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Eleven companies showcased their innovative fintech propositions at the Barclays Accelerator demo day in New York. Eight of these companies have already signed contracts with the bank. The demo day followed 13 weeks of intensive networking, mentoring and development.

The Barclays Accelerator program, offered in partnership with the Techstars global networks, includes mentorship and opportunities for financial technology startups to access industry experts, influencers and potential clients. The program covers all areas of fintech, from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence to wealth management, investment banking, big data and cryptocurrencies.

The Accelerator program just concluded was the first to take place in New York. The next 13-week program will take place in London in January 2016. Barclays announced two further Barclays Accelerator programs that will run in Tel Aviv and in Cape Town in March 2016.

In June, Bitcoin Magazine reported that of the 10 firms taking in Barclays' 13-week Accelerator program in London seven were "exploring opportunities" with the bank. Barclays signed a deal with Safello, a Swedish company that participated in the fintech accelerator program in London, to explore how the blockchain could be used in traditional finance.

“At Barclays, we’re embracing the digital revolution, exploring innovations early on so that we can help to shape their development and co-create the future of financial services with these startups," said Barclays’ chief design and digital officer Derek White. “We're leading the industry with new pioneering technologies, which will be paramount to helping us achieve our ambition of becoming the 'Go-To' bank."

In March, speaking at the Morgan Stanley European Financials Conference in London, Barclays’ CEO Antony Jenkins warned that the “banking sector has not yet felt the ‘full disruptive force’ of technology – but it will.” He elaborated on the growing concern among financial institutions that faster, cheaper payment systems will start to seduce their consumer and business customers in the coming years.

“It’s amazing to be part of the burgeoning fintech ecosystem in New York City and play an active part in the transformation of the industry,” said Jenny Fielding, managing director of Techstars. “The eleven startups in this class are each tackling a different part of financial services, providing further evidence that the category is a massive market opportunity. Working in unison with Barclays has proven to be a strong partnership for these high-growth startups and we're excited to roll out additional fintech programs worldwide.”

Two of the fintech companies selected by Barclays have a special focus on blockchain technology.

Barclays’ financial crime and transaction monitoring teams will be using Chainalysis’ tools for in-depth real-time blockchain transaction analysis to obtain information from the blockchain about their customer’s financial transactions. Chainalysis, based in Switzerland, offers a service that provides financial institutions with the means to obtain regulatory compliance through real-time analysis of the blockchain.

It is evident that Bitcoin is moving toward mainstreaming and regulations, and therefore services such Chainalysis are here to stay, but such services likely will continue to meet opposition from an important part of the Bitcoin community. In April Bitcoin Magazine reported that a leaked Chainalysis roadmap, now trending on Reddit, has been received with anger and hostile comments.

In August, Bitcoin Magazine reported that Barclays will be the first major bank to help selected customers – UK charities – to receive bitcoin payments directly in their bank accounts, establishing an important precedent. It can be expected that, after this first initiative focused on charities, Barclays could consider gradually allowing ordinary business and residential customers to receive bitcoin payments. In this context, Chainalysis’ system could allow Barclays to discriminate good customers from bad customers in full compliance with applicable over-regulations.

Wave, a company that developed a peer-to-peer and completely decentralized network that connects all carriers, banks, forwarders, traders and other parties of the international trading supply chain, will experiment with blockchain-based tools to help business clients reduce costs associated with supply chain management in collaboration with Barclays’ Corporate Bank.

The post Chainalysis and Wave Showcase Blockchain Fintech Products at New York Barclays Accelerator, Sign Deal with Barclays appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin may pose a risk for terrorist financing, according to a new report from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

Bitcoin has spent 2015 in a sideways consolidation. A look at the Litecoin price chart sheds some light and shows up a lot of noise that had been distracting exchange chart investors for the past 10 months. 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: 15h36 UTC LiteCoin 4-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: xbt.social member S, suggested I take a look at the Litecoin chart. The chart […]

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Bitcoin has spent 2015 in a sideways consolidation. A look at the Litecoin price chart sheds some light and shows up a lot of noise that had been distracting exchange chart investors for the past 10 months. 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: 15h36 UTC LiteCoin 4-Hour Chart From the analysis pages of xbt.social, earlier today: xbt.social member S, suggested I take a look at the Litecoin chart. The chart […]

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Multinational professional services firm Deloitte has questioned whether it is too soon to try and regulate bitcoin.

