Latest news with #P2P
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
New Wells Fargo Study Shows Parents Give Their Kids an Average Weekly Allowance of $37
Survey finds 71% of parents with children ages 5 – 17 give allowances; many face difficulties teaching them about money SAN FRANCISCO, July 02, 2025--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Wells Fargo today released a new study illustrating how much allowance parents are providing their children and the difficulties parents have in teaching their children about money. The survey found that 71% of parents with children ages 5 – 17 give an average weekly allowance of $37, yet 51% of parents struggle to talk about money in a way their kids will understand. In addition, most parents (85%) believe that giving their kids an allowance helps them learn about spending, but many (65%) feel it is difficult to step back and let their kids make their own money mistakes. Louann Millar, leader of youth and student banking at Wells Fargo, believes an allowance provides a weekly opportunity for parents to talk to their children about money. "An allowance is a vehicle that enables children to learn about money with guardrails. The weekly activity of giving the allowance presents an opportunity for parents to discuss needs versus wants with their children. It's an opportunity to discuss your own money habits and prioritization." Digital opportunity In today's world, teaching kids about money means using digital tools. Most parents (70%) believe that teaching kids about money today means focusing on digital tools, rather than cash. The study found that while 73% of parents who provide a weekly allowance use cash, P2P (peer-to-peer) payment methods, such as Zelle® or Apple Pay®, are also popular. In fact, 24% of parents giving an allowance now use P2P payments, while 20% of parents give an allowance through direct deposit to a bank account, and 14% distribute an allowance through a pre-paid debit card. "The most surprising result of this study is how much cash is being used, even as parents understand their children prefer digital payment options," Millar said. "Children today have different financial experiences than their parents did. We have an opportunity, and a responsibility, to provide support, guidance, and tools to help parents set their kids up for success with money." Talk to your kids about money Most parents (85%) feel they should have more conversations with their kids about good money habits, but almost a third of parents (32%) feel uncomfortable talking with their kids about money. "The value of an allowance is not only dollars and cents — it's also the conversation and teaching opportunities parents have with their children," said Millar. "Whether you're giving your child $5 or $35 a week, the payment opens the door to a financial conversation. You can explain what a dollar can buy, and how budgeting for tomorrow begins today, while giving your children the ability to manage their own money with online and mobile banking tools." About the survey The findings are from a Wells Fargo survey, with data collection provided by Ipsos, conducted between April 28 – May 8, 2025. A sample of 1,587 U.S. parents — aged 18 and older with at least one child between 5 and 17 years of age in the household — were surveyed online in English, as part of Ipsos Omnibus shared survey program. The results of this research have a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.0 percentage points for all respondents. Respondents were asked questions about their child in one of the following age groups: 5 to 8 years of age, 9 to 11 years of age, 12 to 14 years of age, or 15 to 17 years of age. If they had more than one child, they were randomly asked about only one of the age groups. About Wells Fargo Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a leading financial services company that has approximately $1.9 trillion in assets. We provide a diversified set of banking, investment and mortgage products and services, as well as consumer and commercial finance, through our four reportable operating segments: Consumer Banking and Lending, Commercial Banking, Corporate and Investment Banking, and Wealth & Investment Management. Wells Fargo ranked No. 34 on Fortune's 2024 rankings of America's largest corporations. News, insights, and perspectives from Wells Fargo are also available at Wells Fargo Stories. Additional information may be found at LinkedIn: Apple, the Apple logo, Apple Pay, Apple Watch, Face ID, iCloud Keychain, iPad, iPad Pro, iPhone, iTunes, Mac, Safari, and Touch ID are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries. Apple Wallet is a trademark of Apple Inc. App Store is a service mark of Apple Inc. Zelle® and the Zelle® related marks are wholly owned by Early Warning Services, LLC and are used herein under license. Member FDIC News Release Category: WF-ERS View source version on Contacts Media Jackie Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Finextra
24-06-2025
- Business
- Finextra
Zopa launches current account
Half a decade after pivoting from P2P lending to become a bank, Zopa has entered the UK current account market. 0 The mobile-first flagship Biscuit account can be opened within minutes, with automated onboarding, with customers getting instant access to virtual cards and the ability to link external accounts. Zopa claims Biscuit will earn customers an average £256 in cash back and interest a year, with 7.1% AER on up to £300 deposits a month, 2% AER interest on all balances, and 2% cashback on bills. Zopa is banking on the generous terms winning over customers, with research commissioned by the bank showing that a quarter of Brits strategically chase cashback offers, while nearly one in five have multiple bank accounts and financial products in a bid to find value, dodge fees, or simply get something back for their loyalty. A P2P lending pioneer, Zopa pivoted to become a bank in 2020 and has since amassed 1.5 million customers, lending more than £13 billion and securing two straight years of profitability. Jaidev Janardana, CEO, Zopa Bank, says: 'Stepping into everyday banking is a natural next step in Zopa's mission to build the Home of Money for its customers. We believe that British consumers deserve better than having to constantly chase deals and accept complexity or poor experience."
