This week's chart of the week shows the growth in Apple iTunes accounts (with payment cards on file) over the last five years. Over that period, the number of accounts grew by an order of magnitude - from 50 million to over 500 million (as reported by Apple in March).

Horace Dediu, an analyst who follows Apple closely, has done a deep dive into Apple's iTunes business - with some fascinating results including that iTunes users purchase content and services at the rate of about $40 per year - resulting in a $16 billion annual run rate for that business. He also notes that the revenue growth rate has averaged 29 per quarter for more than six years.

On Twitter:

We're hosting a payments meetup at @gumroad with talks by @airbnb and @square —come by! gumroad.com/meetup

— Sahil Lavingia (@shl) May 17, 2013

On the web:

• The future of Bitcoin: 3 predictions from experts - GigaOm - "Casares explained how some people in his country are using “old Android phones” to acquire and exchange Bitcoins at a time when the government is clamping down on the trade in U.S. dollars."
• Inside Mastercard’s Social Command Center - Digiday - "For Mastercard, diffusing social in the organization, ironically, meant centralizing it."
• High-Profile VCs Caught up in Bitcoin Mania - PEhub - "As big as the bitcoin opportunity is, it is equally rife with risk."
• Black-hat bitcoin’s days are numbered - Quartz - "Bitcoin has a lot of problems as a currency—its tendency for spasms of crazy volatility, most notably—but fewer as a payments system."
• Bitcoin’s consumerization continues with Perk, a rewards platform and Web browser for normal people - PandoDaily - "Now the only problem is figuring out how to get bitcoin into the hands of the masses."
• Google in Payments: Why Yesterday was BIG News - FinVentures (Tom Noyes) - "Osama and the Google team have done great work getting this out to market. Congrats."
• T-Mobile’s Twitter Account Explains Why Carrier Won’t Support Google Wallet - TmoNews - “We’re supporting ISIS, the wireless payment standard for mobile devices.”
• Square launches faster card swipe machine - Taking Charge - "Sure, we could make payments work better, but why should we when everyone really seems to like plastic?"
• Moving Upstream, PayPal and Square Make a Play for the Local Merchant’s POS - Street Fight - "The gist of PayPal’s and Square’s long-term aspirations is fairly clear: create a two-sided network with a consumer-facing mobile wallet on one end and a merchant processing network on the other, creating a system that gives them control over the entire payment stack."

On the wires:

• International Payment Networks Facing Emerging Threat from Domestic Competition and m-POS - "…the real threat comes when the successful m-POS solution providers follow the PayPal model and enable their own digital wallets and P2P transactions which could completely cut the international networks out of the equation.”
• What is the Killer App for Mobile NFC? It May Not Be Payments, Executives Agree at the 2013 NFC Solutions Summit - "When asked the question "Is NFC dead?" compared to alternate technologies such as cloud payments, Glenbrook Partners Consultant Allen Weinberg stressed that all these technologies are still in the early days and it is too soon to make judgments on what mobile commerce technologies will be the winners and losers. "At the end of the day, we don't have a widespread, commercialized anything yet," he said."
• sweetgreen rewards App an Immediate Success - "Representing the first white-label app from LevelUp, sweetgreen rewards has been an immediate success, allowing guests to earn dollars that can be redeemed at any of sweetgreen's 17 locations and offers various perks that can be unlocked over time…"

We see MasterPass as the future of digital payments — allowing you to shop and make a payment on your phone, tablet, PC or in a store with one simple experience. This future is a reality now with MasterPass live in Australia, Canada and the U.S."