BitPay, one of the top funded companies and most-used payment processor in the Bitcoin industry, is open to alternative block-size proposals – not just BIP (Bitcoin Improvement Proposal) 101.

Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine, CEO Stephen Pair reaffirmed that BitPay will adopt code to increase Bitcoin's block-size limit by December of this year, but said this no longer needs to be the proposal as implemented in alternative Bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT.

BIP 101 is programmed to increase the block-size limit to 8 megabytes, then doubling every other year for the next 20 years. This proposal was publicly endorsed through an open letter from some of the leading Bitcoin companies in the space last summer.

BitPay, Blockchain(.info), Circle, KnCMiner, Bitnet, Xapo, BitGo and itBit vowed to adopt BIP 101 and ready their code for bigger blocks by December. Additionally, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong made a similar statement on Twitter earlier this week.

But when asked by Bitcoin Magazine, Pair indicated that BIP 101 is no longer the only option for the leading payment processor in the Bitcoin space. The BitPay CEO explained that alternative proposals will be considered as well.

“In December we will adopt the leading candidate solution, which right now is BIP 101, but that could change. This will hopefully help drive consensus,” Pair said.

As one possible alternative, Pair referred to a temporary solution that would increase the maximum blocks size to 8 MB over a four-year period:

“[Blockstream president] Adam Back made a proposal that is essentially the same as BIP 101, but has a less steep curve that doesn't stretch as far into the future. I prefer that proposal over BIP 101, but I'm not sure it will be ready by December.”

Drawing from his experience in the telecom industry, Pair sees a lot of opportunity to improve Bitcoin's efficiency and scalability by reducing resource usage. This would, in turn, decrease the risk of bigger blocks, which is why Pair believes an increase of the block-size limit is the best way forward.

“Either extreme on block size puts Bitcoin at risk. But I don't believe that a moderately larger block size will result in centralization because people can no longer afford to run full nodes,” Pair said.

“At the same time, a block size that is too small would result in fewer people being able to afford transactions. If only a few people use bitcoin for transactions, those people will eventually realize that they could conduct those transactions much more cheaply by compromising on decentralization.”

The Bitcoin community has been arguing if, when, and how to increase the maximum block size in order to allow for more transactions on the network for several years. The debate reached a climax in August of this year, when former Bitcoin Core lead developer Gavin Andresen and Bitcoinj developer Mike Hearn implemented BIP 101 in alternative Bitcoin implementation Bitcoin XT. Bitcoin XT has so far not garnered the required 75 percent hash-rate support among miners in order to activate, however.

While this makes an ecosystemwide adoption of Bitcoin XT seem unlikely, Pair did make it very clear that the maximum block size should be increased by December somehow.

“From our vantage point, we are quickly running out of time,” Pair said. “Bitcoin is at all-time highs regarding transaction volume, and BitPay has been setting new monthly transaction volume records every month for the last six months. We are starting to see Bitcoin used to solve very boring problems by people who could care less whether it's bitcoin or not. This to me is an early indicator that a tipping point is near. Hopefully, we find a consensus that doesn't put Bitcoin's lead as the most secure and liquid payment medium in jeopardy.”

Another proposal that has been gaining in popularity, and that was drafted by Bitcoin Core developer and BitPay employee Jeff Garzik, is BIP 100. BIP 100 would allow miners to collectively vote on the block-size limit, and is currently publicly endorsed by 60 percent of all hashing power on the Bitcoin network.

Although the proposal was drafted by one of his employees (but not on behalf of his company), Pair is not convinced BIP 100 is the best way forward.

The post BitPay CEO Stephen Pair: We're Open to Alternative Block-size Proposals appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Water Project, Inc., a nonprofit organization providing sustainable water projects to sub-Saharan African communities, has launched a new bold initiative, with the help of bitcoin.

