Pocket money super-app Spriggy looks set for rapid expansion after banking $35m in its Series B funding round, led by NAB Ventures.The app, which helps families manage money movement by awarding pocket money and rewarding chores whilst empowering children to start managing their money responsibly with a debit card, enjoys a rapidly loyal following amongst its 500,000 family user base.This user base will likely provide the leverage for new product initiatives, as users progress on their family financial journeys into a broader range of financial tools.https://www.startupdaily.net/2021/07/fintech-spriggy-35-million-series-b-nab-ventures/

ARPA, a Beijing-based research group works on privacy-preserving computation, with a view to building the blockchain layer 2 with privacy features. The research is part of the multiparty computation (MPC) standard setting committee works with IEEE and CAICT.Could this be the future for privacy enabling blockchain use cases (fintech, property, investment, identity & access, data sharing)?https://arpachain.io/Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

Decentralized Finance is a growing global thematic.  It promises cheaper and better access to financial services by disintermediating centralized intermediaries. DeFi also promises interoperability across blockchains to bust banking silos, greatly promoting innovation and building vibrant financial ecosystems. However, DeFi is not without its own challenges and risks both old and new.  The goal of automating the delivery of financial services and reducing human dependencies also has the congruent effect of reducing oversight and control. This scholarly article by Nic Carter and Linda Jeng provides an excellent conceptual framework to understand the drivers of risk in DeFi.https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3866705

Decentralised Finance (DeFi) is expected to emerge over the next decade, creating a parallel financial system operating on the internet.While bitcoin can operate as a means of payment or as a new form of commodity, DeFi projects go further, from lending to insurance and derivatives.The arrival of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), which will enable DeFi, are perhaps five years away, while the emergence of the new internet-based finance system is probably an issue for the 2030s.Digital currencies and digital identity are an important part of enabling DeFi, and once you have these, you essentially have the missing pieces. Greg Medcrafthttp://www.afr.com/business/banking-and-finance/greg-medcraft-s-wa

Leading neobank UP has done its bit to accelerate Open Banking in Australia by becoming the 7th bank to make its data available as a Data Holder.This means UP's circa 300,000 customers can share their financial data with other accredited Open Banking participants (such as personal financial management app, Frollo, and CBA).UP's runaway popularity with a digitally-native customer base makes it easily the most requested institution by customers of Frollo and similar money-management tools, and so the early move to share data can't be understated in putting a well-timed rocket under the Open Banking roll-out.https://mozo.com.au/neobanks/articles/neobank-up-joins-frollo-open-banking-platform

A new system for trading derivatives Tracer DAO has raised $US4.5 million from leading investors in the booming area of DeFi (decentralised finance) and its local developer Brisbane-based Mycelium is creating jobs in Australia.With the rapid growth of DeFi products, like FinTech, employment is expected to increase in Australia over the coming years. https://www.afr.com/companies/financial-services/meet-the-defi-developers-who-ve-raised-funds-for-a-derivatives-system-20210628-p5850t