Coin News

The Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC) has appointed Mark Wetjen, head of global public policy at the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), to its board of advisors. The DTCC, the world’s top post-trade market infrastructure for international financial services, has joined the chamber’s executive committee. The DTCC processed nearly $1.5 quadrillion in securities transactions in […]

The post Chamber of Digital Commerce Names DTTC Executive to Advisory Board appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The volunteer community that develops the code for bitcoin’s software has entered a new phase of testing for Segregated Witness.

Bitcoin Press Release: The blockchain application platform Lisk now has its digital currency LSK listed on various exchanges and financial services like ShapeShift, Yuanbao, or CoinPayments. Adoption is steadily growing through payment processors and online merchants. June 30, 2016, Aachen, Germany – Lisk, the open source blockchain application platform, is proud to announce that the […]

The post Lisk Financial Ecosystem Grows – Gets Listed on ShapeShift and Other Services appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A new research report by banking giant Citi asserts that it does not view bitcoin and other digital currencies as a disruptive threat.

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Peer-to-peer payments are nothing new, as "Venmo me" has become colloquial when splitting a restaurant check. But one company is trying to change the P2P payments game by utilizing blockchain technology.

Abra announced today that its smartphone app is now available on Android and iPhone in the U.S. Users can download the app, fund their Abra wallets immediately with their bank accounts, and send money completely free to other users by just entering their phone number.

But what makes Abra different from Venmo and other P2P payment apps?

“We’re trying to make it possible for the first time to send money between any two phone numbers in the world,” founder and CEO Bill Barhydt told Business Insider. "Venmo, PayPal, etc. physically take possession of your money, and that's an untenable proposition at a global scale."

So Barhydt went back to the drawing board a few years ago and rethought the problem from scratch. That led to the major idea behind Abra, which is to allow a consumer to hold digital cash on a smartphone for the first time with no third party holding their funds.

Of course, this generated an important question: How do you guarantee the value of a transaction in that case? Abra's solution is to take Bitcoin and the blockchain technology that underlies it to effectively fix the value of the digital cash in fiat currency in real time without the need for a financial intermediary.

"That has the beautiful property [of introducing] interesting models for getting money on and off the phone in the first place," Barhydt said.

To make money more accessible to consumers, the company is launching a new network of "Abra Tellers," or "human ATMs," individuals or businesses who earn money by buying or selling digital cash to and from any consumer through the Abra app.

Abra has already launched in the Philippines, which Barhydt called a "good fertile launch testing ground." The nation was an excellent test market because it has a variety of consumer types and heavy smartphone penetration, which allowed Abra to test every aspect of its platform in a real-world environment.

Abra now joins a growing list of ways for people to send money to one another, and time will tell if the integration of blockchain technology into this process will change the process in the way the company expects.

John Heggestuen, managing research analyst for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report that explores the market for P2P payments, how they work, and the types of businesses that are offering these services and why. 

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• We estimate that US annual peer-to-peer (P2P) payments — informal payments made from one person to another — reached over $540 billion in 2014. These payments were made by cash, check, digital money transfer, or other means.
• Mobile P2P payments are having a huge impact on this informal economy and diminishing the need for cash and checks. We forecast that mobile P2P payments will grow to $174 billion during the same period. That means that 30% of P2P volume will be paid via mobile, up from 1% last year.
• There are four types of businesses making major moves in mobile P2P payments: social messaging companies, banks, card networks, and other payment companies. Each of these types of companies has its own objectives and strengths in offering mobile P2P payment services which we explore in the report.

In full, the report:

• Forecasts the value of total and mobile P2P payments made in the United States through 2019.
• Explains the networks that P2P payments providers use to move value from one person to another.
• Analyzes why mobile P2P apps are seeing such a rapid uptake among millennials and other demographics.
• Explores the disparate objectives different companies hope to achieve by offering these services.

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 P2P payments.

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Bitcoin price is, at the time of writing, breaking out of a consolidation above $600. The market has noticed and the chatrooms are speculating if this is a time to buy. Technical analysis confirms the corrective rally proposed in yesterday’s analysis. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis […]

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Corrective Rally appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

On Wednesday, the Bitcoin community went into a tizzy over BIP 75 (BIP stands for Bitcoin Improvement Proposal), which is, in short, a...