The organization has introduced a new program named “The Water Promise,” which combines high-tech remote monitoring with local repair teams to ensure that water is reliable and self-sustainable in the long term.

Each bitcoin donation will be allocated to one of 42 new sensor-enabled water projects in Kenya managed by the organization.

The Water Project team is looking for donations as little as 0.196 BTC to provide clean and safe water for one individual all the way to 98.5748 BTC, to provide a well and self-sustainable sanitation system for a school.

In total, the organization will be leading four sub-projects:

1. Providing a Water Well and Sanitation for a School: 98.5748 BTC

2. Small Community Water Project: 9.2874 BTC

3. Clean and Safe Water for a Family: 0.69 BTC

4. Clean and Safe Water for one Individual: 0.196 BTC

Through partnerships with local communities and organizations, the Water Project team has been able to fund several types of water projects, including a drilled well, sand dam, rainwater catchment, hygiene and sanitation and spring protection, providing essential necessities for families in countries like Ghana.

Despite their hard work, the organization had to rely on traditional financial platforms like Paypal and bank wiring as the main method of payment over the past few years, to accept donations for their projects.

However, these methods of payment could be extremely inefficient at times, especially for organizations such as Water Project that are in urgent need of cash and capital to maintain a variety of programs.

The Water Project team has come to a consensus to use bitcoin as one of the main methods of payment and donation to help fund its projects in the long run.

Since early 2015, nonprofit organizations have turned to bitcoin for donations and financing due to the lack of remittance networks, outlets and banking partners across the continent.

This month, the Syrian refugee crisis has caused more than 4 million refugees to either cross borders and enter neighboring countries or to permanently relocate to the opposite side of the country to avoid a series of civil wars.

According to a report published by the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), millions of refugees have escaped to Lebanon, Iraq, Turkey, Jordan and Europe, creating a serious international issue which local governments failed to take over.

In response, nonprofit organizations decided to use bitcoin to accept donations, in an attempt to create a Humanitarian Aid program to provide emergency services to refugees who are in desperate need of housing, clothing and food.

“Bitnation Refugee Emergency Response (BRER) is a Humanitarian Aid Project of Bitnation to facilitate and provide Emergency Services and Humanitarian Aid to refugees during the European Refugee Crisis of September 2015,” explained the Bitnation team.

Bitcoin has proved to be the most efficient and secure medium of payment for donations and financing, due to its transparency and decentralized nature. Using blockchain analysis tools and technologies, investors can easily trail the allocation of funds and confirm whether the donations are actually used to help the people in need.

Photo Connie Gallippi / BitGive

The post Water Project, Inc. Launches Bitcoin Initiative to Help Sub Saharan Countries appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

At the very least, a trio of UK-based electronic retail websites have been inundated with DDoS attacks by hackers holding the websites to ransom in exchange for Bitcoin. The websites have suffered temporary outage and have since put up a bounty to round up on the bitcoin-seeking attackers. Electronic retailers Aria Technology, Novatech and Scan Computers have all been targeted by hackers, resulting in the temporary disruption of services on their websites. Aria, in particular, announced that while the temporary outages were caused by persons unknown, the means used to cause the disruption were in-fact distributed denial of service (DDoS) […]

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An e-tailer is offering a $23,181 bounty to catch those who launched a DDoS attack against the firm's site before demanding a bitcoin ransom.

Bitcoin technology promises to transform the way we handle money, turning our dollars into the financial equivalent of mp3s.

A bit of a public service announcement today as Reddit user ZoidbergCoin reported a phishing attempt on the part of a false Electrum Twitter account. The attackers were clever, creating an exact clone of the original Electrum Twitter, but using an “I” (uppercase) instead of a lowercase “l.” On first glance, it's hard to tell the difference. For reference, Electrum is a popular lightweight bitcoin wallet for desktop and mobile which operates similar to SPV wallets. It communicates with a trusted server rather than downloading the entire block chain. One common criticism of it is that the Electrum server can […]

