Coin News

Coinbase has expanded to Australia, bringing the total number of countries it supports to 33.

  Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has addressed the no-fork blockchain Ethereum Classic which follows the protocols and consensus based on the Ethereum platform prior to the recent hard fork. In a telling statement via a blog post today, Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin revealed that the foundation that continues to develop and support the Ethereum blockchain […]

The post Vitalik Buterin Weighs in on the Ethereum Classic Blockchain appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Analog Devices has struck a deal to acquire chipmaker Linear Technology, the companies announced Tuesday. 

The deal values Linear Technology at $14.8 billion, or $60 per share. The value of the combined enterprise will be $30 billion. 

Shares of Linear Technology were halted for trade up about 29% at $62 per share after the deal was broken by Bloomberg. Analog Devices shares were up about 4%. 

Stocks across the semiconductor space were broadly higher on Tuesday, with notable gainers including Maxim Integrated (+5%), NSP Semiconductor (+4%), Microsemi (+4%), and Semtech (+3%). 

Texas Instruments shares were also up more than 9%. On Monday after the market close Texas Instruments reported earnings that beat expectations. 

Last year, there was a frenzy of multi-billion dollar deals in the tech industry, including Intel's takeover of Altera, Avago's acquisition of Broadcom, and Dell's $67 billion takeover of EMC.  

What's driving these deals

What's behind many of these transactions are huge shifts in the way we capture and store data — be it cell phone data, e-commerce data, or any other computer data.

For years, computer data was stored on hard disk drives, which have a CD-like rotating disk. Western Digital, Seagate, and Toshiba all make these. But that technology is being displaced, and companies that pioneered it are watching sales struggle as less-bulky flash memory chips, like those used in phones, become the norm.  

One type of flash memory chip is called a NAND chip, and you can find it today in memory cards, USB drives, and "solid state" drives (which look a bit like disk drives on the outside but have no disk or other moving parts on the inside).

SanDisk makes these, so Western Digital went out and bought its way into the flash memory market by acquiring SanDisk.

Companies are looking to buy what they don't already build, and the changes mean big tech deals are going to keep coming.

Dell's megadeal has a similar rationale behind it. By acquiring EMC, a data storage company, Dell is taking a big step toward cutting its reliance on personal computers — not to mention moving into the smarter data storage market.

What about 'the cloud'?

You may have heard that "cloud computing" is disrupting traditional data storage.

Yes, the cloud — meaning a network of servers that provide data storage and processing hosted on the internet instead of on local servers or computers — is part of the story. Public cloud providers like Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure are also moving towards solid state technologies for their own facilities, and it all leads to tech company mergers.

As we reported last year, we may see more flash memory chip makers — like Micron, Hynix, or even Samsung or Intel — coming together with companies like Seagate. The shift is driven by the need to continue capturing, storing and analyzing a growing amount of data.

Seen in that light, this story is not just about old technology coming together with newer technology. It's about finding ways to continue providing cheap data services that we all use.

SEE ALSO: How your iMessages and Amazon purchases are driving the tech megadeal frenzy

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 9 phrases on your résumé that make hiring managers cringe

The weakening economy of Venezuela under the regime of President Nicolas Maduro is forecast by the International Monetary Fund to reach a...

The post Venezuela’s Inflation to Reach 1,600% in 2017, Spurring Demand for Bitcoin appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

Bitcoin price decline pulls deeper into the consolidation zone around $650. Below $640 there is a freefall zone to $600, yet a reversal at $640 cannot be ruled out. This analysis is provided by xbt.social with a 3-hour delay. Read the full analysis here. If you are new to trading or unfamiliar with the concepts […]

The post Bitcoin Price Analysis: Last Chance At $640 appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) announced the launch of BitcoinETI, an asset-backed Exchange Traded Instrument that is invested...

The post First European-Regulated Bitcoin Product Launched by the Gibraltar Stock Exchange appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The ruling is good news for the defendant, who was accused of money laundering via bitcoin

Bitcoin micropayments startup SatoshiPay is developing a new proof-of-concept with Visa Europe’s Collab innovation unit.