The post Does BIP 75 Really Threaten Bitcoin’s Fungibility? appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The Hyperledger Project, led by the Linux Foundation and aimed at the development of an enterprise-grade, open source distributed ledger...

The post Hyperledger Global Expansion Adds Seven New Members to Blockchain Initiative appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The blocksize debate has been brought to the forefront once more as a number of Bitcoin developers, including Gregory Maxwell, CTO of Blockstream and Mark Friedenbach, Core Tech Engineer at Blockstream, came out against the Hong Kong Consensus, arguably the most important document in Bitcoin’s history since the whitepaper. According to what may be a […]

The post Bitcoin Miners to Hardfork According to Circulating Rumors appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Core contributor, Peter Todd, was recently interviewed on Bitcoin Uncensored by co-hosts Chris DeRose and Joshua Unseth. Ethereum,...

The post How Governments Subsidize Bitcoin's Usefulness and the Bitcoin Price appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

A Florida judge is scheduled to decide on July 1 if bitcoin is really money, according to American Banker. The judge is expected to rule whether a man charged with selling bitcoin to undercover police was violating the state’s anti-money launder law, as charged by law enforcement. The defense argues that bitcoin is personal property, […]

The post Florida Judge to Rule If Bitcoin Is ‘Really Money’, Tomorrow appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

According to an SEC document filed yesterday, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust has filed to switch the listing from Nasdaq to BATS Global Markets and has filed for a maximum offer of $65 million. Having listed their first application to list on Nasdaq, with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) three years ago, the brothers are […]

The post Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust Looks to Raise $65 Million for ETF appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Britons are putting big purchases on ice with some pulling out of property purchases and others looking for work abroad, research shows

Britons spooked by the shock vote to leave the EU are ditching plans to buy homes, putting big purchases on ice, and looking for work abroad.

The panic triggered in financial markets following Britain’s decision to quit the EU has started to ripple down to everyday decision-making, as consumers brace themselves for sustained uncertainty.

The British pound slipped around 8% on Friday last week after the Brexit vote; however, Bitcoin surged around 9% demonstrating that the cryptocurrency is detached from a centralized government allowing people ‘to preserve their wealth in a secure way.’ Since the Brexit vote, the British Pound has slipped in value and now stands at its […]

The post Bitcoin Price down, but Gaining Popularity in the UK after Brexit appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

You might not have noticed with all the Brexit chaos but the price of oil has been on a charge in recent months.

So great has oil's bounce been that it is set to see the biggest quarterly gain since 2009 when the world was coming to terms with the impacts of the global financial crisis.

Oil has been on a charge ever since hitting a 14-year low in January when the price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate crude fell below $27. It has gained around 88% since that point.

Since the beginning of the second quarter of the year, futures contracts on the world's most important commodity have risen by 29% in New York trading, according to data from Bloomberg. If there is not a massive downward spike over the next day, that rise would mark the best quarter since 2009.

Here is the chart showing oil's recent rally (note the incredibly low price compared to 2014 highs):In the past quarter, the oil industry has experienced some of the most significant events in recent years, including a huge meeting between oil producers in Qatar. The meeting was one of the most anticipated events in the oil industry for decades, with traders hoping for the supply of oil to be curbed, but the meeting ended in a damp squib.

The day after the Doha meeting, Brent crude — the international benchmark — dropped as much as 7% just after markets opened, but ended the day up by 0.3% as investors got used to an oil market that was unchanged.

However, regardless of the failure of talks in Doha, oil has managed to surge thanks to a growing rebalancing in the supply and demand problems that had helped drive depressed oil prices. In mid-May, Goldman Sachs, one of the most bearish banks when it comes to oil, suddenly turned bullish, saying the market is now rebalancing, and pointing to huge supply disruptions as the crucial reason for doing so.

A series of huge, unconnected disruptions to production across the world in the past few months hs helped address this issue. During that time the Iraqi government decided to stop pumping oil to Turkey, Kuwaiti workers brought the country's oil industry to its knees with a strike, and a massive wildfire in Canada crippled the country's oil sands. The number of outages is almost too many to count.While oil has enjoyed an insanely strong quarter, it is unlikely that Q3 will be as positive for the industry. Since pushing through the $50 per barrel mark in late May, oil has struggled to break above that level.

Despite oil's recent climb, it seems likely that $50 oil may prove to be something of a ceiling for crude in the coming months, with a large number of the market's most respected oil analysts, including Goldman, backing oil to end the year at around the $50 mark. That could cause big issues for smaller oil-producing nations, which need higher prices to make their production profitable.

