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All (full) Bitcoin nodes verify all transactions on the network. This allows the system to be entirely trustless and decentralized, but also...

The post Mimblewimble: How a Stripped-Down Version of Bitcoin Could Improve Privacy, Fungibility and Scalability All at Once appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The rise of ransomware attacks is giving banks a cause for concern as they now have to buy and keep cryptocurrency in the event it is needed to pay criminals when their files are held to ransom. In an interview with Business Insider, Malwarebytes CEO, Marcin Kleczynski, said the situation has become so aggressive to the […]

The post Banks Keep Digital Currency over Ransomware Concern appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Scalability is one of the main challenges faced by distributed ledger technology. It is widely felt that in order to challenge traditional...

The post Lightning Fast Raiden Network Coming to Ethereum Blockchains appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

This small, but mighty country is demonstrating that good things come in small packages, illustrating its potential as one of the top FinTech countries in the world. The Netherlands has a population of around 17 million people; Germany has a population of nearly 81 million; France has a population of over 66 million people; and […]

The post It May Be Small, but The Netherlands Is Proving It’s a Strong Contender in FinTech appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The European Banking Association is calling for greater regulatory oversight for bitcoin exchanges and custodial wallets.

TradeZero, an online securities brokerage that offers free stock trading software, has launched what it claims is the first “dark pool” exchange for bitcoin to allow institutional traders to execute large bitcoin trades outside of the bitcoin exchanges, according to Reuters. Off-exchange trading can represent 40 percent of all U.S. stock trades. The Bahamas-based company […]

The post Online Securities Brokerage Offers ‘Dark Pool’ Exchange for Large Bitcoin Trades appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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Fintech funding grew 197% year-over-year (YoY) in the region to reach $41.5 million in Q2 2016, according to Tech in Asia.

And while that pales in comparison to the $5.75 billion raised in the rest of Asia, one country is raking in considerable capital — Singapore alone accounted for over three quarters of the region's funding, half of the deals, and three of the top five deals by value. Here is a breakdown of the biggest deals in the second quarter: 

• Quoine (Singapore): The Bitcoin services company received a $20 million Series A round. Quoine offers a number of services including margin trading, interest-earning Bitcoin accounts, and Bitcoin-to-fiat exchanges. 
• Tagit (Singapore): Tagit is a platform provider that enables banks to build and scale digital applications. The company received $9 million in a stage that was not disclosed. 
• Jirnexu (Malaysia): The firm received a $3 million Series A round. It provides mobile-first customer acquisition and lifecycle management solutions to financial services providers. 
• Canopy (Singapore): Canopy is an account aggregator that helps customers visualize their portfolios across assets. The company received $2.4 million in an undisclosed round. 
• Moka (Indonesia): The firm received $1.9 million in a Series A round. It provides point-of-sale solutions for small- and medium-sized businesses. 

It's no surprise that Singapore was the top Southeast Asian country for fintech funding in the second quarter. In addition to being the wealthiest country per capita in the region, Singapore is taking steps to become a regional and global fintech leader. For example, the Monetary Authority of Singapore is lowering the compliance burden for fintech startups, and it's forming fintech bridges with other countries to encourage exports and imports of these new technologies.  

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.

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According to law experts in South Africa, most banks are scared of blockchain for its power to disrupt their sector. A Senior Associate at Norton Rose Fulbright in Johannesburg, Nerushka Bowan, said the adoption of blockchain among banks has the potential to disrupt the global banking industry. Using the blockchain technology and its digital distributed ledger to confirm […]

The post Law Experts: Why Banks Are Scared of Blockchain appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The past couple months have been quite the roller coaster in the world of public blockchains. $125 million has been stolen and the communities of Bitcoin and Ethereum have been scrambling to pick up the pieces.

Russian authorities are reportedly planning to abandon efforts to institute criminal penalties for bitcoin users.

An Australian company aims to change the way energy trading is done in the country by undertaking trials that will determine how individuals buy, sell or exchange excess solar electricity through its blockchain-based software instead of on the grid. Later this month, Power Ledger will start the trials which will take place over eight weeks […]

The post Perth Startup Set to Begin Trials of P2P Energy Trading on the Blockchain appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: vDice is the leading platform for Ethereum blockchain gambling games. They launched their flagship game last month. Already they have built a reputation for making Ethereum blockchain gambling accessible and user-friendly. Committed to that goal, they are announcing a series of new features. These features support investing and game play from the leading […]

The post vDice Adds Support for Ethereum Light Wallets appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

France has received a new bitcoin ATM from the ATM Bitcoin Exchange as it starts its international expansion. The latest bitcoin installation in Montpellier brings the number to five. Group BTC France, subsidiary of the ATM Bitcoin Exchange has installed the new machine at UNPI 34 Chambre des Propriétaires et Copropriétaires 23 Boulevard du Jeu […]

The post ATM Bitcoin Exchange Expands Internationally in France appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Edward Snowden has left a cryptic tweet sparking concern among the masses that his safety is in question.

