Coin News

A former executive director of Goldman Sachs in London has launched a bitcoin derivatives exchange called Crypto Facilities.

 Hello and welcome back to another edition of TCBTC, TechCrunch’s very own bitcoin podcast hosted by your humble servant and John Biggs. This week week we chewed over the importance of both bitcoin and the blockchain, and how they are more linked than some people seem to wish. You can’t mine for free after all. Read More

Crypto Facilities Ltd., a London-based broker founded by former Goldman Sachs Executive Director Timo Schlaefer, has announced the launch of its bitcoin derivatives trading platform. In financial jargon, a derivative is a contract that derives its value from the performance of an underlying entity, in this case the exchange value of bitcoin. Crypto Facilities trades financial products such as bitcoin options and futures, allowing users to “go long” and bet that the price of bitcoin will rise, or “go short” and bet the price will fall. The first derivative offered by Crypto Facilities is a forward contract – a contract to buy or to sell an asset at a specified future time at a price agreed upon today – on […]

The post Former Goldman Sachs Director Launches Bitcoin Derivatives Brokerage Crypto Facilities appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A two-day event that brought together representatives from the Commonwealth Secretariat has ended with the commission of a formal bitcoin report.

CoinSpark has released a new version of its protocol that allows users to send private messages tied to bitcoin transactions.

The most recent release of the Bitcoin Core wallet allows the user to define the transaction fee they are willing to pay. The amount that a user is willing to pay does, in the end, affect the speed of their transactions. However, users who pay no fee at all are not necessarily going to be […]

The post How Western Union Rips You Off and Bitcoin Doesn’t appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp has announced that it will be amending its fees at the beginning of March.

On February 21st the Singapore government confirmed rumours that the founding father of Singapore, veteran former prime minister Lee Kuan Yew, had been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Singapore General Hospital.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said that Mr Lee had been hospitalised with severe pneumonia on February 5th and that he was on mechanical ventilation. The PMO added that he was conscious and lightly sedated and that his condition has "stabilised". The 91-year-old leader's health has been poor in recent years. During the Lunar New Year in 2014, he was hospitalised for fever and a bad cough caused by an infection, while in February 2013 he was admitted to hospital for a stroke-like condition-a suspected transient ischaemic attack, in which an irregular heartbeat temporarily stopped blood flow to the brain.

Since news of his hospitalisation became public, thousands of people have wished Mr Lee a speedy recovery on social media, including several bloggers who are frequently critical of the government. Mr Lee's last public appearance was in early November, when he joined local residents for an annual tree-planting event.

Reports of Mr Lee's poor health in recent years ostensibly have not had an impact on the government, and the confirmation of his hospitalisation hardly created a ripple in financial markets. However, although he has not held a cabinet position since 2011, his track record, leadership style and legacy continue to exert a strong influence over current office-holders, including the present prime minister, his son, Lee Hsien Loong, whose recent successful lawsuit against blogger Roy Ngerng for defamation, for example, was strongly reminiscent of his father's methods of dealing with dissent.

Click here to subscribe to The Economist.

This article was from The Economist and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This Epic Time-Lapse Of Pyongyang Shows North Korea Like You've Never Seen It Before

Prepaid bitcoin voucher service Bitupcard is now available at an additional 270 locations in Turkey, taking the total to 300.

London house prices may have soared 90% over the last decade but, surprisingly, Britain's capital isn't the most unaffordable place to buy home as a local.

It's Oxford.

According to research by Danny Dorling, Halford Mackinder professor of geography at the University of Oxford, the city is now the least affordable place for locals to buy a property as homes are exchanging hands at a rate of 16 times that of average wages.

From 2013 to the end of 2014, Dorling found that the average property price in Oxford stood at £426,720. This is £38,000 more than the previous year. However, average salaries for local workers only hit £26,500, which is substantially less than the amount properties exchanged hands for in 2014. 

That means that in comparison to incomes, house prices are actually more expensive than they are in London.

Dorling's research found that the average London property price hit £501,520. Home prices increased by £45,620 over the year, leaving them 15.7 times the average income of £31,950.

“We have seen the ripple from London affect Oxford house prices – it’s like a shockwave coming out of the capital. The average in London is now above £500,000 and once it doesn’t look unusual to ask that much for a property there, it will happen in Oxford too. But we don’t have London weightings on our wages,” said Dorling.

Dorling's findings are part of his research he did the latest edition of his book: All that is Solid: How the Great Housing Disaster defines our Times and What We Can Do About It. 

