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Six employees of bitcoin exchange Bitstamp were targeted in a weeks-long phishing attempt leading up to the theft of roughly $5m in bitcoin.

The blockchain is a key part of the system that underlies recordkeeping and transactions for Bitcoin, the virtual currency. But there are much bigger opportunities ahead for this decentralized recordkeeping system. In a session called “Why Everybody Cares About the Blockchain” at the inaugural Techonomy Policy conference earlier this month, panelists emphasized repeatedly that the database holds tremendous promise for an array of uses in banking, conflict tracking, and voting, among other things. It was a wide-ranging discussion, reflecting the vast possibilities proponents see for this contemporary technology. "Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had one universal ledger that we could use for everything and that was accessible to everybody?" said Jerry Brito, executive director of the Coin Center. "Well, that is what the blockchain is. It’s a decentralized and open ledger."

In a new document leaked from Bitstamp, one of the more popular Bitcoin exchanges in the world, the company details how a phishing attack several months ago bereft the company of roughly $5 million at then-current prices (which are not radically different from current prices). Beginning around page nine of the leaked report, which is clearly marked confidential but is already floating around numerous mirror sites since its initial leak, the document details how the company discovered an "ominous" and large data movement of around 3.5 gigabytes from Bitstamp's server to an IP in Germany. From there, the company determined […]

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The independent intergovernmental organization FATF or The Financial Action Task Force (on Money Laundering), headquartered in Paris, has published a report as a guide for using digital currencies titled “Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach to Virtual Currencies.” It includes benefits of digital currencies as well as potential risks of money laundering and terror financing. The report is essentially the conclusion to the recent meeting held at Brisbane that was participated by 34 member nations and two regional organizations – the European Union and the Gulf Co-operation Council — to discuss policies, regulations and compliance for digital currencies. The 48-page extended report issued by the FATF described bitcoin payment services and products as potential tools for money laundering, and announced that […]

The post Financial Action Task Force Issues Bitcoin Guidelines, Warns about Money Laundering appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

International Business Times revealed that the global bank Citi is developing blockchains within the bank and test-coins to run across them. Ken Moore, head of Citi Innovation Labs, confirmed that the bank has been looking at distributed ledger technology for the last few years and has amassed a skilled team. They have built three blockchains and a test currency to run across them. Headquartered in Manhattan, Citi is an American multinational banking and financial services corporation. As of January 2015, it is the third-largest bank holding company in the United States by assets and has one of the world’s largest financial services networks. “We have up and running three separate systems within Citi now that actually deploy blockchain distributed ledger […]

The post Citi Is Working on ‘Citicoin’ for Cross-border Payments appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The crisis in Greece is unfolding so fast that new breaking updates are being published every hour. Yesterday, Greece became the first developed nation ever to default on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Hours after Greece missed the deadline for its repayment to the IMF, European ministers will meet to discuss the Greek request for a new bailout, BBC News reports. The Financial Times reports that Greek PM Alexis Tsipras seems ready to concede on most outstanding differences between his government and its international bailout creditors. According to a leaked letter sent late Tuesday night to the heads of the country’s trio of bailout monitors, Tsipras is prepared to accept most of the economic reform proposals issued by the European […]

The post Bank Lines in Athens Trigger a Rush to Gold and Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Entrepreneurship isn’t a new concept by any means, but the way in which entrepreneurs function has undergone an astonishing transformation over the last decade. But while these business owners may find themselves using several different methods to build a business, there’s one tool that, when used correctly, can infuse life into a failing business, and, when used incorrectly, cripples even the most profitable ventures.

Japanese researchers from the University of Tsukuba, Utsunomiya University, Nagoya Institute of Technology, and the University of Tokyo have developed a "Fairy Lights" display system that creates touchable hologram-like images in midair, IEEE Spectrum reports.

The post Fairy Lights: Hologram-Like 3D Images In The Air That You Can Touch appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

The Bitcoin Foundation(TBF) Founding Director Jon Matonis explains the $4.6m loss in 2014. Funds were drained by exorbitant monthly expenses, conferences and the falling price of bitcoin. Today the ex-VISA employee advises Bitcoin entrepreneurs on funding. The role of the organization that introduced lobbying to Bitcoin and attempted to meme-ify titles for Bitcoin developers remains ambiguous. Despite recent announcements purpotting a change in focus towards development, questions remain unanswered. Like, what happened to the 5800 bitcoin mentioned in their 2014 transparency documents? A lot of the funds that did not go towards funding core development actually went towards sponsoring annual conferences for the […]

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Bitcoin wallet hardware maker Ledger and bitcoin exchange Paymium are among the 36 fintech startups backing France FinTech, a new trade group.