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NOW WATCH: Everyday phrases that even smart people say incorrectly

Flashy startups like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain, and BitPay are some of the most famous companies in bitcoin.

But arguably more important are the miners — individuals and organisations who form the core backbone of bitcoin, ensuring the digital currency's integrity.

Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, a decentralised and public ledger of every transaction made on the network. By offering processing power towards this, users get a chance to win bitcoin — creating an arms race of miners scrambling to assemble ever-more sophisticated and powerful equipment to "mine" new bitcoin.

This decentralisation has huge benefits, but also comes with new risks: Right now, if just the top three organisations joined forces they would control 51% of the network — giving them the power to rewrite the blockchain as they see fit.

Some individuals go it alone; others join open "pools" where they combine their resources to improve their odds; some larger companies also have mining efforts.

While the #1 spot can change from week to week, we have ranked the biggest mining companies using data covering June 22-29, 2016, using data from bitcoin network analysis company Blocktrail.

18. P2Pool.org — 0.1%

This relatively small pool was created in 2011 by programmer Forrest Voight. It claims to be "the most transparent mining pool on the planet" because it distributes all pool data for the public to view. As of September 2014, it had mined more than 78,000 bitcoin (£13.4 million or $20.9 million at current prices).

17. Eobot — 0.1%

Eobot is a cloud mining solution that lets users mine bitcoin — and other digital currencies including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, and more — without owning any of their own hardware. They just pay the company to rent server power.

It launched in 2013, and operates out of Los Angeles, California.

16. BitMinter — 0.2%

A veteran pool, BitMinter was created in 2011 by Geir Harald Hansen. According to BitcoinWiki, a digital currency wiki, it has servers in the US and in Europe.

Flashy startups like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain, and BitPay are some of the most famous companies in bitcoin.

But arguably more important are the miners — individuals and organisations who form the core backbone of bitcoin, ensuring the digital currency's integrity.

Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, a decentralised and public ledger of every transaction made on the network. By offering processing power towards this, users get a chance to win bitcoin — creating an arms race of miners scrambling to assemble ever-more sophisticated and powerful equipment to "mine" new bitcoin.

This decentralisation has huge benefits, but also comes with new risks: Right now, if just the top three organisations joined forces they would control 51% of the network — giving them the power to rewrite the blockchain as they see fit.

Some individuals go it alone; others join open "pools" where they combine their resources to improve their odds; some larger companies also have mining efforts.

While the #1 spot can change from week to week, we have ranked the biggest mining companies using data covering June 22-29, 2016, using data from bitcoin network analysis company Blocktrail.

18. P2Pool.org — 0.1%

This relatively small pool was created in 2011 by programmer Forrest Voight. It claims to be "the most transparent mining pool on the planet" because it distributes all pool data for the public to view. As of September 2014, it had mined more than 78,000 bitcoin (£13.4 million or $20.9 million at current prices).

17. Eobot — 0.1%

Eobot is a cloud mining solution that lets users mine bitcoin — and other digital currencies including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, and more — without owning any of their own hardware. They just pay the company to rent server power.

It launched in 2013, and operates out of Los Angeles, California.

16. BitMinter — 0.2%

A veteran pool, BitMinter was created in 2011 by Geir Harald Hansen. According to BitcoinWiki, a digital currency wiki, it has servers in the US and in Europe.

Flashy startups like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain, and BitPay are some of the most famous companies in bitcoin.

But arguably more important are the miners — individuals and organisations who form the core backbone of bitcoin, ensuring the digital currency's integrity.

Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, a decentralised and public ledger of every transaction made on the network. By offering processing power towards this, users get a chance to win bitcoin — creating an arms race of miners scrambling to assemble ever-more sophisticated and powerful equipment to "mine" new bitcoin.

This decentralisation has huge benefits, but also comes with new risks: Right now, if just the top three organisations joined forces they would control 51% of the network — giving them the power to rewrite the blockchain as they see fit.

Some individuals go it alone; others join open "pools" where they combine their resources to improve their odds; some larger companies also have mining efforts.

While the #1 spot can change from week to week, we have ranked the biggest mining companies using data covering June 22-29, 2016, using data from bitcoin network analysis company Blocktrail.