Here are the other regions that are the least affordable places to live as a local ,at a rate in which properties changed hands versus wages in 2014:

• Cambridge: 14.8 times.
• Brighton: 12.2 times.
• Reading 10.1 times.
• Milton Keynes 8 times.

And the most affordable:

• Liverpool: 5.8 times. 
• Derby: 6.2 times.
• Nottingham: 6.8 times.
• Swansea: 6.7 times.
• Birmingham: 7.3 times.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This Video Of The Largest Breakage Of Ice From A Glacier Ever Filmed Is Absolutely Frightening

MOST stories about bitcoin, a digital currency loved and loathed in equal measure, focus on the future potential of the technology, rather than its present-day usefulness. This story is no different. Earlier this month, UATP, a payment network for airlines, announced it was teaming up with Bitnet, a bitcoin processing platform, to offer 260 of the world’s largest carriers the option of accepting the currency for flight bookings. UATP merchants provide 95% of global airline capacity, counting among their ranks mainstream brands such as British Airways, Lufthansa, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines. The company also works with 130,000 travel agencies, plus big rail operators such as Amtrak. None of these partners, it must be stressed, has said it will add a ‘Pay With Bitcoin’ button to its website. But the potential to do so is now there. And that is more than enough to get the bitcoin faithful excited by the development.For those who still scratch their head at the mention of bitcoin, a quick introduction should suffice. Traditional payment systems—credit cards, bank transfers, PayPal and so forth—work well enough, but can be costly, slow and vulnerable to fraud. Geeks have long dreamed of a digital currency that exists solely in the form of computer code, which can be pinged over the internet without the need for an intermediary. Six years ago, bitcoin made this ...<div class="og_rss_groups"></div>

OKCoin has given away 10m yuan ($1,598,390) in bitcoin as part of a promotional Chinese New Year 'red envelope' campaign.

Bitcoin trading has again managed to paint itself in a corner. Price is consolidating prior to encountering a long-term trendline from the November 2013 all-time high. At the current trajectory, price should run into the watershed within a week. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. […]

The post Bitcoin Trading In Gridlock appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

2014 was an incredibly tough year for the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The 81% state-owned bank revealed in its 2014 results statement that it was hammered by a significant amount of  litigation charges, a writedown from its Citizens unit and restructuring charges.

It total it reported a loss of £3.5 billion for last year. 

Citizens, its retail and commercial banking services unit which was bought by RBS in 1988, caused a £4 billion write down.

In September last year, RBS launched the Citizens IPO. It originally planned to sell the shares at between $23 and $25. However, following a lukewarm market debut, RBS ended up selling shares for only $21.50 each. 

Meanwhile, in a bid to restructure the bank, the costs of doing so amounted to £1.3 billion. RBS also spent £2.2 billion on litigation and conduct provisions.

"It has taken far longer than anyone realised to root out all the past problems, practices and related fines, and
we still have challenges on the horizon. We are changing the culture of this bank; our aim is that
shareholders are not exposed to this scale of conduct risk again," said RBS CEO Ross McEwan, in the group's financial statement. "What you will have seen from me over the last year is the way I will be open and honest with you and our customers when dealing with these issues; the way we continue to approach FX is a good example of this."

"I will not hide. I will talk openly about the hurt this wrongdoing causes me and the many thousands of people within this bank. I will detail the things we are doing to put things right for our customers, and the challenge and change we are driving through the culture and conduct of our staff. We are determined to learn the lessons from the wrongdoings of the past and ensure that those responsible are held to account."

Meanwhile, McEwan just became the lowest paid CEO on the FTSE 100.

Only a few hours prior to RBS announcing its 2014 results, he revealed that he will forfeit £1 million out of his salary. 

"Ross McEwan has told the RBS Board he does not intend to take the proceeds from his 2015 role based allowance. Ross does not want this issue to be a distraction from the task of building a great bank for customers and shareholders," said RBS in a statement.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This Video Of The Largest Breakage Of Ice From A Glacier Ever Filmed Is Absolutely Frightening

Bitcoin will take center stage at the 22nd SXSW Interactive Festival, March 13 to 17 in Austin, Texas, an annual showcase and brainstorming conference for emerging technology. Bitcoin at SXSW 2015 will present a full day of bitcoin-related content on March 16 as part of Startup Village and as an official SXSW event. Bitcoin at […]

The post Bitcoin To Take Center Stage At SXSW Festival March 16 In Austin, Texas appeared first on CryptoCoinsNews.

CoinDesk examines the Bitcoin Foundation's recent attempt to launch a blockchain-based voting system and its impact on its latest election round.