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Overstock revealed Friday it invested $4 million into a blockchain-forward financial technology firm in the Caribbean. The announcement, made in Barbados and attended by principals from the island’s company Bitt and Overstock, enters in a big move by Overstock into the space. It’s involvement had largely been focused on innovation through its t0 project.  “A […]

The post Overstock Invests In Bitt, Creator of Barbadian Digital Dollar appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Caribbean digital currency exchange Bitt has received $4m in new funding from online retailer Overstock.

The price of bitcoin experienced relative price stability and consistent volume during the seven days through 1st April.

London-based fintech startup Swanest has raised $10 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, according to TechCrunch.

The company is a digital investment assistant that takes the most frequently asked questions investors must solve and uses algorithms to provide smart assistance to investors.

Swanest can trace its roots to the rise of traditional robo-advisors such as Betterment and Wealthfront in the U.S., but the company realized the acquisition costs were rather high. The company analyzed competitors and the needs of users to create its current approach.

In particular, Swanest discovered that robo-advisors struggled to make investment advice personalized, so the company now builds it platform together with users through direct feedback.

The growing prominence of companies such as Swanest shows that we’ve entered the most profound era of change for financial services companies since the 1970s brought us index mutual funds, discount brokers and ATMs.

No firm is immune from the coming disruption and every company must have a strategy to harness the powerful advantages of the new fintech revolution.

The battle already underway will create surprising winners and stunned losers among some of the most powerful names in the financial world: The most contentious conflicts (and partnerships) will be between startups that are completely reengineering decades-old practices, traditional power players who are furiously trying to adapt with their own innovations, and total disruption of established technology & processes:

• Traditional Retail Banks vs. Online-Only Banks: Traditional retail banks provide a valuable service, but online-only banks can offer many of the same services with higher rates and lower fees

• Traditional Lenders vs. Peer-to-Peer Marketplaces: P2P lending marketplaces are growing much faster than traditional lenders—only time will tell if the banks strategy of creating their own small loan networks will be successful

• Traditional Asset Managers vs. Robo-Advisors: Robo-advisors like Betterment offer lower fees, lower minimums and solid returns to investors, but the much larger traditional asset managers are creating their own robo-products while providing the kind of handholding that high net worth clients are willing to pay handsomely for.

As you can see, this very fluid environment is creating winners and losers before your eyes…and it’s also creating the potential for new cost savings or growth opportunities for both you and your company.

After months of researching and reporting this important trend, Evan Bakker, research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has put together an essential report on the fintech ecosystem that explains the new landscape, identifies the ripest areas for disruption, and highlights the some of the most exciting new companies. These new players have the potential to become the next Visa, Paypal or Charles Schwab because they have the potential to transform important areas of the financial services industry like:

• Retail banking

• Lending and Financing

• Payments and Transfers
• 
Wealth and Asset Management

• Markets and Exchanges

• Insurance

• Blockchain Transactions


If you work in any of these sectors, it’s important for you to understand how the fintech revolution will change your business and possibly even your career. And if you’re employed in any part of the digital economy, you’ll want to know how you can exploit these new technologies to make your employer more efficient, flexible and profitable.

Among the big picture insights you'll get from The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry:

• Why financial technology is so disruptive to financial services—it will soon change the nature of almost every financial activity, from banking to payments to wealth management.
• The basic conflict will be between old firms and new—startups are re-imagining financial services processes from top to bottom, while incumbent financial services firms are trying to keep up with new products of their own.
• Both sides face serious obstacles—traditional banks and financial services firms are investing heavily in innovation, but leveraging their investments is difficult with so much invested in legacy systems and profit centers.
• Meanwhile, startups are struggling to navigate a rapidly-changing regulatory landscape and must scale up quickly with limited resources.
• The blockchain is a wild card that could completely overhaul financial services. Both major banks and startups around the world are exploring the technology behind the blockchain, which stores and records Bitcoin transactions. This technology could lower the cost of many financial activities to near-zero and could wipe away many traditional banking activities completely.

This exclusive report also:

• Explains the main growth drivers of the exploding fintech ecosystem.
• Frames the challenges and opportunities faced by incumbents and startups.
• Breaks down global and regional fintech investments, including which regions are the most significant and which are poised for the highest growth.
• Reveals which two financial services are garnering the most investment, and are therefore likely to be transformed first and fastest by fintech
• Explains why blockchain technology is critically important to banks and startups, and assesses which players stand to gain the most from it.
• Explores the financial sectors facing disruption and breaks them down in terms of investments, vulnerabilities and growth opportunities.
• And much more.