On the web:

• Apple Advances their Future Shopping App Again & More - Patently Apple - "Today's patent application adds at least five major aspects to the "Shopping" apps patent claims."
• Half of Visa’s payments will be via mobile by 2020, says Visa Europe VP - The Drum - "...Hawkett said that Visa views mobile as the opportunity to “redefine” payments."
• How to build trust in the Bitcoin ecosystem - Jeremy Liew - "So what is needed to create trusted Bitcoin companies?"
• Can Google Be The Amazon.com For The Rest Of The Web? - ReadWrite - "Virtually every other payment provider lacks the social integration that Google includes."
• New Cash Registers Are Sexy, But What’s Beneath the Counter Matters More - Wired - "Payments are really the only online connection into every retail store that matters..."
• mPOS: Our Latest Disruptive Device For QSRs - GoPago Blog - "Our new mPOS will debut on the Nexus 4 with a card reader, rugged case and with our POS software already loaded for $49 a month."
• Safeway CEO has big plans for payment program that avoids bank debit card fees - San Francisco Business Times - "...Safeway is already hearing from other retailers eager to avoid fees associated with accepting debit cards carrying the MasterCard and Visa logos."
• The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Udayan Goyal (commenting on Google Wallet) - "In terms of wider industry impact, I think that incumbents will have to completely rethink how they make money around payments."
• Blimpie expands mobile repertoire with gift cards - Mobile Commerce Daily - "…40 percent of Blimpie’s traffic comes from mobile devices."
• The Road Ahead for Mobile Payments - Mobile Future Institute - "Overall, I came away with the impression there’s still quite a ways to go for mobile payments…"
• PayPal, Groupon, Square focus on traditional POS to boost mobile strategies - "In order for consumers to ditch their physical wallets in favor of digital wallets, merchants need to get rid of their old cash registers…"
• The mobile money paradox – if everyone wants it, why is it doing so badly? - Tomorrow's Transactions - "There are in excess of 160 live MM services being operated around the world right now, but despite high expectations created by success in Kenya, only a handful have thus far reached critical mass."

On the wires:

• Marqeta Online-to-Offline Commerce Engine Powering the Multi-Retailer Facebook Card - "We are very proud that Facebook has adopted our technology, and look forward to a lasting partnership with them…"
• Marqeta Raises $14 Million Series B to Accelerate Wide Adoption of its +M Platform - "Instead of receiving points and product rewards, Marqeta merchants simply give consumers more money to spend in grocery, restaurants, dry cleaning and beyond."
• BitPay Raises $2 Million led by Founders Fund - "Businesses selling electronics, precious metals, and other low-margin products over the internet are seeing a large increase in profitability by accepting bitcoin payments."
• Mobile Banking Explodes and Keynote Announces Who Does It Best – One Billion Mobile Banking Consumers Expected by 2017 - "Chase achieved its third consecutive win for Overall Score, while also repeating were Wells Fargo in second place and Bank of America in third."

The implementation in the Gmail browser adds an "Attach money" icon to the Gmail toolbar which is used to add the money to the email as it is being composed.

Google said that "it's free to send money if your bank account is linked to Google Wallet or using your Google Wallet balance, and low fees apply to send money using your linked credit or debit card." Google said the new feature will eventually be available to all U.S. Gmail users over 18 years old.

On the web:

• Connect your loyalty programs, offers and more to Google Wallet with the Wallet Objects API - "Save anything to Google Wallet: Integrate your loyalty programs, offers and more into Google Wallet. Users can save these items directly to their Google Wallet for easy use."
• Fast and easy checkout for Android apps selling physical goods and services - Google Commerce - "...our new Google Wallet Instant Buy Android API … makes buying in native Android apps fast and easy."
• Google Is Rebooting Its Troubled Digital Wallet On The Web - ReadWrite - "Google has long aimed to become a payments player. It knows that many of its searches drive people to e-commerce sites where they conduct transactions. …"
• The Feds Are Cracking Down On Mt. Gox (Not On Bitcoin) - Forbes.com - "…the Department of Homeland Security has some issues with how Mt. Gox is running its American operations."
• Give me that old bitcoin religion - PandoDaily - "To engender this trust, and tamp down the threat of counterfeiting, it relies on an ingenious combination of transparency and anonymity."
• Surprise! Prepaid debit cards actually a good deal for consumers Red Tape Chronicles - "Prepaid debit cards, long synonymous with frustrating or even exploitative fees, are suddenly a pretty good deal."
• Mobile Payments Startup ZooZ Debuts In-Ad Payments (Yes, “Ad” Not “App”) - TechCrunch - "With in-ad payments, mobile users will be able checkout by tapping once on a visible banner ad within a mobile app…"
• Visa concessions on card fees: a step in the right direction - EuroCommerce - "EuroCommerce will continue to campaign for a regulation which removes excessive interchange fees, not only cross-border but also on all domestic markets."
• Payleven and MICROS spawn a cloud-based point-of-sale system with Chip & PIN support - The Next Web - "The cloud-based POS system works via 3G, 4G or Wi-Fi and comes with integrated Chip & PIN card payments functionality, as well as automatic sales and card history transactions reconciliation."
• UK's Faster Payments is five years old - Financial Services Club Blog - "The UK's Faster Payments Service (FPS) celebrated its fifth birthday on 8th May."
• Google Wallet’s high turnover - Mobile World Live - "Google has been losing its payments executives at a surprising rate since its launch in the autumn of 2011."

