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When two black holes merge, a tremendous amount of energy goes into the ripples of space itself. But a brilliant flash of light? Not a chance.

Digital bank WB21 announced that it has added Bitcoin as a method for its customers to transfer and deposit funds to their checking...

The post Global Digital Bank WB21 Starts Accepting Bitcoin Deposits appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

 It feels like we only hear about Bitcoin when the price is either tanking or skyrocketing. And, since it’s currently skyrocketing, let’s talk about Bitcoin! As of writing, Bitcoin is hovering around $745 per coin. It has only been worth this much twice before – once on the way up to the height of the Christmas 2013 bubble, and once on the way down. But since trading at lows… Read More

The price of bitcoin broke $750 on 16th June, building on recent gains to hit a 28-month high.

The bitcoin price chart is showing us what we want to see: steady advance with reasonable corrective pauses. $700 has been strung up and left behind. Bitcoin price wears its new boots like a determined Sandor Clegane. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? […]

The post Bitcoin Price Knocking at $750’s Door appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: Digital Entertainment based in Budapest, Hungary, is delighted to introduce a new Angry Birds style game in which players earn the cryptocurrency Piggycoin (PIGGY on Poloniex) by completing farm-related tasks. Farm Fun will be released in July for Android and iOS platforms. The goal of Farm Fun is to complete 50 levels […]

The post Farm Fun: The Exciting New Game That Rewards Players With Piggycoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin startup Caricoin has announced the launch of a bitcoin wallet application that it deems as the first “social mobile money platform” in the Caribbean. UK-based Caricoin Ltd has released a bitcoin wallet as a mobile money solution for Caribbean users. The application and technology has been developed following a partnership with Californian Bitcoin security […]

The post The Caribbean Sees a New Bitcoin Wallet from Caricoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: Dear customer, If you’re searching for a dependable online Bitcoin company that provides you with a safe online platform and a profitable income on a daily basis from any part of the world, then you’re in the right place. Today, we are happy to announce that we have opened our doors to […]

The post BitBot.Biz is Online!!! appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

With over $1b invested in bitcoin firms and much more within the general blockchain ecosystem, many entrepreneurs, from experienced to aspiring and anywhere in between are looking at this technology and saying “How can I use this?” Just as importantly, they're asking “How do I get my blockchain project funded”.  While the fundraising craze for Bitcoin startups of 2014 may have subsided, the hype right now is just as intense in both the enterprise and the venture capitalist world is around blockchain technology.  That being said, I have recently spoken with three blockchain venture capital veterans about blockchain investments.

Bitcoin price has been making headlines and is under the spotlight again after scaling to two-year highs this week. Now, the cryptocurrency is gaining ground again, surging over 7% in its value since the beginning of the day (UCT) as it sprints towards the $750 marker. The Bitstamp Price Index (BPI) was trading at $695.15 […]

The post Newsflash: Bitcoin Price Shatters $750 appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A UK survey spanning business owner-managers and entrepreneurs in the region revealed a few takeaways of their outlook on bitcoin. A majority of the respondents to the Smith & William Enterprise Index survey that polls entrepreneurs and owner-managers in the UK said bitcoin will fail to become a widely accepted payment method, reports UK publication […]

The post Survey: 60% of UK Business Owners See Bitcoin “failing” as Popular Payment Method appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Since launching its Azure Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) last November, Microsoft has worked with partners to understand core industry scenarios, and to develop the technologies to bring blockchain to enterprises, governments, and individuals. Project Bletchley is Microsoft’s vision for an open, modular blockchain powered by Azure, according to Marley Gray, director of blockchain business development […]

The post Microsoft Introduces Project Bletchley, a Modular Cloud-based Blockchain Platform appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Britain will make a momentous choice in the EU referendum on June 23. If the country votes to Remain, it will strengthen and renew the European project. If we vote to Leave, then Britain will open an entirely new, independent chapter in its history.

There are arguments on both sides of the vote. Here we summarise the best ones in favour of Leave, to help voters who are wavering or undecided.

(You can read our guide to the best arguments in favour of Remain here.)

It's not the economy, stupid.

Let's be realistic: not all the Leave arguments are equal.