German media is suggesting that the gun used during the Munich terror attack was bought through the Darknet with Bitcoin. Germany is the latest European country hit by a wave of gun activity with the world still reeling in shock from the news of 18-year-old David Sonboly who killed nine people in the Olympia shopping […]

The post German Media Link Munich Shooting with Darknet and Inevitably, Bitcoin appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In just one month, ethereum has managed to code, deploy, implement and adopt a decision while fully upholding minority rights without one metaphorical shot being fired, showcasing the full power of public blockchains and first class blockchain governance.   In just one day, ethereum dispelled all myths and arguments against public blockchain’s inherent guarantee of […]

The post Ethereum Just Showcased the Full Power of Public Blockchains appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Trendon Shavers earned a lenient sentence through good faith efforts to right the wrongs he did while improperly managing the Bitcoin Savings & Trust, Bitcoin’s first federal securities case, according to his sentencing judge. That’s news the Bitcoin Community, which has long viewed Shavers as a no more than a fraudster, likely won’t heed. Bitcoin […]

The post While Shrem, Ulbricht Enjoy Cults of Personality, Shavers Abandoned by Bitcoin Community appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Here is what you need to know.

The Japanese yen is surging. The currency is stronger by 1.3% at 104.47 per dollar, a two-week high, as traders position themselves ahead of Friday's Bank of Japan policy meeting. "An imminent shift from fiscal tightening to loosening has reduced the pressure on the Bank of Japan to provide more stimulus, wrote Capital Economics' Japan Economist Marcel Thieliant. "However, the sharp appreciation of the exchange rate since the start of the year is threatening to derail the Bank’s efforts to lift price pressures, and we expect policymakers to step up the pace of asset purchases and probably also cut the interest rate on excess reserves at the upcoming meeting."

Credit conditions in China are the loosest since 2010. That's according to HSBC's latest China Monetary Conditions Indicator (MCI). The reading of 9.2 was the highest since the peak of China's credit boom, and helps explain the country's 6.7% growth rate recorded for the second quarter.

Morgan Stanley thinks oil is headed lower. In a note to clients, Morgan Stanley researchers, led by Adam Longson, wrote, "We see worrisome trends for supply, demand, refined products, the macro and positioning that may all coalesce in late summer. Hence, our bearish bias." The team thinks oversupply could push the energy component into the "mid-30s." Currently, West Texas Intermediate crude oil is trading down 1% at $42.70 per barrel.

AB InBev upped its bid for SAB Miller. AB InBev has raised its offer for SAB Miller to 45 pounds ($59.04) per share as a drop in the value of the pound following the Brexit vote threatened the deal. Reuters says the new offer values SAB at about 79 billion pounds ($104 billion). The previous offer came at a price tag of 70 billion pounds ($106 billion) due to the exchange rate when the deal was announced.

Deutsche Bank is facing a massive lawsuit. The investment bank is being sued by investors who bought $5.4 billion of preferred securities tied to the subprime mortgage market, Reuters reports. U.S. District Judge Deborah Batts ruled investors who purchased the securities in November 2007 and February 2008 are allowed to pursue claims.

Fiat Chrysler inflated its sales. An internal review found the automaker inflated its sales from mid-2015 by 5,000 to 6,000 vehicles, Automotive News reports, citing two sources at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. According to the report, the inflated numbers were at least partially due to pressure to keep its 75-month year-over-year monthly sales streak alive.

A Florida judge ruled bitcoin isn't money. Michell Espinoza was charged with money laundering and acting as an unauthorized money transmitter after he sold bitcoin to undercover cops. But Circuit Court Judge Teresa Pooler dismissed the charges, stating, "Bitcoin may have some attributes in common with what we commonly refer to as money, but differ in many important aspects," she wrote. "While bitcoin can be exchanged for items of value, they are not a commonly used means of exchange."

Stock markets around the world trade mixed. Overnight, China's Shanghai Composite (+1.1%) led as Japan's Nikkei (-1.4%) lagged. In Europe, Britain's FTSE (+0.3%) is out in front. S&P 500 futures are down 0.75 points at 2161.50.

