Electricity demand varies throughout the day. When demand is higher, electricity prices go up. Most UK consumers are insulated from this variability - we pay a fixed price per kWh no matter what the actual wholesale cost. But it doesn't need to be this way. Exposing users to the immense variability in pricing is probably too dangerous - as seen in Texas recently. Imagine if your electricity provider could say "hey, prices are going to be high tonight. We'll pay you to use less electricity!" …
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Google has recently increased the price it pays out to security researchers who responsibly disclose a vulnerability. That got me thinking. Is money the best thing with which to reward people? There's an interesting (if a little silly) economics paper about why gift giving is inefficient. The crux of the argument, as I understand it, is that gift-givers rarely know what recipients need or want. So they give gifts which aren't optimal. Your aunt gets you a blue cardigan. But you'd rather have …
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Spoiler Alert! We're all going to die. I'm the sort of person who buys a fancy jar of something delicious - and then I save it for a special occasion. Yet, somehow, those special occasions never seem special enough. And so the jar sits at the back of the cupboard waiting for a train that's never going to come. How many of you do the same? This book attempts to change that. Why do you spend your time earning and saving money that you're never going to spend? The central thesis of the book is…
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When I was young, I had a piggy bank. A piggy bank is incredibly secure. It's fairly big - so it is hard to lose. It is brightly coloured - so you can find it easily. No one else can see how much money there is in there. The only way to get money out is to smash it - providing visible evidence if someone has robbed you. And smashing makes a noise - deterring would-be thieves. A piggy bank is close to perfect security. If you are seven and your adversary is a younger sibling. Storing your own …
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I recently read this interesting, and distressing, story of a man who was drugged and robbed. A form of crime which has been going on for centuries. But the 21st Century twist is that the thieves forced him to transfer large sums of money via his phone's banking apps. While under the influence, the victim used his usernames, passwords, PINs, and biometrics to send money to the criminal's accounts. Is there a "technological" way to stop this? His banks initially refused to refund the stolen…
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This is a thought experiment inspired by the sort of rambling and speculative conversations my wife and I have been having in lockdown. Most countries in the world place legal limits on alcohol production at home. There are, usually, several good reasons for this: Improperly brewed alcohol can cause severe health problems - including death. Poorly set up stills can - and do - explode. Unlicensed sellers of alcohol generally don't pay tax. I'm sure you can think of a few more reasons to add …
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Messaging app Signal is launching a payment service in the UK. This will allow users to send each other money cryptocurrency. Many people have written about why this is a daft idea. But they've mostly talked about why cryptocoins corrupt everything they touch. I want to talk about why this is a shitty idea from a product perspective. It all comes down to user needs. What pain point are you removing? Uber made taxis mildly less irritating, for example. But the UK already has a fairly mature…
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If you have a bank account, you probably have an IBAN - an International Bank Account Number. It is a well-structured text string which unambiguously identifies your account. A typical UK IBAN looks like GB33BUKB20201555555555 - with it, you can send money to that account from any bank in the world. OK, some banks make international transfers complicated or expensive, but it generally works! Wouldn't it be great if I could write a URl like iban://GB33BUKB20201555555555/GBP10 or…
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Convenience subscriptions are huge business these days. A monthly delivery of X, to save you time, money, and effort! The problem is - subscription living rapidly becomes a chore. I cancelled a convenience subscription today - and I'd like to explain why. Smol offers dishwasher tablets and laundry pods by post. Their schtick is: Cheaper than the supermarket - and more environmentally friendly! Fire and forget! A subscription at a rhythm which works for you. Convenient! Fits through the…
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After writing about how to use MoneyDashboard's unofficial API, the good folk at Moneyed told me about their officially supported API! So here's a quick review & howto guide. Moneyed is a slightly strange service. I think it is designed for companies to give as a benefit to their employees. But you can sign up as an individual. The first month is free - but I don't see a way to tell how much subsequent months are. Although it is presented as an app for Android and iPhone, you can log in on…
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Note: MoneyDashboard is now closed. Yesterday, I wrote up how to use the MoneyDashboard Classic API. Read that blog post first before reading this one. MoneyDashboard have launched a new "Neon" service. The API is a bit more simple, but authentication is harder. Here's a quick guide to the bits of the API that I found useful. I've lightly redacted some of the API responses for my privacy. List of all supported institutions MoneyDashboard only supports a limited number of OpenBanking…
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Note: MoneyDashboard is now closed. The OpenBanking specification is brilliant. It allows you to aggregate all of your financial accounts in one place. You can give read or write access to apps and services. Magic! API access is restricted to registered financial institutions. That's good, because it puts up a barrier to entry preventing dodgy companies slurping up your data and sending all your money to scammers. But, whether by design or not, it means that you as an individual cannot get…
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