Coin News

In the wake of recent activity in the race to launch a Bitcoin ETF, a newly formed company has filed to create an ETF out of another digital currency, ether.

The modern smartphone is a remarkable device. A single device that fits in your pocket can do all the tasks that once required cameras, camcorders, GPS devices, watches, alarm clocks, calculators, and even TVs.    

But the next change might be the most radical of all—it could eliminate the need to carry cash and credit cards.  

The growing importance of the smartphone as the go-to computing device for every digital activity is having a profound effect everywhere you look, but it’s only the biggest story among many exciting developments in the world of payments:   

• Apple Pay was first out of the gate, but now mobile wallets are everywhere you look—Android Pay, Google Pay, Chase Pay and even Walmart Pay are making smartphones a real alternative to carrying credit cards. And the potential for mobile wallets to limit a merchant’s fraud liability could help them really take off in acceptance for small businesses.   
• As consumers move more purchasing online, gateway vendors that can act as a front-end processor for online businesses are seeing explosive growth.   PayPal-owned Braintree grew 111% YoY in the number of cards on file in Q4 2015, while Stripe and Klarna now have multi-billion dollar valuations.
• Mobile Point-Of-Sale (mPOS) startups like Square and ShopKeep have pioneered a whole new payments niche—accepting payments via tablets and smartphones.   Coupling their transactions capabilities with new apps can revolutionize a small business’ inventory management, marketing, loyalty and even payroll.   
• Mobile Peer-to-Peer payments in the U.S. are forecast to grow from $5.6 billion in 2014 to nearly $175 billion by 2019 as consumers increasingly skip the hassle of writing a check or going to an ATM.   But smartphone vendors like Apple could cripple the dominant player of 2016 (Venmo) if they make a serious push to own the space.   

If your job or your company is involved in payment processing in any way, you know how complex this industry is. And you know that you simply can’t understand where the next big digital opportunities are unless you know the key players and roles in each step of the payments “supply chain:”   

• Acquirers
• Processors
• Issuers
• Card Networks
• Independent sales organizations and merchant service providers
• Gateways
• Hardware and software providers

Fortunately, managing analyst John Heggestuen and research analyst Evan Bakker of BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, have compiled a detailed report that breaks down everything you need to know—whether you’re a payments industry veteran or a newcomer who is still getting a basic knowledge of this complex world.

Among the big picture insights you’ll get from this new report, titled The Payments Ecosystem Report: Everything You Need to Know About The Next Era of Payment Processing:

• The 5 key events of 2015 that have set up 2016 as a watershed year for the entire payments ecosystem. 
• The basics of traditional card processing from the start of the process through to the very end.    
• Why new players and innovations like prepaid cards, store cards, and PIN debit transactions are gaining market share and creating new opportunities.   
• The effects—good and bad—of the transition to new mobile payment methods.   New players and old have surprising threats and opportunities in areas as varied as carrier billing, remittances, wearables, and more.   

This exclusive report takes you inside these big issues to explore:

• The critical steps in credit card transactions and how they are changing.
• The six major types of organizations involved in the payments ecosystem.
• The significant differences for industry players who operate closed-loop networks and offer prepaid cards.
• The challenges and opportunities facing hardware and software providers for the payments sector.   
• The 8 reasons why mobile wallets are growing so fast and how they will disrupt all aspects of the mobile ecosystem.    
• The exciting possibilities ahead in fast-growing payments subsectors like remittances, connected devices and mobile P2P payments.   
• And much more.

The Payments Ecosystem Report: Everything You Need to Know About The Next Era of Payment Processing is the only place you can get the full story on the rapidly-evolving world of payments.      

Interested in getting the full report? Here are two ways to access it:

1. Subscribe to BI Intelligence's Ultimate Payments Research Bundle 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 & download the full report from our research store. >> BUY THE REPORT

Join the conversation about this story »

Press Release: Drachmae Club announces the Bitcoin, Altcoin and Blockchain competition for travelers where 10 winners will receive the membership to its exclusive DClub along with Drachmae Tokens. July 18, 2016 London, UK – Drachmae Travel Club, an exclusive blockchain travel portal is conducting a competition for travelers. The ‘Bitcoin Altcoin and Blockchain Competition’ requires […]

The post Drachmae Travel Introduces Blockchain Travel Competition and Investment Tool for Globetrotters appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Press Release: Drachmae Club announces the Bitcoin, Altcoin and Blockchain competition for travelers where 10 winners will receive the membership to its exclusive DClub along with Drachmae Tokens. July 18, 2016 London, UK – Drachmae Travel Club, an exclusive blockchain travel portal is conducting a competition for travelers. The ‘Bitcoin Altcoin and Blockchain Competition’ requires […]

The post Drachmae Travel Introduces Blockchain Travel Competition and Investment Tool for Globetrotters appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A late July gathering featuring members of bitcoin’s development and mining communities will not focus on scaling.

