China’s DC/EP (Digital Currency/Electronic Payment) is a two-tier R&D and pilot project, not a payment product. It may include several payment products that can be tried and promoted. These products have been named e-CNY, or digital CNY.

The DC/EP is a two-tier operation system. The first layer is the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBC), and the second layer includes commercial banks, telecom operators and third-party online payment platforms. At present, China’s four major banks, i.e. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank, as well China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Ant Group, and Tencent are at the second tier and have already started trial operation.

The second-tier institutions should shoulder the following responsibilities. First, they must have sufficient capital to cushion risks. Second, they must follow due KYC (know their customer) procedures, and on top of which bear the responsibilities of anti-money laundering and data privacy protection. Third, they need to invest in technology and equipment, and ensure the continued operation of equipment.

The central bank, being the first-tier entity, has the following duties:

The first is to maintain the stability of the digital CNY. The central bank can achieve this goal by imposing capital or reserve requirements on second-tier institutions.

The second is to build reliable settlement and clearing infrastructure. Theoretically, the central bank should also engage in R&D, but it should focus on the construction of reliable settlement and clearing infrastructure instead of digital currency products.

Third, the central bank has the obligation to promote the interoperability of different payment products. The central bank should coordinate among payment products with different standards or parameters to improve their interoperability, a move that will benefit consumers.

Fourth, the central bank must have emergency and contingency plans to deal with a dynamic system. In the event of either a system failure or an upgrade, contingency plans are needed to ensure no disruption to the payment function, otherwise the entire market may be affected. From this perspective, the central bank itself should also develop a digital currency that can play a substitute role in emergency.

In general, in the two-tier DC/EP operating system, the central bank needs to design its role in a way that fully mobilizes the enthusiasm and strength of all other entities involved.

http://www.cf40.com/en/news_detail/11481.html

Note how they care about private banks, this is really bad sign.

Apple placed orders for the A and M series processors a couple of weeks ago using the 3nm process technology. TSMC was going to transfer to 3nm processors, which are intended for the most expensive and productive Apple computers. After the launch of production, TSMC planned to produce up to 600 thousand 3nm wafers per year. If plans have to be postponed, then Apple will postpone the launch of new devices - tablets and laptops.

According to new information, the problem arose at the stage of refining the technology of multi-gate field-effect transistors (fin field-effect transistor, FinFET) to the new technology with ring gates (Gate-All-Around, FinFET GAA). It is key in the transition from 5nm to 3nm process technology. This technology has become a bottleneck for the entire process of manufacturing new chips.

Presently 3nm process is so bad that TSMC can't get even 7% of non defective chips for test wafers. For reference, 5nm process Apple is used is able to reach 85-90% of good chips, with complex chips still remaining at around 70-75%. Intel 14nm is able to reach up to 97% for complex chips.

The management never shared its plans and development strategy with employees (so we began to think that the strategy simply does not exist), and this time it does not share either. So we, as employees, do not know what is happening: a crisis or a new genius breakthrough.

Quote on large personnel cut in largest online retailer in Mordor.

During superb record profits owners just decided that almost all IT departments can be optimized and replaced by cheaper younger guys.