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Quiet markets as the economy enters the end-of-year doldrums and waits, hands-in-pocket, for the Fed's next move. This week we scan the mainstream media for interesting developments - Deutche Bank play their part in the rates hike theatre and the Bank of Ireland joins the move toward eliminating euro small change. This post is powered by the Bitcoin Trading Network xbt.social - CCN29 and get 29USD off! Economic Indicators World Indexes and Forex Rates   Commodities In the Calendar This Week Mon 19 October China Industrial Production (actual:5.7% expected:6.0% previous:6.1%) China GDP q/y (actual:6.9% expected:6.8% previous:7.0%) Tue 20 October Australia […]

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The International Monetary Fund's latest assessment of the economies of the Middle East and North Africa is going to make for pretty grim reading in many of the region's oil-rich nations on Wednesday morning.

It's a brutal assessment of the slowing growth and the destabilising effect of low oil prices. Though the plunging costs of energy have been a positive thing for consumers in much of the world, that cash boost is effectively taken straight from the pockets of finance ministers in the Middle East.

According to the report, not a single one of the MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan) oil exporters is "saving enough of their hydrocarbon wealth for intergenerational purposes."

They're also heading for difficult waters in terms of their government budgets.

Only Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have strong enough fiscal buffers to last in the long term — each can hold off for over 20 years. But Oman, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen are all in a more worrying situation, with little more than five years of fiscal buffers left, before they're going to be forced to run into debt. 

That's because the current price of a barrel of oil is well below their "fiscal breakeven" — the price at which their oil revenues make their government budgets balance. Take a look:

Fiscal buffers in this sense mean how long the countries can run down their assets before they've got nothing else to sell. In the case of Saudi Arabia, it's buffered by colossal reserves of foreign currency. But those can last only so long if the government is constantly selling them to fund its spending, and insistent on keeping its currency firmly pegged to the dollar.

Here's how the kingdom's reserves look, according to a recent note from Oxford Economics:

The plunge in oil prices was a concerted effort by oil exporters, with particular support from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. Their deliberate overproduction, combined with a weakening of demand, has cut prices in half during the last year.

That's had massive effects around the world, boosting retail spending in Europe and sending inflation figures negative across the advanced economies. But its intention was simple — to send the US oil producers which grew so rapidly over the last decade into retreat.

It's working — companies like Schlumberger in the US are reporting absolutely dreadful results and much of the industry is being forced to cut back. 

The question for the major oil producers in the Middle East is simple — can they hold out long enough to cripple US production, especially so that the industry can't just bounce back straight afterwards? 

The IMF doesn't make a judgment on that — but it's clear that holding out comes at a massive price. 

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Mariano Belinky nailed the difference between corporate venture capital investing and regular VCs at a conference this week.

Belinky, the boss of Santander's $100 million (£64.8 million) fintech investment arm InnoVentures, was asked about how his fund goes about investing at LendIt Europe conference in London on Tuesday.

He said one of the last thing he and his colleagues think about is financials. 

Belinky said: "We don't really set clear exit paths. The financial component of our objectives is minor. We don't want to lose money but at the same time we aren't saying the right thing to do 18 months out is to have an IPO. It's more this serves a very concrete gap or opportunity in the way we serve clients and hopefully you won't go bust. Well, more than hopefully."

The key, he said, was that all the investments had to be "strategic."

"We look at things where we can add value to our clients and learn," Belinky said. "There are large segments and subsegments of customers that we're not serving because we don't know how to or they're already bumping up against our sector limits."

"Our threshold is that there is now, or will be in a short time, a product we can take to clients. We don't look at revenue, we don't care if it's pre- or post-revenue. That puts us usually late A stage [Series A round, the first injection of institutional funding].  We won't do purely financial it has to be capital plus something else we can add."

That's the big difference between corporate venture capital and regular VC investing. More often than not, the investor's business matters as much as the investee's. 

These funds are often meant to nurture companies that can help Santander, Salesforce, TravelEx, or whichever corporate is doing the investment.

Santander InnoVentures has made 5 investments since opening up last year, most recently backing blockchain startup Ripple and online small business lender Kabbage. Belinky said Kabbage was a prime example of a business serving customers that Santander didn't have the expertise to address.

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