Coin Geek
23-06-2025
- Coin Geek
OverNode is a 'Sneakernet' for the digital world
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... We're looking forward to the first release of OverNode. Developed by long-time blockchain developer Stephan February, it's a Swiss Army knife of social, news, and commerce functions where everything is peer-to-peer. February sat down with 1Sat Ordinals' David Case for a Q&A and explanation of how to make all these networking functions work in a distributed way without any centralized servers. It's not simple! OverNode's first mobile app features a wallet, marketplace, news feed, contacts list, private messaging, microblogging and audio spaces, and a timestamp archive. Yes, other apps already do all these things, but they all have centralized servers coordinating all this activity behind the scenes. Basing it on a true P2P, distributed network between individual devices is not an easy task. February recently discussed OverNode and its features with Kurt Wuckert, Jr. on the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream. This Q&A with Case dives deeper into the technical details of how it works. What's a Sneakernet, and what are the challenges? 'Sneakernet' means transferring information (digital or otherwise) by physically transporting it from one location or device to another. Though it's an information-age term that usually refers to copying data onto portable media and carrying it around, the concept is also similar to physical mail services. Sending, delivering, and receiving the information are three separate processes that may occur at different times, and there is no central function monitoring everything. Building a Sneakernet (or 'store-and-forward' service) for digital devices isn't an easy problem to solve, February says. Even in the physical world, there are issues: a message can get lost or delayed before it reaches its destination; it could be delivered to the wrong place; or the receiver may not notice it. There's no 100% guarantee a sent message will get through. He says this challenge of building a digital, delay-tolerant network inspired him to build OverNode. 'What can I do today, not only to make Sneakernet viable, but also to solve a problem I've seen persistently happen with distributed systems in general (not just P2P), which is the problem of altruistic nodes operating on the network.' But what's actually happening, i.e., how exactly do you make a store-and-forward service work? Case asks. Direct messaging is one thing, but if you have a news/chat group similar to Signal or Telegram, how do you ensure all group members can see a post intended for them? Essentially, nodes on the network have specialized functions while remaining P2P nodes and not acting as centralized servers. One of these is simply called 'store-and-forward,' there are also bootstrap services with distributed hash tables (DHT), which are a way to discover other peers, note their addresses, and help establish connections between them. Once a user starts their mobile app, their device announces its presence to the bootstrap service, and its live status is 'gossiped' to others on the network. This announcement doesn't go to the entire network, but a subset of it—maybe other devices nearby, using a nearest-neighbor algorithmic technique like Chord. February says he's been using Kademlia DHTs—the idea is to have a key-value store, the state of which is distributed and replicated automatically among several different peers. The information stored on the DHT could be your device's IP and perhaps a long-term stable moniker, e.g., your personal handle, that would identify someone joining the network and be used to announce its status. The bootstrap service can determine the 'closeness' of other nodes, which doesn't refer to physical distance but the mathematical equivalent using consistent hashing. Everyone's hash table will, therefore, be different, and the system can find the most efficient other nodes that may have the information an individual node is looking for. February describes it as a form of Six Degrees of Separation, but in practice, it happens very quickly, with everyone's table updated with the relevant information. BitTorrent uses similar techniques for large file-sharing. By the way, OverNode's interface also looks nice! If you're interested in hearing all the technical details, the Case/February video has a lot of other interesting