Leaving the EU single market will probably hurt the UK's economic growth, and it may spur new calls for an independence referendum in Scotland.

The economic aspect is the weakest part of the Leave case. Even in the most optimistic scenario, the uncertainty of a Brexit will hurt investment and economic growth in the UK, weaken the pound, crush UK stocks, and hurt the spending power of British workers' wages. You can read the official Leave "roadmap" here, which describes a plan for Britain in the event of a majority Leave vote.

So if you are going to vote Leave, you need to admit that economics is the weakest part of the Brexit case. Rather, you're voting on an important point of principle that trumps economics — and there are plenty of reasons to choose from.

The EU is not democratic.

This is the strongest argument against the EU, and there are four good examples showing it:

1. The people of Greece twice voted for their Syriza-led government, and once voted in a national referendum to reject the EU bailout terms. But the EU, in collaboration with the IMF, ignored their votes and imposed its own onerous debt extension. That has kept the Greek economy crippled for years. Greece's only other option was to leave the eurozone and reinstate the drachma. This is not democracy, if your only choices are "do as we say or implode your economy with a risky currency switch." 

2. Former Italy prime minister Silvio Berlusconi says he was forced from office by EU technocrats who were fed up with his tabloid antics. Even if you do not believe that conspiracy theory, it is certainly the case that after Berlusconi resigned he was replaced by former European Commissioner President Mario Monti, who was appointed to run an interim government — and he did not hold elections for two years. No matter how you look at it, democracy was suspended in the world's eighth largest economy for two years.

3. Portugal has a Socialist government whose economic plan is being sabotaged by the EC. It does not matter whether you agree with Portugal's government or not — the people of Portugal voted for its anti-austerity agenda. They should get it. But the EC has rules, and one of them is that governments must balance their books within the margins set by the EU. So earlier this year, the unelected EC forced Portugal to compromise its economic plan. 

4. Spain is in a similar position. It is not enough that the Spanish have elected a conservative prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, who has promised his people tax cuts and an end to austerity. Rajoy must also get his plan approved by the EC. No deal has yet been reached. 

The EU is hopelessly bureaucratic.

Forget all the tabloid nonsense about Brussels bureaucrats banning British sausages. Can you even name the ruling bodies of the EU? (For the record, they are the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European Central Bank, and the European Court of Auditors.) Here is a diagram of the EU government structure:

Only two of those bodies are elected by the people. The rest are appointed. The European Council and the European Commission make most of the rules in the EU — and yet they are not elected bodies. The EU has three — three! — different "presidents" (the president of the European parliament, the commission, and the council.)

These bodies are making rules that really do affect our freedoms. For instance, it was the EC that created the "Right to Be Forgotten," the Orwellian law that bans search engines from linking to truthful, accurate, unbiased information if an individual can make a case that it harms them.

And while that bureaucracy is complicated, it is not lazy. Steve Hilton, Prime Minister David Cameron’s former chief strategist did an audit of what civil servants inside No. 10 Downing Street were actually working on, according to The Spectator: "Only a third of what the government was doing was related to its agenda. Just over half was processing orders from Brussels," new laws coming from a government that British people do not control. 

One size does not fit all.

The German economy and the Greek economy are at opposite ends of the spectrum.

For years, the Germans saved their money, balanced their books, and grew their economy. And for years, the Greeks borrowed money, ran deficits, and their economy has shrunk.

Now the Germans must extend the Greeks credit to keep the country functioning, and the Greeks have to go on paying that debt forever unless they want to leave. If the Greeks were independent, their problems would be none of Germany's business. You can see why they're enraged by each other. But the two economies are yolked together, despite their mismatched sizes and fiscal policies. 

Those mismatches are about to get worse. Look at the list of countries trying to join the EU: Turkey, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Iceland, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro.

You can see how an alliance of the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain makes sense, along with the smaller countries who are their immediate neighbours. They have long, shared histories. But is the Islamic republic of Turkey really a "European" country? Should Iceland follow the same fiscal rules as Ireland? Is Kosovo — population 1.8 million, roughly equivalent to Hamburg — even a "country?"

The Greek crisis shows there is a high price for getting these questions wrong. Britain might be better off out of it.

You want (slightly) less immigration.