On the wires:

• Federal Court Reinstates $203 Million Judgment Against Wells Fargo For Misleading Consumers On Posting Of Debit-Card Purchases That Resulted In Unexpected Overdraft Fees - "The case before Judge Alsup was brought on behalf of California Wells Fargo customers who, from November 15, 2004 to June 30, 2008, incurred overdraft fees on debit card transactions as a result of the bank's practice of sequencing transactions from highest to lowest."
• Visa Cuts Europe’s Swipe Fees But Continues to Stiff U.S. Merchants & Consumers - Merchants Payments Coalition - "U.S. merchants and consumers pay the highest fees in the world to credit card companies and banks to swipe their cards because of unfair price-fixing within the industry."
• Monitise Launches MPOS Payment Service - "The new white-labelled mobile payment service helps banks, mobile operators and acquirers offer their business customers the ability to accept card payments on a mobile device..."
• CHARGE Anywhere Launches EMV MPOS Solution at BlackBerry Live - "In integrating a Bluetooth enabled EMV/Chip & PIN smart card reader with a BlackBerry smart phone, CHARGE Anywhere, continues to lead the way in providing secure, innovative payment solutions"
• Vantiv and NCR to Bring Powerful Mobile Point-of-Sale Solutions to Small Businesses - "The multi-year agreement will focus on developing exclusive new solutions and expanding both companies’ innovative technology platforms to deliver personalized customer experiences that help smaller merchants compete more effectively against larger competitors."
• Tyfone Connected Smart Card Solution Fixes Cyber Security and Biometric Vulnerabilities - "Tyfone’s CSC solution operates much like the traditional plastic smart card systems already in widespread use, but has a much smaller physical footprint and uniquely has the ability to connect to any mobile device, tablet or PC."
• New C-SAM Applet Development and Testing Services Enable Rapid Rollouts of NFC-Enabled Mobile Commerce Products and Services
• APWG Report: Mobile Device Crimeware Evolves into Global Criminal Marketplace in Response to Mobile Payment and Banking Expansion - "The sprawling mobile devices marketplace has spawned an industrialized mobile financial fraud plexus that today drives increasingly sophisticated criminal technical innovation to exploit the mobile devices explosion"

• PayPal introduced a new "Cash for Registers" program - including offering "free credit, debit card, check, and of course PayPal processing for the remainder of the year to any qualifying U.S business turning in their dusty old cash register in exchange for a modern solution like PayPal Here (iPad, card reader, iPad stand, cash drawer, and printer)."

  See PayPal's David Marcus' blog post about the new program.

  Here's a TechCrunch story on the program.

• Square has announced Square Stand, calling it "beautiful new hardware for brick and mortar businesses that turns an iPad into a complete point of sale." Square Stand includes an integrated card reader that keeps information secure from swipe to payment, and easily connects to the hardware accessories businesses need, including a receipt printer, kitchen printer, cash drawer, and barcode scanner.

  Here's a TechCrunch story on Square Stand.