Earnings reporting is heavy. 3M, Caterpillar, McDonald's, Starwood Hotels, Under Armour, United Technologies, and Verizon Communications are among the names reporting ahead of the opening bell while Apple, Buffalo Wild Wings, Panera Bread, Twitter, and United States Steel highlight the companies releasing their quarterly results after markets close.

US economic data picks up. S&P Case-Shiller Index will be released at 9 a.m. ET before Markit US Services PMI is announced at 9:45 a.m. ET. Consumer confidence and new home sales will both be released at 10 a.m. ET. The US 10-year yield is lower by two basis points at 1.55%.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: This all-black superyacht is the dream of billionaires around the world

Bitcoin isn't money, a Florida judge has declared.

Circuit Court Judge Teresa Pooler has dismissed a money laundering case brought against a website developer, ruling that "nothing in our frame of references allows us to accurately define or describe Bitcoin."

It's a judgment that has been cheered by advocates for the digital currency (or token, or property, or whatever you want to call it), and may set a precedent for how it is dealt with in other legal cases.

(We first saw the case over at The Miami Herald, and you can read the full ruling below.)

First, the facts. Michell Espinoza was charged with money laundering and acting as an unauthorised money transmitter after selling bitcoin to undercover cops who found him through a bitcoin-selling website, Local Bitcoins. Over a series of meetings, Espinoza sold the undercover agent $2,000-worth of bitcoin, which the agent said would be used to purchase stolen credit card numbers. Espinoza was then arrested after a bogus fourth sale was arranged for $30,000-worth.

But Judge Pooler, in an order signed on July 22, has thrown these charges out.

She argues that the modern regulatory and frameworks we have do not allow people to "accurately define or describe Bitcoin." The digital currency runs in an entirely decentralised fashion, with no central bank, and can be extremely volatile.

"Bitcoin may have some attributes in common with what we commonly refer to as money, but differ in many important aspects," she wrote. "While bitcoin can be exchanged for items of value, they are not a commonly used means of exchange. They are accepted by some but not all merchants or service providers. The value of Bitcoin fluctuates wildly and has been estimated to be eighteen times greater than the U.S. dollar. Their high volatility is explained by scholars as due to their insufficient liquidity, the uncertainty of future value, and the lack of a stabilization mechanism. With such volatility they have a limited ability to act as a store of value, another important attribute of money."

Many bitcoin advocates are deeply political, viewing the technology as part of a new economic order that will ultimately disrupt traditional finance. So, on the surface of it, it's weird that they would celebrate a ruling that says bitcoin isn't money.

But had Judge Pooler ruled the other way, it could have been disastrous for businesses who work with and around the technology. If it was money, and those buying and selling it were acting as money transmitters without licenses, it would make vast swathes of the community (theoretically) illegal overnight.

Instead, the judge says it makes more sense to describe Bitcoin as property — and as such, Espinoza's actions don't equate to money laundering.

For example: If Tom sells Harry a car for cash, and Harry has said he intends to swap the car for drugs, that doesn't necessarily mean Tom is breaking the law, the argument goes.

"This court is unwilling to punish a man for selling his property to another," wrote Judge Pooler, "when his actions fall under a statute that is so vaguely written that even legal professionals have difficulty finding a singular meaning."

During the case, the defense called Barry University economics professor Charles Evans as an expert witness. He also made the case that bitcoin isn't money: "Basically, it’s poker chips that people are willing to buy from you," he testified, according to The Miami Herald.

For his time, Prof. Evans was paid $3,000 — in bitcoin.

Here's the full ruling:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: IKEA built a smart kitchen of the future — and it's unlike anything we've ever seen

The oil industry is facing renewed headwinds, and prices are set to fall again in the second half of 2015, according to analysts at Morgan Stanley who say that they've had their "bearish bias" on the industry confirmed in recent weeks.

Oil prices have slipped in the last month and a half, with Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, dropping from more than $52 per barrel in early June to less than $45 now — a low not seen in more than two months.

On Tuesday, both benchmarks are falling once more, with US crude down 1% on the day so far.