The Fintech Ecosystem Report: Measuring the effects of technology on the entire financial services industry is how you get the full story on the fintech revolution.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide to the fintech revolution, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the fast-moving world of financial technology.

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The Kialara has fast become one of bitcoin's key collectibles, but it also raises questions about the value of art.

The British Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and its Australian counterpart, Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have signed the first-of-its-kind agreement whereby innovative Fintech companies in Australia and the United Kingdom will have more support from financial regulators as they attempt to enter the others’ market. Christopher Woolard, director of strategy and competition at the […]

The post British and Australian Financial Regulators Sign Blockchain Agreement appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Anthony Di Iorio was one of the original founders of the Ethereum project, which received ample attention in 2016 as it passed a billion...

The post Toronto Stock Exchange Executive Anthony Di Iorio Wants to Turn Canada Into a Blockchain Powerhouse appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

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Walmart is debuting a new program today, but it's no April's Fools joke.

The retail giant is debuting a new rewards program called 3-2-1 Save for its store and prepaid cardholders. The program gives customers 3% cash back on all orders on Walmart.com, 2% on fuel at Walmart gas stations, and 1% on all in-store purchases and other in-person locations that accept the Walmart cards.

Synchrony Financial and Green Dot, the issuers of the cards, will manage the rewards program.

The structure of the program incentivizes customers to shop online, which could increase digital spending. This strategy makes sense, as Walmart's mobile app has 22 million users, and Synchrony Financial's online and mobile sales surged 23% year-over-year in the fourth quarter of 2015.

If this rewards program takes off, then it could also drive users toward Walmart Pay, the company's mobile wallet that is set to debut later this year. Approximately 25% of cards loaded into Apple Pay are proprietary store or loyalty cards, so if the rewards program succeeds, then it could give Walmart Pay a wider audience once it hits the market.

Walmart is one of hundreds of companies that are shifting their approaches as the payments ecosystem continues to transform. Rewards programs, mobile wallets, and more are rapidly changing the way in which we pay for goods and services.

Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, have compiled a detailed report on the payments ecosystem that drills into the industry to explain how a broad range of transactions are processed, including prepaid and store cards, as well as revealing which types of companies are in the best and worst position to capitalize on the latest industry trends.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 2016 will be a watershed year for the payments industry. Payments companies are improving security, expanding their mobile offerings, and building commerce capabilities that will give consumers a more compelling reason to make purchases using digital devices.
• Payments is an extremely complex industry. To understand the next big digital opportunity lies, it's critical to understand how the traditional credit- and debit-processing chain works and what roles acquirers, processors, issuing banks, card networks, independent sales organizations, gateways, and software and hardware providers play.
• Alternative technologies could disrupt the processing ecosystem. Devices ranging from refrigerators to smartwatches now feature payment capabilities, which will spur changes in consumer payment behaviors. Likewise, blockchain technology, the protocol that underlies Bitcoin, could one day change how consumer card payments are verified.

In full, the report:

• Uncovers the key themes and trends affecting the payments industry in 2016 and beyond.
• Gives a detailed description of the stakeholders involved in a payment transaction, along with hardware and software providers.
• Offers diagrams and infographics explaining how card transactions are processed and which players are involved in each step.
• Provides charts on our latest forecasts, key company growth, survey results, and more.
• Analyzes the alternative technologies, including blockchain, which could further disrupt the ecosystem.

To get your copy of this invaluable guide, choose one of these options:

1. Subscribe to an ALL-ACCESS Membership with BI Intelligence and gain immediate access to this report AND over 100 other expertly researched deep-dive reports, subscriptions to all of our daily newsletters, and much more. >> START A MEMBERSHIP
2. Purchase the report and download it immediately from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

The choice is yours. But however you decide to acquire this report, you’ve given yourself a powerful advantage in your understanding of the payments ecosystem.

Join the conversation about this story »

Bitcoin price continues hovering around $415 and 2690 CNY. The chart’s technical conditions are primed for a break into either rally or decline. 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 […]

The post Bitcoin Price Still Above Support appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Russian software architects and entrepreneurs Alex Paperno, Eugene Porubaev and Vlad Kravchuk plan to take the insurance company out of...

