Danny Shader has launched his latest venture, Kwedit. See Michael Arrington's TechCrunch post "Kwedit Launches: The First Completely Unreliable Payment Network" for a quick overview of what Kwedit is up to.

For payments professionals, Kwedit is yet another example of segmentation in action. Remember the unserved? They'll accept something less than a perfect solution. Virtual goods merchants don't have a cost of goods sold that matters.

Here's a quick overview. To get started, you simply promise to pay. You can then choose to either pay within a few days - or default. In the meantime, you've bought whatever you wanted to buy from your favorite virtual goods merchant.

If you default, your Kwedit (get it?) score goes down - and you may not get new credit in the future. If you want to pay, you can put cash into the system in several ways - including at your local 7-Eleven store. Or, you can mail-in cash in a Kwedit mailer. Or, you can pass the buck to a friend or family member and ask them to pay. There's more to it - but you get the idea. See you in Farmville!

Take a look at the Inside Facebook blog and the ads from its sponsors - including Zong, SuperRewards, Allpass, PaymentPin and OfferPal.

Also, notice the survey results discussed in this article - none of the major consumer credit card companies or issuers made the top 10!

Have you signed up to use virtual currency or pay for digital goods using your mobile phone?

We've been doing research into the use and application of social media to the business of financial services. We recently came across this updated "Did you Know" video put together by XPLANE that really helps frame the environment we're dealing with. Enjoy - and, if you'd like to talk about social media and financial services, get in touch. Google me!

[Hat tip to Presentation Zen!]

Calling itself "a social media payment platform", http://www.oneTXT.com has announced that it has closed $2 million in Series A financing. "Metamorphic Ventures, New York City, led the round, joined by KPG Ventures of San Francisco, and New York Angels Fund. Individual angel investors also participated, including David Hirsch, formerly at Google; Geoffrey Judge, co-founder of 24/7 Real Media (now part of WPP); Roger Ehrenberg, former president and CEO of DB Advisors, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Bank AG; and Mark Michel, formerly Group Head at TD Capital, TD Bank's private equity fund focused on the media and communications sectors." READ MORE »

New research by Gartner finds that while social banking won't change the consumer banking model immediately, retail banks that understand social media, financial social networks and microfinance have a better chance of adapting their services. Those banks that don't "face the prospect of being sidelined in the emergence of the social-banking services model." READ MORE »

PayPal Labs, a new showcase site for some of PayPal's new experimental products, has launched at www.x.com. The first two products featured are PayPal's Facebook application to request money and a new fundraising tool for non-profits launched on MySpace.

In an article titled 'For-Credit Course", Rob Walker writes for this Sunday's New York Times Magazine about Chase Card Services "+1" credit card - offered primarily by way of a sponsored group setup on Facebook called Chase +1. Chase limits access to the group so that only Facebook members who are part of college networks can join. Chase also has a Chase Credit Education group on Facebook that is open membership.

In a post titled "Following your money in Facebook", Colin Smillie blogs on his Inside Facebook blog about the personal financial management applications on Facebook - including BillMonk and Lending Club. He notes that "many developers have been clamoring for Facebook to launch a payment system fully integrated with the Platform soon."

Carolyn Y. Johnson writes for the Boston Globe about social networking sites and how they're beginning to offer financial advice. Johnson notes that "the tools that people use to connect with their peers and share information on websites like Facebook, Del.icio.us, or Wikipedia can help people save money or make smarter purchases." She quotes Wesabe's Jason Knight: "Social finance is a way for consumers to find out if there's real value where they're spending money. . . . It's absolutely critical in rebalancing the power between consumers and marketers."