These drops are set to continue, Morgan Stanley researchers led by Adam Longson explain in a note.

"We see worrisome trends for supply, demand, refined products, the macro and positioning that may all coalesce in late summer. Hence, our bearish bias," the Morgan Stanley report states. "We see a floor around the mid-30s given potential OPEC chatter and investor views on the cycle."

While Morgan Stanley doesn't say exactly where it sees oil bottoming this year, it seems safe to assume that "mid-30s" suggests a price of around $35 per barrel. That's a level not seen since April, as the chart below illustrates:

Earlier in the year as prices began to rise, several major institutions turned bullish on oil, with Goldman Sachs — traditionally one of the most downbeat banks when it comes to oil — making the most notable volte face. At the time, in early May, Goldman cited a rebalancing of the supply and demand problem in the oil markets as the key reason for its change of heart.

One of the big drivers of this rebalancing was a series of huge, unconnected disruptions to production across the world in the past few months. 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.

However, since May, when Goldman switched its stance, many of the disruptions in the industry have started to wane. As a result, fears about imbalances have returned, pushing prices down. Morgan Stanley fears that this will continue for some time, with the economic shock of Brexit and other macroeconomic risks making things even worse.

Here is the key extract from the note (emphasis ours):

"Non-OPEC ex. US supply remains resilient, which was masked by elevated maintenance and disruptions earlier this year. Supply is rising as these issues fade, and OPEC has ramped up seasonally. Refined product demand for the most profitable products (transportation) have decelerated modestly, but this has been obscured in total product demand by strong demand for LPG/NGLs.

"Plus, refiners ran too hard relative to this product demand level, flooding the market with product (esp gasoline). As a result, crude oil demand from refineries is underperforming product demand by a wide margin. Our revised below-consensus GDP outlook post-Brexit, the growing number of macro risks and longer positioning in oil markets only add to downside risks in 2H16."

As a result of all of these risks, Morgan Stanley doesn't see a rebalancing in the markets until at least the second half of next year. Here is the bank again:

"At a minimum, oversupply should return by August, reinforcing a return to the $30-50 oversupply pricing regime, before returning to a balanced market in 2H17. Thus, we remain below the curve over the coming four quarters with a base case price average of $40 for 4Q16 and 1Q17."

And here is how that looks on the chart:

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: 50 Cent will pay $23.4 million to creditors over the next 5 years — here's how he made and lost millions

The European Commission – the executive arm of the European Union – has proposed a directive aimed preventing the use the financial system for terrorist financing which includes a central database for bitcoin and virtual currency users’ identities and wallet addresses accessible to government financial intelligence units (FIUs).   The proposal seeks to require member states […]

The post EU Commission Proposes Central Database Record of Bitcoin Users appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

By Jonathan Weber and Jeffrey Dastin

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - When senior Yahoo executives gathered at a San Jose hotel for a management retreat in the spring of 2006, there was no outward sign of a company in crisis.

The internet pioneer, not yet a teenager, had just finished the prior year with $1.9 billion in profits on $5.3 billion in revenue. The tough days of the dot-com bust were a distant memory, and Yahoo Inc , flush with lucrative advertising deals from the world's biggest brands, was enjoying its run as one of the top dogs in the world's hottest industry.

But for one retreat exercise, everyone was asked to say what word came to mind when a company name was mentioned. They went through the list: eBay: auctions. Google: search. Intel: microprocessors. Microsoft: Windows.

Then they were asked to write down their answer for Yahoo.

"It was all over the map," recalled Brad Garlinghouse, then a Yahoo senior vice president and now COO of payment settlement start-up Ripple Labs. "Some people said mail. Some people said news. Some people said search."

While some executives said this was a useful management exercise that took place multiple times over the years, it proved an ominous portent of the business troubles to come.

Indeed, the demise of Yahoo, which culminated in an agreement this week to sell the company's core assets to Verizon Communications Inc , has been more than a decade in the making. Many of the more than two dozen former Yahoo managers interviewed by Reuters over the past two weeks -- who now occupy executives suites elsewhere in Silicon Valley -- agree that the company's downfall can be traced to choices made by both the executive leadership and the board of directors during the company's heyday in the mid-2000s.

