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Britcoin is the name used casually for some kind of digital pound. The decline in the use of physical cash for payments and the use of smart phones with digital wallets or apps has led to the UK Government contemplating what a digital pound might look like. A consultation on that topic is underway.   There are some important questions about digital money. Not least the 1.2 million people who don't have bank accounts, privacy, Government monitoring of spending and more.  The name Britcoin is really a nod to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin . Bitcoin is often cited as being anonymous. It isn't. Each transaction is recorded. Cash is currently the main anonymous currency in the world. A present the Government prints physical cash. Less of it is being used but there is a need for the certainty that cash provides. Making a payment with digital cash issued by the Government might well be a way of providing citizens with the same utility as cash in a world that is using less of it.  Cash ha

Most websites want you to sign in with your email address. The idea being you create an account with them and provide an email. This is a common thing on the net. However, sometimes you get an icon to sign up with an account you already have.  You can sign in with your Microsoft account, Twitter account, Apple account or Google account. Convenient for users. No creation of yet another account. You piggyback off an account you already have.  Google is a bit more aggressive. If you arrive at a website, it thinks you should use Google to sign into then you get a pop-up message. Just sign in. This is before you even decide it's a website you want to register with. It's tempting just to click on OK.  I found this annoying. You can get rid of constant requests to "sign in with Google". Go to your Google account security page ,  then find the section "Signing in to other sites", select "signing in with Google", turn off "Google Account sign-in prompt

 Not so long ago you could have a Netflix subscription and get a huge catalogue of video content. Content producers were selling old shows in bulk and even some of the new shows. The combination of regular TV plus Netflix was enough.  However, everyone else noticed that Netflix was attracting subscriptions. Subscription TV on demand became popular as connection speed grew, and the technology improved. Watching content on the train or bus during a commute became a thing.  Slowly new services offering exclusive content arrived. Netflix already knew this was going to happen, so they started creating their own content like House of Cards . Must see shows brought people in. We now have Disney+ , Paramount+ , and more. The offer from Amazon is their Prime Membership. Delivery and TV. The offer from Apple is part of the range of services that make up their ecosystem of hardware and software.  There are others. Some localised to markets like the USA. When you add it all up these services cost