The post Mystery Circulates Edward Snowden after Cryptic Tweet appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A whitepaper has unveiled that design flaws could allow hackers to take control of connected vehicles.

The post Whitepaper: Cybersecurity Risk For Connected Cars appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has concluded that blockchain technology "will fundamentally alter the way financial institutions do business around the world" after a year-long study of the emerging technology.

WEF's "Future of Financial Infrastructure" report, published on Friday, said distributed ledger technology, more commonly known as blockchain, "has great potential to drive simplicity and efficiency" in financial services and "will redraw processes and call into question orthodoxies that are foundational to today’s business models."

The influential non-profit believes blockchain will one day be as ingrained in financial services as past innovations like mainframes, messaging services, and electronic trading have become.

Giancarlo Bruno, Head of Financial Services Industries at WEF, says in an email announcing the report's publication:

"Rather than to stay at the margins of the finance industry blockchain will become the beating heart of it. It will help build innovative solutions across the industry, becoming ever more integrated into the structure of financial services, as mainframes, messaging services, and electronic trading did before it."

This is not a pie-in-the-sky prediction. WEF and collaborator Deloitte took 12 months to put the report together and talked to almost all of the world's top investment banks, central banks around the world, and startups.

The research included input from Barclays, BlackRock, Lloyds, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Zurich Insurance, MasterCard, Visa, JPMorgan, Coinbase, Circle, the Bank of England, the Financial Conduct Authority, the European Central Bank, and the US Federal Reserve, among others.

From bitcoin to banking

Blockchain is a kind of database protocol first developed to underpin digital currency bitcoin. Instead of one central database of who owns what, blockchain allows for a network of identical, linked databases that talk to each other and are updated simultaneously.

Every time someone wants to make a change or add something onto the blockchain (the shared database), the majority of members of the network must sign off on it. This cuts out the need for middle men in transactions, because the fact that everyone signs off means trust is built into the system.

By cutting out middle men, cost is reduced. The process of the group signing off on transactions should also theoretically reduce error.

Bitcoin's original blockchain is used to record bitcoin transactions — but the tech could theoretically be used to record just about anything that involves transactions. Applications are being developed for everything from share records to art and diamonds.

WEF says applications of the technology "will differ by use case, each leveraging the technology in different ways for a diverse range of benefits." Goldman Sachs has already identified 5 potential real-world use cases for the technology.

'Not a panacea'

While WEF is bullish on the potential of blockchain, the WEF report adds that blockchain is "not a panacea" and "should be viewed as one of many technologies that will form the foundation of next-generation financial services infrastructure."

Bob Contri, Global Financial Services Industry leader at Deloitte Global, which worked on the report, says in an emailed statement:

"Before full adoption is possible, there are factors that need to be addressed, including an uncertain regulatory environment, lack of standardization efforts, and the need for a formal legal framework."

Credit Suisse recently highlighted what it sees as 8 key challenges that blockchain must overcome before it can break into mainstream financial services.

The WEF report adds: "The most impactful DLT [distributed ledger technology] applications will require deep collaboration between incumbents, innovators and regulators, adding complexity and delaying implementation."

$1.4 billion in 3 years

Banks and financial institutions have been going crazy for blockchain technology over the last year and a half. Institutions are spending thousands on proof of concepts using the technology, issuing countless white papers, and joining industry-wide bodies to figure out how to use the protocol.

WEF says 80% of banks are predicted to start blockchain projects by 2017 and $1.4 billion has been invested into the technology over the past three years. 90 central banks are looking at the technology.

WEF identifies six "key value drivers", which are basically reasons why everyone is going so gaga for it. They are (remember DLT is distributed ledger technology, just another way of talking about blockchain):

The report also sets out some examples of what these benefits might look like in practice for finance firms:

Join the conversation about this story »

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Matt Levine, a former investment banker and mergers and acquisitions lawyer, sees the Bitfinex “bail-in” as an early step in bitcoin’s attempt to address unexpected financial fallouts. Writing in his “Money Stuff” column for Bloomberg, he noted there will be more such crises to come, and he is hopeful bitcoin/blockchain will be able to come […]

The post Bitfinex ‘Bail-In’ – New Financial System Offers Laboratory For Handling Unexpected Losses appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Fintech companies have now been provided with a great opportunity by the growing preference of millennials to accomplish tasks through digital applications. CEO of FIS, Anthony Jabbour, says the digitally native ways of millennials have given more insight into their needs and wants than any previous generation. FIS, the world’s largest global provider, dedicated to banking and […]

The post How Fintech Is Dragging Banks to Blockchain and AI appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

RSCoin, a cryptocurrency controlled by the Bank of England for the purpose of strengthening the country’s economy and global trade, combines the benefits of distributed ledger technology with the control of traditional, centrally managed currencies, according to The Deal Room, a financial news website. RSCoin was developed by University College of London researchers at the […]

The post Bank Of England’s RSCoin: A Hybrid Digital Currency To Improve Global Trade appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.