of automating the upload of contributions onto members’ accounts. It will greatly improve data accuracy, as well as instant confirmation of received contributions through SMS to the contributors”.

Byarugaba clarified that MTN Mobile Money can be used by both voluntary contributors under the NSSF Voluntary Contributions Plan as well as established entities, especially those that remit less than 4 million shillings in social security contributions per month.

MTN Mobile Money, since its launch in 2009 has been a major facilitator of financial inclusion in the country. Over 8.8 million Ugandans depend on MTN Mobile Money, of which the majority had little or no access to any formal banking structure. MTN Mobile Money has also evolved from just being sending and receiving tool to one that enables people to borrow and save using MoKash. Now it is ensuring people save with NSSF, Uganda’s largest pension fund, and earn a return once they retire or are unable to work.

MTN Uganda recently concluded the MTN Mobile Money month that celebrated its over 8.8 million customers for having transformed their lives.

Estimates indicate that millions of Ugandans do not have any form of social security in old age.

NSSF launched the Voluntary Contributions Plan to provide an opportunity to workers not covered by the mandatory provisions of the NSSF Act, as well as those in gainful self-employment that were previously contributing to the Fund to voluntarily save.

To make the payment, VMS members only need to dial *165*3*4# and follow the prompts to make their payments.

Source: http://www.biztechafrica.com/article/mtn-nssf-partner-mobile-payments/12841/

Output: The Ugandan subsidiary of mobile telecoms giant MTN Group is partnering with the country's biggest pension fund to enable payment of contributions using the company's Mobile Money platform. The move allows small and medium-sized businesses who remit less than UGX4m ($1,112) per month to the National Social Security Fund (NSSF), as well as users of the NSSF Voluntary Membership Plan, to make transactions. Almost nine million Ugandans depend on MTN Mobile Money, most of whom had no previous access to banking services.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Texan engineers develop a permanently seabed-based pigger
 Subsea field design involves a lot of time spent weighing options and considering the costs and benefits of various technologies.

If a production line is likely to require frequent pigging, for example, a twin pipeline, or loop system, may be justified. But the cost to build and install a second pipeline is significant, especially in very long subsea tie-back developments.

Subsea pig launchers enable pigging with a single pipeline. The downside is that they must be deployed and retrieved with a vessel and remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which is costly — and time-consuming if the pigging operation is not part of a scheduled maintenance programme.

Output: Engineers at Texan firm NOV are developing a pigging machine that can be permanently installed on the sea bed. The Subsea Automatic Pig Launcher (SAPL), can be operated remotely, has an internal cassette capable of holding up to 10 pigs, while a ROV-operated ball valve barrier enables deployment with no disruption to production. NOV is building a prototype off the west coast of Norway, and expects tests to be completed during Q1 2018. It is also examining an all-electric version of the SAPL.


Instruction: create a high quality summary of the given input

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Australian small businesses poorly protected against cyberattacks
 Many small- and medium-sized businesses could be at risk of losing money and customers because they don't have a cyber security plan.

Only 13 per cent of small businesses have a plan to protect their money and valuable client data, according to a monthly survey of 400 small business owners by online business management solutions provider MYOB Group.

MYOB chief operating officer Andrew Birch says all types and sizes of business may be susceptible to cyber attack, but attackers may consider smaller businesses more vulnerable because they are unlikely to be as well prepared as larger enterprises.

Cyber attacks can involve individuals in a business being tricked into clicking on a download, email or attachment that may contain a virus or ransomware.

A cyber attack may also involve a false invoice being sent to a business and money being paid to a fraudulent party.

The Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network (ACORN) received 11,851 reports of cybercrime in the June quarter of 2017, 51 per cent of which related to scams or fraud and 19 per cent to purchases or sales.

Last week the Australian government's StaySmartOnline service, which provides information on how home internet users and small businesses can protect themselves from cyber security threats, warned of scam emails under the guise of "E-toll Account statement" or "AusPost Delivery".

These scam emails invited email users to click on a "View in OneDrive" link which could lead to the installation of malware onto the user's computer.

Earlier in September, a fake email circulated claiming to be an invoice for an eBay purchase, and another email claiming to be "Voice Message from 017234512978 - name unavailable" aimed to download ransomware onto the user's computer.

Mr Birch says cyber attackers are typically after money already in a business's bank account or looking to divert money that should be flowing into that account.

A business can have its bank account emptied in a cyber attack, which could force the enterprise to close down.

Also, cyber attackers seek client information which can be used in identity fraud.

Mr Birch says businesses that turn over more than $3 million a year are obliged under the Privacy Act to protect information and if they have taken no measures to protect themselves, they may be liable for prosecution.

Also, clients who have personal information stolen may have a case to take legal action against the business that was attacked.

Output: Most small businesses in Australia lack proper protection from cyber attacks, according to a survey by business services company MYOB Group. The company found that just 13% of the 400 small businesses questioned had plans in place to protect their money and client data, and this lack of security could make them attractive targets for hackers. The Australian Cybercrime Online Reporting Network received 11,851 reports of cyber crime in the June quarter of this year, and the Australian government last week warned businesses of a new threat from scam emails linked to malware.