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Blockchain innovation and development consortium R3 CEV announced in a company blog post that it is actively working on a blockchain-inspired distributed ledger platform for financial services firms.

The platform, called Corda, is designed to safely and securely “record, manage, and synchronize” financial agreements between financial institutions. R3's partner institutions will begin testing applications on Corda in the coming weeks, according to Bloomberg. 

R3 emphasized that Corda tweaks some privacy aspects of the blockchain to alleviate banks' security concerns. 

• Banks are flocking to blockchain because of its potential to increase efficiency. The technology, which was developed to power cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, relies on a distributed ledger that allows all involved parties to use an algorithm to verify transactions. That process could increase efficiency, eliminate middlemen, and cut costs in the financial industry by up to $20 billion annually by 2022. But by nature, blockchain-based transactions are available for viewing and authorizing by everyone in the network, which could pose problems to banks concerned about security and privacy of transactions.
• R3’s Corda attempts to solve that. R3 recognized privacy concerns among its over 40 partner institutions, and opted to build a system that tries to address that. Although there are many unique complexities to Corda, a big difference is that it can grant specific parties private access to verify transactions. 

This could help reshape the way that financial institutions are innovating in the blockchain space. Though nearly all major financial services firms are either working with blockchain collaborative groups or innovating independently, many have expressed concerns that the technology is still unproven. Corda could be the first step towards developing a verification process that preserves the efficiency and security aspects of the blockchain while continuing to protect the data privacy needs of financial institutions. That could ease the concerns of non-participants, which could push banks and financial institutions deeper into the space.

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.

Join the conversation about this story »

Brave Software responds to a cease-and-desist letter it received from a newspaper association about its ad-blocking software.

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Chinese mobile payment service Alipay officially announced its expansion into the European market at Money20/20 in Copenhagen on Wednesday. The platform will make it easier for Chinese users to make purchases with Alipay throughout Europe, particularly in the UK, France, and Germany. This marks the firm’s biggest move out of Asia since its launch. Alipay will be available to European merchants beginning this summer. 

The European launch will provide Chinese users with two services abroad:

• Purchasing through Alipay: The service is launching largely in a partnership formed between Alipay and Wirecard, a large European processor. Merchants with Wirecard point-of-sale (POS) infrastructure will be able to easily install software for processing Alipay payments, and then users will be able to pay by presenting a barcode in the Alipay Wallet app that the merchant can scan with a handheld scanner.
• Services and offers: In May, the firm is also launching a “Local Services Platform," which is a location-based service that identifies merchants that accept Alipay and provides consumers with lists and reviews, according to CNBC. This could ease adoption. 

The program could be very popular among European merchants because of its potential to increase purchasing from Chinese tourists, a highly lucrative population. In 2015, 120 billion Chinese tourists spent $215 billion abroad, a 53% increase from the $165 billion spent the previous year, according to CNBC. Giving Alipay’s 450 million monthly active users (MAU) an easy way to pay abroad could drastically increase tourist volume for European merchants.

And it also has two key benefits for Alipay:

• Volume: Launching in Europe gives Alipay access to more markets, which, in turn, provides the firm with a wider net of merchants to capture volume from when Alipay customers go outside of China. 
• Loyalty: China's payments ecosystem is expanding — mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Samsung Pay want to try to chip away at Alipay's share of the market. Alipay could be trying to secure loyalty by offering acceptance in similar markets. 

This is yet another sign of the way in which the world of payments is evolving, and there are several more facets to this increasingly complex ecosystem.

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 »

A new research paper explores the role the Internet has played in allowing private forms of money like bitcoin to compete against fiat alternatives.

Bitcoin Press Releases: Currently serving over 180,000 customers, the world’s leading Bitcoin cloud mining provider Genesis Mining is celebrating its two year anniversary with generous 5% discount codes on all purchases until April 11. Two years ago, Marco Streng, Marco Krohn and Jakov Dolic announced the launch of Genesis Mining. After being involved in Bitcoin […]

The post Genesis Mining Celebrates Two Year Anniversary With Big Discount Code For Cloud Mining appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Core, the open source project that maintains bitcoin client software called “Bitcoin Core,” has launched a sponsorship program in an effort to involve more of the cryptocurrency community in the project. The sponsorship program provides a way for the industry to support research, projects and development. Some of the more overlooked aspects of the […]

The post Bitcoin Core Launches Sponsorship Program To Support R&D appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin price continues inside its two-month sideways consolidation range. This time we’re in for a price dip that should return to current price levels after a small descent. 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 […]

The post Bitcoin Price Down Then Up appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

This is a guest post by Chris Pardo and the opinions expressed are those of the author and don't represent the views of Bitcoin Magazine or...