After a Brexit, immigration from the EU will likely go down. Immigration from outside the EU — all those Russians and Arabs — will probably stay the same, however. The UK already controls non-EU immigration itself. 

If you really believe that European immigrants are ruining our country and stealing our jobs then Leave is the way you should vote. But remember, the British native population is aging and having fewer babies, leaving the UK economy dependent on immigration for its economic growth. There is no real disagreement about this among economists. Sure, you won't have to compete against a Polish plumber for a job. But there will be fewer jobs overall.

The undemocratic nature of the EU has real consequences for Britain

The principal at issue in the referendum — whether Britain should be controlled by the votes of its own people or whether that power should be diluted by Brussels — has real-life consequences for the way we build our society in the future. 

Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal have all had their fiscal affairs meddled with against the wishes of their elected governments, but you could argue — at a stretch — that requiring governments to balance their books is a politically neutral policy: countries can decide for themselves how they want to do that. But what isn't neutral are the competition rules that forbid countries from supporting their domestic industries. If you think the British government should support British steel works, or that the railways should be nationalised again, you're in for a shock: EU law literally bans countries from nationalising certain industries.

So yes, leaving the EU might hurt economically in the short term. But in the long term, something more important is at stake: Whether our democracy should be real or not. The UK recently devolved power to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and it continues to devolve power to its larger cities and regions. There is broad agreement that this has been a good thing. This is the best argument for Brexit: We should extend that devolution of power to our entire nation, too.

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NOW WATCH: Donald Trump claims he never said these things — let’s look at the footage

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JPMorgan Chase, the largest U.S. bank by assets, added real-time peer-to-peer (P2P) capability online and in mobile banking apps through bank-based P2P service platform clearXchange, according to Bloomberg.

Chase had previously offered digital P2P using a service called Chase QuickPay. But now, consumers will be able to transfer funds in real-time within the bank and with customers at Bank of America and US Bank, two other major US-based retail banks that have been offering clearXchange since March. 

Bank of America payments managing director Mary Harman told Bloomberg that a wave of banks will onboard to clearXchange “en masse” within the next month or two, which will greatly expand the service’s addressable user base. 

Chase and its partner banks are offering a service that's been growing in popularity because of the convenience it provides. Consumers are particularly turning to mobile to transfer money — 46% of customers have made a mobile P2P payment, according to Accenture.

That’s because it provides a more convenient way than cash, checks, or traditional wire transfer to split costs for things like social events and meals. That convenience will spur growth in digital-based transfers.

BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, forecasts that mobile P2P will grow to $174 billion, worth 30% of total P2P payment volume, by 2020. That’s up from $5.6 billion, or just 1% in 2014. The upward trend towards digital-based P2P suggests JPMorgan's new service will be in high demand among its customers. 

Banks are newer to the real-time P2P space compared to tech companies, but there’s still considerable opportunity for banks to compete.

• No one firm has a majority in the space. Venmo, the largest P2P application, holds just 19% of the market, according to The Wall Street Journal. That leaves ample room in the market for banks to grab.
• Chase has a massive user base that's already making bank-to-bank transfers, activity that could be amplified once Chase joins forces with partner banks. Chase QuickPay processed $20 billion last year in P2P payments, according to Bloomberg. For context, Venmo processed about $7.5 billion. Real-time capability and interbank functionality could bring increased transfer volume to Chase and even make its platform as useful as Venmo, given the addressable user base of the banks involved — JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America count a combined 43.4 million active mobile banking users, and millions of online-only customers on top of that. 
• The banks could serve an untapped audience. In 2015, 84% of consumers trusted their banks to provide a mobile wallet, compared to just 5% choosing tech companies. That could push users that may have been hesitant to test PayPal or other apps to try the new platform. 

The world of payments changes seemingly every day with new ways to send and receive money. The rise of mobile wallets, in particular, has been disruptive in this area.

Evan Bakker and John Heggestuen, analysts at BI Intelligence, 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.

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The Exponential Finance 2016 conference, organized by Singularity University and CNBC, was held in New York on June 7 and 8. Once again,...

The post MIT's Brian Forde: "Companies Will Be Disrupted the Most by Public Blockchains" appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.