There are many factors to consider when monitoring the value of something such as Bitcoin. There is a certain psychology of markets that must be understood before making too many predictions. One is that positivity breeds more positivity. When people are feeling good about Bitcoin, they place more buy orders for it. When they are feeling negative or less hopeful about Bitcoin, they place more sell orders. Either case can affect the price in a significant way. There are many, surprisingly in wider mainstream outlets, who have attributed the recent relatively small gains of the Bitcoin valuation to the crisis […]

The post Greece is not Buying Bitcoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

Hours after Greece had officially defaulted on its bailout loan from the International Monetary Fund; Eurozone ministers were already discussing terms of a new bailout loan to keep the country afloat. Officials today will decide whether or not an emergency loan to Greece from the European Central Bank. The meeting where ECB ministers will decide as much is only the first of two meetings that are to happen this afternoon, the other being in regards to Greece's request for a new bailout amounting in nearly 30 billion Euros and lasting two years. Many expect a tidy end to a short-lived […]

The post Eurozone Ministers Considering New Greek Bailout appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

A prototype of the flying wing aircraft debuted this week. The Preliminary Research Aerodynamics Design to Land on Mars, Prandtl-m, will test launch from a high altitude balloon later this year. A 100,000 foot altitude release will simulate flight conditions of a Martian atmosphere.

The post The First American UFO over Mars appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin News.

Spanish banking giant Santander has teamed up with mobile payment specialist Monitise on a joint venture that will be "investing in, building and scaling fintech businesses with the potential to redefine and support financial services globally."

As well as investment, chosen startups will get "access to Monitise's new cloud-based platform which is designed to connect banks to digital innovation for their customers," as well as the opportunity to partner with Santander, which is estimated by Forbes to be the 10th biggest bank in the world. 

The new 50:50 joint venture, funded by £10 million ($15.6 million) each from Santander and Monitise, is in addition to a $100 million (£63.8 million) fund Santander set up last year to invest in fintech startups. It shows just how seriously the bank is taking the threat — or some would say opportunity — of fintech.

Banks are facing a huge wave of competition from startups that have found cheaper, quicker and smarter ways to do finance using technology.

As a result, different corners of the sprawling world of banking are being chipped away at — GoCardless is eating away at the direct debit business; startups like TransferWise and Kantox are stealing foreign exchange revenue; and peer-to-peer marketplaces like Funding Circle are reinventing lending.

Santander and Barlcays have been among the most active in embracing these new challenges. Santander's global head of R&D innovation Julio Faura, who will co-head the new investment joint venture, recently spoke to Business Insider about how the bank is experimenting with bitcoin.

The as-yet-unnamed joint venture will let Santander keep an eye on the fintech world to make sure some plucky startup doesn't catch it on the back foot. It will also let the bank try and bring any promising startups into its fold rather than face it as competition. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as the saying goes.

There's something of that in the joint venture for Monitise too. The company was once one of Britain's most promising tech startups — Santander in fact invested when it was a young fintech innovator — but Monitise has struggled to deliver profits and has faced a huge amount of competition in the payments space in recent years.

The London-listed company's shares have fallen more than 75% over the last year and earlier this year Monitise put itself up for sale, only to pull the plug after failing to get a good enough offer. Founder Alastair Lukies stepped down as co-CEO at the same time.

Monitise, which announced the deal today, doesn't say specifically what type of financial technology firms the new investment company will target, other than to say they will be consumer facing. But the businesses will likely involve payments given Monitise's pedigree.

The London-based company runs mobile banking apps for the likes of Santander, RBS and Barclays, and works with the likes of Visa, which is an investor in the company. Like Santander, Monitise is probably hoping that it can recapture its edge by bringing promising young companies under its wing.

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Bitcoin price appears to be slipping from yesterday's high as the market starts taking profit. If trade can hold price above $260 and 1620 CNY for only a few more days, a bullish cross-over in the daily chart will shift the bias in favor of the bulls. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3 hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now and receive a $29 discount using the code CCN29. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of analysis: 05h15 UTC Bitstamp 1-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: Price has returned to […]

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The MIT Media Lab and two bitcoin experts have unveiled a prototype encryption system that lets you share it with a third party (or be computed with), without anyone else decrypting it. It means untrusted computers could still be tasked with dealing ...

Lately there has been chatter that by raising the block limit, or discussing doing so, we are opening up the gates to later have a discussion about making other major changes to Bitcoin. It's even been suggested that by letting this block size limit raise go through, we are opening the door to the possibility of a coin limit raise. Which is just ridiculous on the face. Under no circumstances could such a change be made to Bitcoin. It would be the ultimate betrayal of even an average Bitcoin holder, who believes he is holding a limited supply asset. Such […]

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