points. Case also talks about the similar challenges involved in BSV's Overlay Networks, keeping track of massive amounts of data on a distributed network and being able to trust the information you're receiving. The two also dive into the economic model behind OverNode and similar networks, as well as how SPV payments can be layered into the services. The purpose of the social network-style app February is building now is mainly to prove OverNode's concept of the distributed 'data plane.' If it works, it'll have far wider-reaching use cases and consequences. Watch: New token protocol and Ordinals with Stephan February title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
CNET
13-06-2025
- CNET
Best VPN for Torrenting 2025: Keep Your Download Activity Private
Torrenting servers and features While most VPNs support torrenting, some VPNs restrict file-sharing activity to select servers, whereas others allow torrenting on any server. For instance, NordVPN and Proton VPN have designated P2P servers, while ExpressVPN and Surfshark allow you to torrent on any server. If torrenting activity is limited, make sure there's a comprehensive roster of P2P servers to pick from. A feature known as port forwarding can be advantageous for torrenting by allowing faster download and upload speeds or starting poorly seeded torrents (ones with few uploaders). Think about making a call with a restricted number. You can place calls, but if nobody picks up and you can't leave a message, then you probably won't get a call back. But if your phone number is publicly available, the combination of incoming and outgoing calls boosts the chance of having a conversation. Without port forwarding, your torrent app searches for sources to download a file from, and if it's a healthy torrent file with lots of uploaders, you shouldn't have any issues. But if you're downloading a file with few seeders, your torrent client bears the full responsibility of finding a connection. Port forwarding leaves a port open, so uploaders can find you, not just the other way around. And the two-way traffic may help, particularly with older or obscure torrents lacking seeders. However, leaving ports open can also be a minor security risk, so many VPN providers don't support it. Proton VPN offers port forwarding, and the service claims that its implementation has addressed some security vulnerabilities. In my experience, downloads and uploads -- even of poorly seeded torrents -- worked just fine with VPNs that lacked port forwarding, so you may not need it. VPN torrenting speeds compared VPN Torrent Time to complete download File size Mullvad Batocera Linux Steam Deck 2 minutes and 34 seconds 3.29GB Mullvad Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 3 minutes and 32 seconds 5.84GB NordVPN Batocera Linux Steam Deck 5 minutes and 25 seconds 3.29GB NordVPN Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 5 minutes and 52 seconds 5.84GB PIA Batocera Linux Steam Deck 6 minutes and 34 seconds 3.29GB ExpressVPN Batocera Linux Steam Deck 6 minutes and 43 seconds 3.29GB Surfshark Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 9 minutes and 43 seconds 5.84GB ExpressVPN Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 10 minutes and 24 seconds 5.84GB PIA Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 10 minutes and 43 seconds 5.84GB Proton VPN Batocera Linux Steam Deck 13 minutes and 5 seconds 3.29GB Surfshark Batocera Linux Steam Deck 17 minutes and 23 seconds 3.29GB Proton VPN Ubuntu 25.04 ISO 19 minutes and 43 seconds 5.84GB Internet speed loss All VPNs slow down your internet speeds by nature of encrypting your connection, but the fastest VPNs only drop your base download speed by an average of 25% or less. For torrenting, you'll want the quickest possible download and upload speeds. NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, Surfshark and Mullvad all delivered sub-25% internet download speed loss in our 2025 testing. You shouldn't notice much impact from a fast VPN, especially on a reliable, high-bandwidth connection of 50Mbps or more, like cable or fiber. Server network When analyzing a VPN's server roster, think about the overall number of server locations and the country count. ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Proton VPN and Surfshark offer thousands of servers peppering 100-plus countries. You'll want a generous global server lineup for frequent international travel and worldwide streaming content unblocking. But it's essential to make sure your VPN has a server presence in your home country and the nations you regularly travel to, so check the available cities and countries. For torrenting specifically, you'll want to verify if a VPN company supports P2P traffic on all servers or just select servers. Some VPNs, like ExpressVPN and Surfshark, let you torrent on any server. Others, including NordVPN and Proton VPN, have designated P2P servers. Privacy Privacy is paramount when torrenting, so look for a provider with a choice of VPN protocols, including WireGuard (or equivalents and derivatives) for faster download speeds and OpenVPN for obfuscation (which tries to hide the fact that you're using a VPN). Some VPN companies offer proprietary obfuscation-focused VPN protocols, like NordVPN's NordWhisper and Proton VPN's Stealth. Likewise, you'll want modern encryption: AES 256-bit with OpenVPN or ChaCha20 over WireGuard. Because you'll want to keep your torrenting activities hidden at all times, make sure your VPN app has a kill switch, which cuts off your internet in case your VPN unexpectedly disconnects. That way, if your torrent client is running and your VPN stops working, your internet connection is shut off to prevent your ISP from discovering your file-sharing activity. Split tunneling lets you route some apps and websites but not others through a VPN, and it's a useful privacy feature, particularly for torrenting. I often use split tunneling to send just my BitTorrent traffic through a VPN connection to mask my downloading while installing games in Steam or streaming Netflix outside of a VPN for faster internet speeds. RAM-only servers can provide peace of mind when torrenting, because theoretically, no data from your VPN session is saved to a hard drive. However, a traditional hard drive-based server infrastructure with full-disk encryption can deliver equally as reassuring security benefits. While they don't paint a full privacy picture, third-party audits and transparency reports can be helpful trust signals. If you've got serious torrenting privacy concerns, think about the country a VPN service is based in. VPN companies headquartered in jurisdictions outside of the Five, Nine and 14 Eyes intelligence-sharing alliances may not share information with other nations. Device support Think about the devices you want to torrent on. Most VPNs are compatible with Windows, MacOS and Linux, so you can easily use a VPN on your laptop or desktop. Our top VPN picks -- ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, Proton VPN and Mullvad -- all have Linux GUI apps, which are intuitive for beginners. Additionally, consider your other devices, like phones, tablets, streaming devices and smart TVs. Most VPNs work on Android, iOS/iPadOS, Android TV, Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV. If you need to use a VPN with a device that doesn't natively support VPN apps, like the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S/X or a Roku device, you can run a VPN on a router or use a PC as a VPN hotspot. Streaming service unblocking While you can freely and legally torrent many public domain movies, like Plan 9 From Outer Space, many films and TV series aren't available to download. But you can use a VPN to unblock region-restricted content on streaming services like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Max, BBC iPlayer and CBC. Accordingly, if you're traveling, you can binge-watch Bridgerton on Netflix or Cross on Prime Video. You may even be able to save money on streaming service subscriptions by leveraging a VPN. Price Most VPNs cost anywhere from $5 to $13 per month. Typically, you'll save money with a longer subscription term, paying between $20 and $100 for the first year. While two-plus year plans often provide the most savings, running anywhere from $30 to $140 for the two or more years, we don't recommend shelling out for more than one year at a time. Your initially fast, private VPN could suffer a data breach or slower speeds during the course of a year. We suggest sticking with an annual plan for the most significant savings with the least risk. Many VPNs hit you with price hikes after your initial subscription, so we suggest paying attention at sign-up and avoiding a costly renewal. Thankfully, you can often bypass an expensive autorenewal by stacking subscriptions or by canceling your plan and resubscribing.