Some of the missed opportunities are obvious: a failed bid to buy Facebook Inc for $1 billion in 2006. A 2002 dalliance with Google similarly came to naught. A chance to acquire YouTube came and went. Skype was snapped up by eBay Inc . And Microsoft Corp's nearly $45 billion takeover bid for all of Yahoo in 2008 was blocked by Yahoo's leadership.

Just as damaging as the missed deals, though, was a company culture that ultimately became too bureaucratic and too focused on traditional brand advertising to prosper in a fast-moving tech business, according to some of the former Yahoo managers Reuters spoke with.

"It became very difficult to get both investment and alignment" around new product initiatives, said Greg Cohn, a former senior product director at Yahoo and now CEO of the mobile phone app company Burner. "If you built a new product and the home page didn't want to feature it, you were hosed."

Worst of all, once Alphabet Inc's Google had displaced it as peoples' first stop for finding something on the internet, Yahoo was never able to decide on exactly what it wanted to be.

Yahoo today has more than 1 billion users and has focused on mobile under chief executive Marissa Mayer, who told Reuters in an interview Monday that she still saw a "path to growth" for Yahoo, which the Verizon merger accelerated.

Yahoo will continue to operate as a holding company for its large stakes in Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, which are worth far more than the core business.

Yahoo declined to comment for this story.

THE PURPLE CARPET

The appointment of Terry Semel, who had completed a highly successful run as chairman of the Warner Bros. movie studio, as CEO in 2001 seemed to answer a question that bedeviled many early internet firms: was it a tech company, or a media company?

Semel could not be reached for comment on his Yahoo tenure. But the focus on media proved lucrative in the short term as big advertisers, desperate to get on board with the next big thing, flocked to one of the largest properties on the web. Revenue soared from $717 million in 2001 to nearly $7 billion by 2007.

Indeed, Semel and the media executives he brought in by all accounts turned a scrappy young internet startup into a highly profitable company that brought old-line advertising to a new medium.

"From our perspective, we were a media company," said Dan Rosensweig, Yahoo's COO from 2002 to 2007 and now CEO of online education company Chegg Inc . "It didn’t feel at the time that there was a strong likelihood we would beat Google at search... Nobody could argue that we weren’t the largest front page on the internet."

Yahoo placed its signature purple everywhere then -- on cookies and cupcakes, on the carpets, and even in the martinis.

"When Coca Cola came to campus, we rolled out the purple carpet," recalled Wenda Harris Millard, Yahoo's chief sales officer from 2001 to 2007 and now president and COO of business development firm MediaLink.

Millard said all the major advertisers, from Coke to General Motors, wanted to come to Yahoo's campus at least once a year.

"We were just doing gazillions of dollars with them," said Millard.

THE MONEY TRAP

But the excitement, and the revenue, associated with the big advertising deals ten years ago turned out to be a trap in many ways. Like its brethren in the print media business, who continued to rely on selling ad pages long after it was clear that it was a dying business, Yahoo couldn't help but to focus on where the big money was, even though that wasn't where the future was.

"The worst consequence of trying to be a media company was that they didn't take programming seriously enough," wrote Paul Graham, co-founder of the Y-Combinator tech incubator who sold a startup to Yahoo, in a 2010 blog post about the company's woes. "Microsoft (back in the day), Google, and Facebook have all had hacker-centric cultures. But Yahoo treated programming as a commodity."

The downside of the media orientation became more clear as the 2000s wore on. In 2003, Yahoo acquired Overture, the company that essentially invented the ad-search technology that made Google rich. But Yahoo never succeeded in creating a strong competitor to Google's AdWords and AdSense systems.

A subsequent, hugely expensive effort to rebuild its search and advertising technology, dubbed Panama, similarly bore little fruit.

Meanwhile, market-leading products like Yahoo Mail, and early social media efforts like Yahoo Groups, were neglected as managers wrestled over which products would get priority on the hugely valuable Yahoo home page, according to three former executives. Promising acquisitions, including photo-sharing site Flickr and social bookmarking service Delicious, withered on the vine.