  Also, see this Fortune interview with Square CEO Jack Dorsey and Jesse Dorogusker, a former Apple exec who led the development of Stand: "A bamboo stand can be very beautiful and there's a lot of great craftwork out there, but it doesn't have the intelligence of this system."

• GroupOn also introduced "Breadcrumb POS, a free, easy to use, and reliable iPad point of sale that will blow your cash register away. It offers the functionality that cafés, health and beauty businesses and shop owners need." The company also said that "as of today we’re throwing in free processing on the first $5,000 in credit card transactions."

On Twitter:

For bitcoin to make it it needs to be banned by a few governments and critiqued by policy makers. Otherwise it will fade. #Antifragile.

— Nassim N. Taleb (@nntaleb) May 15, 2013

5 reasons the financial industry is ripe for disruption smrt.io/10N3isR > drawn from @coreemc @cfsinnovation report on #underbanked

— Arjan Schutte (@arjanschutte) May 15, 2013

On the web:

• What to watch as the bitcoin drama develops - PandoDaily - "If the promises of bitcoin could ever be unlocked – perhaps one of the biggest ifs in the tech world today – it’s about as big of a venture-style opportunity as you could imagine."
• Dept. of Homeland Security freezes accounts between Dwolla and bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox - PandoDaily - "…the Department of Homeland Security served the Dwolla mobile payment service with a court order requiring it to immediately cease all account activities with the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange."
• Square And PayPal Push The iPad-ification Of America's Small Businesses - ReadWrite - "Square, PayPal, and Groupon all made news today with the common goal of getting small businesses to junk their cash registers for Internet-connected devices…"
• Google Ventures invests in OpenCoin, the firm behind Bitcoin exchange Ripple - GigaOm
• Why Prepaid Cards Appeal to Hackers - Bank Technology News - "…overall, prepaid cards are as safe as any other payment instrument available to consumers..."
• Visa Europe Offers to Cap Credit-Card Fees to End EU Probe - Bloomberg - "…this will allow cheaper use of cards that are a payment system used in almost half of our total payments in the EU…"
• Compass Plus survey reveals industry expectations for contactless are overambitious - Bob's Guide - "Actively tracking the difference in opinion between industry experts and the general public has been an interesting experiment..."
• Lightspeed is anchoring a Bitcoin focused fund - Lightspeed Venture Partners - "It’s no secret that that I see the opportunity for Bitcoin to disrupt multi-billion-dollar markets and dramatically cut transaction costs for people around the world."
• Liberty City Ventures Launches $15 Million Fund To Invest In Bitcoin And Other Digital Currency Startups - TechCrunch - "It seems like everyone is talking about Bitcoin these days."
• Consumers, payments and unknown knowns - Tomorrow's Transactions Blog - "It’s hard in fact for non-industry ‘civilians’ to know what they want from a technology they barely understand. Furthermore, payments is boring – consumers don’t want to think about it."

On the wires:

• Vantiv to Bring Next Generation Point-of-Sale Redemption Technology to the U.S. Market with Visa Offers Platform - "Vantiv is the first U.S. acquirer to announce their intent to offer this technology to clients across the country..."
• TapBase Introduces NFC-Less Proximity Payments - "We’re very pleased to offer merchants and consumers the ability to perform proximity or ‘contactless’ transactions with their iPads and iPhones…"
• Square reinvents the register with Square Stand - "Square Stand gives merchants a remarkable new way to manage and grow their business, all for the price of a cash register."
• Leaf Unveils Second Generation of its Built-for-Business Tablet - "Leaf is on a mission to turn standard point of sale into point of smart interactions for small businesses…"
• FIS Study Shows Significant Revenue Opportunity for Large and Mid-tier Financial Institutions from Real-time Payments Offerings - "Offering real-time payments can help consumers better manage their financial lives, offer a differentiated banking experience and provide additional revenue streams for financial institutions..." - Report available here
• eftpos Announces Contract to Enable Mobile Payment Trials - "eftpos today announced it would begin mobile payments trials with selected Australian retailers in the next few months."
• Boku Partners with Swisscom to Offer Mobile Payments - "This agreement will bring direct-to-bill mobile operator billing as a payment option to more than 6 million customers, covering more than 60% of Switzerland’s mobile market."