The post Teambrella Wants to Revolutionize Insurance Coverage With Peer-To-Peer Bitcoin Payments appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The open-source Hyperledger Project led by the Linux Foundation sees 10 new members joining the initiative. The blockchain endeavor also sees the filling of key leadership positions in a recent announcement. In a recent announcement, the Hyperledger Project revealed 10 new companies that joined the blockchain endeavor. The companies include a number of bitcoin- and […]

The post Hyperledger Blockchain Project Sees 10 New Members including Blockstream & Bloq appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Brendan Eich, the controversial former CEO of Mozilla, recently launched Brave, a privacy-focused browser that blocks ads and trackers. While that concept isn't new, Brave has a twist: You'll have to pay to completely block ads, and if you allow repl...

For anyone who likes online gambling, Fortunejack.com is an online casino that uses digital currency to help ensure fairness and security. The site offers many live-games such as Texas Hold’em, Roulette, Dragon Tiger, Baccarat and CarribeanPoker, and provides round-the-clock customer support. But that’s not all. Thanks to technology, it is possible now to verify the […]

The post Fortunejack.com Makes Online Gambling Fair, Fun And Easy appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Steptoe & Johnson partner Jason Weinstein argues that, despite perception, blockchain tech benefits law enforcement agents more than criminals.

How would a bitcoin standard fare for a monetary system? An analysis by the Bank of Canada examined that scenario, conjecturing how a bitcoin standard would perform based on the performance of a gold standard that existed from 1880 to 1913. The gold standard was a monetary system in which nations’ currencies were tied to […]

The post Bank of Canada Paper Asserts Bitcoin Monetary Standard Wouldn’t Last Long appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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Japan is still in the doldrums. The index measuring sentiment levels for large manufacturers fell to +6 during the quarter. Not only did it miss expectations for a decline to +8, it was also the lowest level seen since the June quarter 2013

The Financial Stability Board weighed in on fintech. Global regulators have moved closer to regulating the fledgling fintech sector, which includes blockchain technology that supports bitcoin, to ensure the industry's rapid growth does not pose any risks to the financial system.

Major powers are signing climate change accords. The United States and China confirmed that they will sign the Paris climate change agreement in New York on April 22, a move that officials hope will help the accord enter into force this year.

The smartphone market is finally waning. Global smartphone sales are expected to grow in single digits in percentage terms for the first time ever and PC shipments are forecast to decline in 2016, according to research firm Gartner Inc.

McDonalds is expanding in Asia. McDonald's said it plans to open more than 1,500 restaurants in China, Hong Kong and South Korea over the next five years and wants partners in the Asia expansion.

Prime Minister David Cameron is diving in to the steel debate. He held crisis talks Thursday to salvage Britain's steel industry after Indian giant Tata Steel said it was putting its troubled British business up for sale, threatening 15,000 jobs.

The Brazilian president is edging closer to impeachment. Supporters of embattled Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff – with her fiery predecessor at their head – were taking to the streets Thursday to protest against a looming impeachment vote.

The US is concerned about North Korea. The United States moved to keep pressure on nuclear-armed North Korea and reassure China over the proposed deployment of a sophisticated anti-missile system to South Korea. 

Deutsche Bank has missed targets in its rates trading division. The bank's rates-trading business, which had targeted ambitious revenue growth in 2016, is suffering amid the tough start to the year. Deutsche Bank started the year targeting 2 billion euros in revenue from the rates business for the whole year.

The Catholic Church is investigating corruption claims. The Vatican said it is investigating two former officials over claims money meant for a children's hospital was used to refurbish a cardinal's luxury apartment.

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NOW WATCH: Why 2-in-1 shampoo and conditioner products don’t work

There has been a long list of figures who the press and online commenters have speculated are Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin. At one point, when Newsweek claimed Dorian Nakamoto, an unnamed individual left a cryptographic message stating, “I am not Dorian Nakamoto.” Many argued this in-and-of-itself does not prove Satoshi left the message. Read […]

The post Craig Steven Wright to Confirm Identity as Satoshi Nakamoto? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A research consultant for Canada's central bank has published a paper that envisions a world with a monetary standard based on bitcoin.