Coin Geek
02-06-2025
- Business
- Coin Geek
Stephan February untangles Overnode, P2P networks
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... On the latest episode of the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream, Stephan February, architect of Overnode, joined Kurt Wuckert Jr. to tell him about his latest project. This episode was an insightful deep dive into peer-to-peer (P2P) networks, the use cases for micropayments, and more. title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen=""> Who is Stephan February and what is Overnode? February has been on the CoinGeek Weekly Livestream before. He's a coder and dedicated BSV builder who has developed software, token protocols, and much more. 'Overnode is not a wallet, but it has a wallet built into it,' February explained. It's a native mobile app that joins two networks; its own peer-to-peer mobile network and the Bitcoin network itself. Overnode has its own P2P network, so it can do Simplified Payment Verification (SPV) and exchange arbitrary data separate from the Bitcoin network, February noted. What is the practical use of Overnode? February explained that Overnode was born out of an obsession with computing and P2P networks in general. He doesn't want to have a backend for it; unlike other apps, there's no server to coordinate user activity. This will be local-first for data and will not have such a server. February wants Overnode to be as useful as Twitter, Slack, and Telegram. He envisions micropayment-incentivized rules in Spaces, such as someone being able to pay .1 BSV to grab the mic and shut everyone else up for a minute in a Space. He also sees how micropayments could be useful for invite-only Spaces, paying hosts, banning specific identities, and so on. Unlike in Bitcoin, where P2P means person-to-person, in Overnode, it means peer-to-peer networks. Overnode is a P2P gossip network resembling a mesh; once he properly grasped it, he saw how all sorts of use cases are possible. What are the incentives to run and secure Overnode? Looking back to torrent networks, February explained how there are seeders and leeches. The latter contributes nothing to the network, and he has a few choice words for them. These networks relied on altruism, but that's not necessary now that we have micropayments. With them, we can financially incentivize hosting, connecting, sharing, etc; you can get paid for people moving, storing, and sharing data in the network. Having this network of incentivized operators that assist in the liveness of data further opens up the potential for what is possible, all without the need for an expensive backend server. Wuckert noted that Satoshi Nakamoto preferred true peer-to-peer transactions, with IP addresses being the original way. Paying public keys was seen as an OK compromise if the user was offline. He thinks Overnode could bring back many of those original ideas; it's somewhat cypherpunk in that sense. February said he wanted to go back and re-examine some of the assumptions from the cypherpunks in the early 2000s. As he builds out Overnode, he realizes he is architecting systems of serverless interaction, and he can see the beginnings of a circular data economy which can evolve. For example, he can curate information and charge a fee for access. How will you get past Overnode becoming a tool for grey and black markets? February said he only cares to the extent that he doesn't want it to be used to harm people. However, he is also trying to build the application in such a way that harm reduction incentives are implemented at the edge without infringing upon the liberty of individuals. There will be tools to allow individuals to distance themselves from this 'dark' activity. As with the Internet, there are ways to distance yourself from it. For example, there could be curated, verified marketplaces that are known as safe. What is the problem that Overnode solves? February isn't sure this is a problem for most people, but it is for him. He doesn't like how the Internet has evolved over time, and he doesn't like how human interactions are brokered by web browsers and social media platforms. He's always been interested in what the world would look like if we had Bitcoin in the heyday of P2P networks in the late 90s and early 2000s. While the platform model is great for many things, coordinating human activity is one. But there are downsides, and he wants to enable peer-to-peer interactions with true data privacy. Essentially, it's his contribution to trying to solve the platform dystopia we find ourselves in. To hear more about criticisms of Overnode, what adoption might look like, why tokens aren't products, and more, check out the livestream episode here. Watch: Peer-to-peer electronic cash system—that's micropayments title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen="">