The post How Inflation Is Stealing Your Money: Can Cryptocurrency Solve Inflation on a Global Scale? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

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Amazon could soon become a player in the fintech space.

The e-commerce giant's head of payments, Patrick Gauthier, said at Money20/20 Europe that the company is considering making some fintech acquisitions as valuations in the space start to decline and fintech becomes a more affordable investment, reports Finextra.

This would be a logical progression for Amazon, which already has a significant and active user base. Amazon has been experiencing increased growth tied to payments, as its payments unit has 23 million active users and has recorded 200% year-over-year growth in merchants adding the "Pay with Amazon" buy button to their online stores.

There is also precedent for Amazon to make such a move. Chinese e-commerce giant Alipay has more than 450 million monthly active users and has more than 50% of the online payments market in China. So Amazon could be on the path to building up a similar type of momentum with its own customers.

Fintech acquisitions would also make Amazon more competitive with other checkout services such as Apple Pay and Visa Checkout. This could be crucial in the next few years, as BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, forecasts that mobile commerce will make up 45% of all U.S. e-commerce retail sales by 2020.

The arrival of this age of fintech 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 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.

Join the conversation about this story »

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The post Replacing Bitcoin Transactions: Community Responses to Opt-In Replace-By-Fee appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Up to this point, the main way to judge support for a change to Bitcoin's consensus rules has been miner voting. Miners are able to...

The post Bitcoin Hard Forks May Become Safer With User Voting appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A team of blockchain technology pioneers from Ghana, Denmark, and the U.S., has launched a blockchain initiative to establish usable land titles and free up trillions of dollars for infrastructure development in West Africa, according to Forbes.   The Bitland initiative will educate the population about technology and hopefully foster the benefits of documented land ownership […]

The post Bitland Blockchain Initiative Seeks To Create Reliable Land Titles In Africa appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Personal finance has progressed in leaps and bounds since Apple launched the iPhone in 2007.

Circle, the Boston-based internet bank started in 2013, launched its payments app on Wednesday, partnering with UK bank Barclays.

It runs on the blockchain network, the technology that underpins cyber currency Bitcoin, and so payments can be sent instantly to contacts like a text message.

You can add gifs or emojis to the payment, and the app processes both dollar and UK sterling amounts.

It's backed by $76 million of venture capital, which includes a $50 million investment from Goldman Sachs.

"We think money should work the way the internet works, like with email or texting." Circle CEO and co-founder Jeremy Allaire said in an interview in London. 

It's on both iOS and Android. Here's what Circle looks like on your phone. 

This is the main screen of the app and shows your balance, along with your message and payments history.

You can convert it to dollars instantly if you wish. Circle works in the UK and US.

If a contact owes you money, you can select them from the request money screen and nudge them to pay you.

par·a·digm shift noun a fundamental change in approach or underlying assumptions In January 2016, major banks and technology companies began publicly experimenting with ways in which blockchain related technologies could revolutionize the way they do business. Instead of overthrowing the status quo, as Bitcoiners famously would like, the nascent blockchain industry wants to make the […]

The post The Blockchain: A Banker’s, Police Officer’s & Regulator’s Dream? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

US and Canada cyber security agencies issued an alert last week regarding an increasing number of ransomware attacks against healthcare organizations. Five providers, in just the last month alone, have been infected with such computer viruses, and often they are forced to pay Bitcoin ransoms. “Malicious software” infected the computer system at Alvarado Hospital Medical […]

The post US & Canada Cyber Agencies Issue Alert To Healthcare Providers For Ransomware appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

J. Christopher Giancarlo, a commissioner at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), told a Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. symposium that blockchain should be allowed to develop with minimal government regulation. Giancarlo noted in his published remarks that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 offers a good model since it allowed the Internet to evolve under […]

The post CFTC Official: Early Internet Regulatory Model Will Help Blockchain Evolve appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.