Former staffers say they were consumed with endless internal meetings and shifting priorities. Former senior product director Cohn recalls how efforts to make Yahoo an open platform -- with nifty third-party applications around specific content areas such as travel -- foundered in the face of opposition from managers in charge of Yahoo's in-house products.

Too often, the end result was money spread too thinly across too many marginal initiatives, as Garlinghouse famously pointed out in a leaked internal document known as the Peanut Butter Manifesto.

TURMOIL AT THE TOP

By 2007, it was becoming clear that Yahoo was losing ground fast on the product side as Google solidified its hold on search. New players like Facebook and Netflix Inc continued to arrive and steal Yahoo's thunder. Semel left that year in favor of co-founder Jerry Yang.

Whatever plans Yang may have had were quickly disrupted by the unsolicited Microsoft takeover bid in early 2008. The offer split the management team, Garlinghouse and others say, and those divisions persisted even after Microsoft's offer was beaten back.

Yang, who championed the resistance to Microsoft, stepped down again in 2008. Three other CEOs followed before Mayer was appointed in 2014.

The leadership turmoil "made for a difficult existence for a board, a management team, and a general employee population to get committed to the same goal," said Rosensweig.

Yang did not respond to requests for comment.

By the time Mayer arrived, Yahoo was already seen in Silicon Valley as a company from another era. It had lots of cash but few strategic advantages as it fought far larger competitors. Many analysts and shareholder say Mayer exacerbated the troubles with acquisitions and key hires that proved misguided.

Mayer put a brave face on the deal Monday, saying the scale that will result from the Verizon combination will enable it to continue its efforts to catch up in mobile, social and advertising technology. But the history of the tech business, where companies rarely dominate from one generation to the next, suggests that any such revival is a tall order.

(Reporting by Jonathan Weber and Jeffrey Dastin; editing by Edward Tobin)

Join the conversation about this story »

 Ever since it moved into the mainstream Bitcoin has had a bit of an identity crisis. Mainly because no one is really sure whether it should be considered money or property. The IRS says it’s property for tax purposes, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission says it’s a commodity, and most Bitcoin advocates like to say it’s the world’s most advanced currency.… Read More

The nuclear disaster at Fukushima is far from over. Even though five years have passed since an earthquake and tsunami caused a catastrophic nuclear melt-down, nothing has been decided yet on how to extract the melted nuclear fuel or how to decommission the crippled Fukushima Daiichi (No 1) and Daini (No 2) nuclear power plants.

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

PayPal processed $86.2 billion in total payment volume (TPV) in Q2 2016, marking an increase of 29% year-over-year (YoY).

That’s a new record for the firm, which is adding services and building new partnerships in order to deepen customer engagement.

• The firm is adding customers. PayPal now counts 188 million customer accounts, up from 184 million last quarter. And those customers made 1.4 billion transactions in the quarter, marking 25% YoY transaction growth and a new high for the company.
• Those customers are getting more engaged. The average account now makes 29 transactions per quarter, up from 26 a year ago.  That points to PayPal’s ability to not just capture new customers, but find ways to engage both old and new clients.
• That’s particularly true in the mobile space. PayPal processed $24 billion in mobile TPV, marking 28% of the firm's total volume in the quarter and a sequential increase of two percentage points. That’s a critical advance in the fastest growing area in the payments space.

PayPal believes that growth is a result of robust offerings that cater to consumer needs and match current trends in the payments space. The firm has a wide variety of consumer offerings, including several peer-to-peer (P2P) payment offerings, a buy button, and a remittance platform.

Even more, all of these services are mobile-friendly, and many are emphasized in the firm’s new mobile app. PayPal is giving users flexible options skewed towards mobile, which is a high-growth area. That's causing increased engagement, which in turn translates to transaction and revenue growth.

PayPal has been a staple of the payments ecosystem for years, and that does not appear to be changing anytime soon.

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 »

The first ever money-laundering case involving Bitcoin was dismissed today when a Miami judge ruled that Bitcoin is not money. In her order, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Teresa Mary Pooler wrote,

Read more...