Be it for a vacation, business trip or as part of a nomadic lifestyle, international travel is more common than ever before. But with high transaction fees, spending abroad can be expensive. Enter Revolut. This prepaid card and app are helping people avoid charges and spend seamlessly overseas.

In a bid to use pop idol culture productively, Japanese girl band Virtual Currency Girls has been enlisted to bring cryptocurrency knowledge to the masses. Rather than strong-arming people into acting responsibly with cryptocurrencies, Japan is using its pop idols’ soft power to sway people.

In Japan, almost 80% of all transactions are in cash. In an attempt to make payments more convenient and bring money handling into the digital age, Japanese banks have created the 'J-coin'. Set to launch in time for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, it's a virtual currency pegged at one-to-one against the Yen.

Rapidly shifting market forces have made China the largest and most sophisticated digital (and notably mobile) payment market in the world. In turn, these forces are also changing consumer behaviour and pushing the country’s consumers towards a society that no longer uses cash.