18. P2Pool.org — 0.1%

This relatively small pool was created in 2011 by programmer Forrest Voight. It claims to be "the most transparent mining pool on the planet" because it distributes all pool data for the public to view. As of September 2014, it had mined more than 78,000 bitcoin (£13.4 million or $20.9 million at current prices).

17. Eobot — 0.1%

Eobot is a cloud mining solution that lets users mine bitcoin — and other digital currencies including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, and more — without owning any of their own hardware. They just pay the company to rent server power.

It launched in 2013, and operates out of Los Angeles, California.

16. BitMinter — 0.2%

A veteran pool, BitMinter was created in 2011 by Geir Harald Hansen. According to BitcoinWiki, a digital currency wiki, it has servers in the US and in Europe.

Flashy startups like Coinbase, Circle, Blockchain, and BitPay are some of the most famous companies in bitcoin.

But arguably more important are the miners — individuals and organisations who form the core backbone of bitcoin, ensuring the digital currency's integrity.

Bitcoin runs on a blockchain, a decentralised and public ledger of every transaction made on the network. By offering processing power towards this, users get a chance to win bitcoin — creating an arms race of miners scrambling to assemble ever-more sophisticated and powerful equipment to "mine" new bitcoin.

This decentralisation has huge benefits, but also comes with new risks: Right now, if just the top three organisations joined forces they would control 51% of the network — giving them the power to rewrite the blockchain as they see fit.

Some individuals go it alone; others join open "pools" where they combine their resources to improve their odds; some larger companies also have mining efforts.

While the #1 spot can change from week to week, we have ranked the biggest mining companies using data covering June 22-29, 2016, using data from bitcoin network analysis company Blocktrail.

18. P2Pool.org — 0.1%

This relatively small pool was created in 2011 by programmer Forrest Voight. It claims to be "the most transparent mining pool on the planet" because it distributes all pool data for the public to view. As of September 2014, it had mined more than 78,000 bitcoin (£13.4 million or $20.9 million at current prices).

17. Eobot — 0.1%

Eobot is a cloud mining solution that lets users mine bitcoin — and other digital currencies including Ethereum, Litecoin, Dogecoin, Ripple, and more — without owning any of their own hardware. They just pay the company to rent server power.

It launched in 2013, and operates out of Los Angeles, California.

16. BitMinter — 0.2%

A veteran pool, BitMinter was created in 2011 by Geir Harald Hansen. According to BitcoinWiki, a digital currency wiki, it has servers in the US and in Europe.

Below is a list of some of the best known online Bitcoin gambling websites on the internet. SatoshiDice Satoshi Dice represents the first big buyout for a Bitcoin company, when then CEO Erik Vorhees sold the website for $11.5 million. The site offers provably fair Bitcoin casino games, and guarantees “fast betting, instant payouts, wheel […]

The post The Biggest Websites for Online Bitcoin Gambling appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

With recent events showing investor demand for Bitcoin, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss inched closer to someday offering a Bitcoin ETF, making several amendments to their SEC filing.

By Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss on Wednesday filed to switch the listing of their proposed bitcoin exchange-traded fund to BATS Global Markets from Nasdaq, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Winklevoss brothers, identical twins, had filed their first application for a listing three years ago.

The proposed ETF, the Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust, will list 1 million shares at $65 each, according to the filing. That is up from a list price of $20.09 per share given in the first filing.

The filing did not say why there was a change in trading venues, but over the last year BATS has emerged as one of the fastest-rising trading venues for ETFs. BATS is the second largest U.S. equities market operator.

If approved by the SEC, the Winklevoss ETF would be the first bitcoin ETF issued by a U.S. entity.

The ETF would trade under the ticker symbol COIN.

Gemini Trust Company, the Winklevoss brothers' trust company, which runs a bitcoin trading venue, has been designated the custodian of the ETF. There was no designated custodian in the previous filings.

Gemini operates a trading platform for bitcoin and for another digital currency, ether.

The ETF's bitcoin will be valued using the Gemini's spot price as of 4 p.m. Eastern time each business day, according to the SEC filing.

Bitcoin's value has been highly volatile, having peaked at over $1,200 in late 2013 before crashing after the collapse of the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange.

It has since recovered, hitting a more than two-year high of nearly $780 last week in the run-up to the British referendum whether the country should leave the European Union. As of late Wednesday, one bitcoin was worth $634.24 on the Bitstamp platform.

(Reporting by Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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