Visa says that "the enhanced service has the potential to eliminate paper coupons, allowing consumers, who opt in, to earn points and discounts as well as redeem special offers instantly at checkout by simply using their enrolled Visa card."

Smarter commerce means having the right offer, delivered to the right customer at the right time,” said Jim McCarthy, global head of Products, Visa Inc. “Visa’s new real-time point-of-sale redemption platform is a great example of Visa’s ability to apply its processing and technology expertise to simplify the use of offers and discounts, bringing benefits to merchants, acquirers, issuers and consumers.”

• Fully Customizable Offer Content - Retailers and financial institutions can deliver offers that are tailored to individual customers, through email, web and mobile.
• Real-Time Offer Relevancy - The platform also provides retailers and issuers data insights and analytics to measure the point-of-sale redemption rate, allowing them to create customized and more relevant offers.
• Consumer Loyalty Qualification - Retailers and issuers can use real-time messaging capabilities to identify and uniquely reward loyal customers.
• Multiple Redemption Options - Support for real-time redemption of offers and rewards at the point-of-sale - complementing the existing statement credit capability.
• Support for Multiple Offers Programs - Supports both Visa-specific and third-party offer programs.

On the web:

• This Guy Is Selling His Book Exclusively Via Bitcoin - Business Insider - "He convinced me (plus subsequent research) that Bitcoin has many features that make it attractive not only as a potential future currency but as a replacement for all contract law."
• Amazon Launches Amazon Coins Virtual Currency On Kindle Fire, Gives $5 In Free Coins To All Users - TechCrunch - "Amazon today is finally taking Amazon Coins, is new virtual currency, live on the Kindle Fire in the U.S."
• Thieves Stole $45 Million From ATMs Because The U.S. Uses Absurd 40-Year-Old Technology - PopSci - "The chief vulnerability of the EMV system? IT STILL HAS MAGNETIC STRIPES."
• New Android Boss Finally Reveals Plans for World’s Most Popular Mobile OS - Wired - "I have a secret project which adds four hours every day to the 24 hours we have."

On the wires:

• Amazon Coins Now Available for Kindle Fire Customers - "For customers, Amazon Coins is an easy way to purchase apps and in-app items on Kindle Fire, and for developers it’s another opportunity to drive traffic, downloads and increased monetization."
• Blaze Mobile Awarded Three Key Patents for NFC Mobile Payments - "Blaze Mobile, a leader in mobile payment solutions, has recently been awarded three key NFC Mobile Payment patents."

On the web:

• In A.T.M. Robbery Case, a Splashy Trail of Big Spending - NY Times - "The eight young men, according to law enforcement officials, had just pulled off the first of two thefts that would ultimately rank among the biggest in New York City history…"
• Exclusive: Indian card processor in $45 million heist is ElectraCard - sources - Reuters - "Experts in cyber security said the heists expose an Achilles heel in the global financial industry: prepaid debit cards."
• The Problem with Prepaid: $45 Million ATM Heist Edition - American Banker - BankThink - "This fraud scheme adds to the many reasons banks approach prepaid products with caution."
• How to Pull Off a $45 Million Global ATM Heist - TechNews Daily - "This specific attack requires a very high level of sophistication and perhaps some inside help."
• Mobile Gift Card App Gyft Partners With BitPay To Start Accepting Bitcoin Payments In Its Android App - TechCrunch - "Gyft is proud to be a pioneer in the bitcoin universe and we are excited about the possibilities for further innovation on our platform…"

Interac reports that these losses decreased to $38.5 million in 2012 - representing just 0.012 percent of domestic Interac card volume) from a high of $142 million in 2009. Interac also reports that the number of cardholders affected by this form of card fraud fell to 93,800 in 2012 from 238,000 in 2009.

Over the last few years, Canada completed a migration chip card technology - with essentially all cards now equipped with chip and nearly 90 percent of POS terminals upgraded to support chip.