JPMorgan has lost two of its senior leaders on its blockchain project, Juno, as they embark on starting up their own blockchain startup, a report by Quartz revealed. Will Martino, the lead developer and Stuart Popejoy, the head of Juno started Kadena.io in June; however, the two departures signify the difficult task that financial institutions have […]

The post Leader and Lead Developer Quit JPMorgan’s Blockchain Project “Juno” appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

SAP is venturing into blockchain technology applications. The German multinational company, a market leader in enterprise application...

The post SAP and Ripple Collaborate on Cross-Border Payments Trial Using Blockchain Technology appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

SAP is venturing into blockchain technology applications. The German multinational company, a market leader in enterprise application...

The post SAP and Ripple Collaborate on Cross-Border Payments Trial Using Blockchain Technology appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin's block reward halved for the second time last week, from 25 to 12.5 bitcoins. The event, commonly referred to as “the halving” (or...

The post How Bitcoin's Second Halving Came and Went, and Not Much Happened appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin price looked to be advancing only to bump against the resistance ceiling. How to trade in the coming days (or weeks) is dependent on how the market negotiates $680. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. Not a member? Join now. Bitcoin Price Analysis Time of […]

The post Bitcoin Price Bumps The $680 Ceiling appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence "Payments Briefing" subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here.

Mastercard will pay UK grocery chain Sainsbury’s £68.5 million ($90.5 million) in damages following a lawsuit over interchange fees, according to the Financial Times.

In the case, Sainsbury’s asserted that Mastercard’s default interchange fees, which are charged on a per transaction basis, were too high. For context, the case is one of several following a 2014 European Commission hearing that found that Mastercard’s high interchange fees had broken competition laws.

The ruling affirms that card network fees can have adverse impacts on merchants. The court argued that merchants are all but required to accept cards from all issuers, according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s especially true with a network as large as Mastercard, which counted 2.3 billion cardholders worldwide in Q1 2016. 

But that “requirement” gives card networks the power to freely assess interchange rates when left unchecked. And those high rates could, in the worst case, push merchants to shift some of that burden to consumers in the form of higher prices or surcharges, which could limit business. As a result, the judge assessed Mastercard with damages worth the difference between the cost of the fees it charged and a lower fee structure. 

The ruling could set a precedent for future interchange litigation.

• This is the first major victory in a competition damages claim in the UK, according to the Financial Times. That could be critical for other cases moving forward, especially because a £19 billion ($25 billion) class action lawsuit related to high interchange fees that impacted UK prices is on the horizon.
• And it could push card networks to re-evaluate their policies as similar lawsuits emerge globally. In the US, major retailers including Walmart, Home Depot, and Kroger have sued card networks like Visa and Mastercard over high interchange fees. This newfound resistance might push fees, which are already regulated in many countries, lower or cause card networks to act more leniently when determining fee structure. 

This ruling could have a lasting effect on the overall payments ecosystem, which is continually evolving thanks to a slew of digital innovations.

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 »

All hail! The president of Liberland, an anarchist country declared between Croatia and Serbia, has had a baby. The country previously declared it would use digital currency, specifically bitcoin,  as its national currency. “The objective of the founders of the new state is to build a country where honest people can prosper without being oppressed […]

The post The President of Pro-Bitcoin Liberland Has a FirstBorn appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Indian authorities are investigating two syndicates selling drugs over the darknet using bitcoin. R.R. Bhatnagar, the director general of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), said that for the first time, the bureau has detected drug dealers using bitcoin and the darknet operating illegal drug trafficking in India. The NCB investigations have indicated that some of […]

The post Indian Authorities Investigate Darknet and Bitcoin Roles in Drug Trafficking appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Research suggests that while the U.K. may be behind the U.S. with the number of blockchain startups, it leads the way in diversity compared to any other country. The world’s first blockchain startup tracker was introduced by Outlier Ventures in May of this year. Its aim was to provide a comprehensive overview of the various […]

The post Research: US Blockchain Industry Big on Bitcoin, UK Most Diverse appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In a newly released report, the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) has analyzed certain websites or ‘business models’ that infringe on intellectual property rights, some of which that relies on bitcoin and TOR. The EUIPO, the authority that manages the EU trade mark and works alongside the IP offices of other EU member commissioned a […]

The post EU IP Office: Pirates Are Accepting Bitcoin to Hide Criminal Proceeds appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Press Release: Apple has recently approved Freewallet as an AppStore participant. The most popular Ethereum wallet on Google Play developed by Freewallet is now available for iOS users together with a few more wallets from the Freewallet Family: Bitcoin Wallet, and Monero Wallet. This breaks the boundaries between cryptocurrencies and the majority of users, as […]

The post #1 Ethereum Wallet on Google Play is Now Available for iOS Users appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

iPayYou, a bitcoin wallet that allows users to send bitcoin to people who don’t have bitcoin accounts, has introduced Pay-by-Twitter, enabling users to send bitcoin directly to Twitter accounts. iPayYou becomes the first full-service wallet that enables peer-to-peer payments over the Twitter social media network. Users can send payments via email without the recipient having a […]

The post iPayYou Allows Users to Send Bitcoin via Twitter appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.