Coin News

Convicted Ponzi operator Trendon Shavers is now insinuating that the unidentified debtor cited in his defense against the SEC was Mark Karpeles.

Chainalysis has stated that ransomware arrests will soon take place targeting cyber criminals behind ransomware attacks. Rise of Ransomware Attacks Over the past six months, ransomware attacks have become an issue to government, business and healthcare organizations. In January, CCN reported that three banks and a pharmaceutical company in India had been targeted by a […]

The post FinTech Startup Says Law Enforcement Is Ramping Up Ransomware Arrests appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A 25-year-old British former computer science student has discovered a loophole in the popular Pokemon Go allowing him to catch Pokemon without leaving the comfort of his home.

The post British Whizz Kid Hacks Pokemon Go; Catches Monsters without Breaking a Sweat appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The coolest thing on earth no one knows about has finally turned into reality a long-held dream in the digital currency space –  the Facebook like button where you just click. MetaMask, a spoke of Consensys, has launched a Chrome plugin which on the surface looks too simple, even for my grandma. You click to […]

The post Magic Internet Money is Finally a Reality – Web3.0 is Here 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.

The average fee assessed to consumers for using an ATM not affiliated with their bank decreased slightly, according to the latest edition of the semi-annual MoneyRates Bank Fees Survey.

When consumers use an out-of-network ATM, they’re typically assessed two fees: one from the customer’s own bank, and one from the ATM operator. Both of those fees, which had previously been trending higher, declined slightly since the previous edition of the survey, published in March:

• The fee assessed by a customer’s own bank is now $1.60, down 13¢.
• And the average fee that banks or ATM operators charge non-customers dropped by 7¢, to $2.80 overall. 

Customers are using ATMs less frequently, particularly when they’re out-of-network.Millennials still like to use cash — a survey from BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, found that 44% of millennials would be unwilling to stop using cash, even if electronic payments could replace all cash transactions.

But when they use ATMs, just 33% use ATMs outside of their bank’s network, indicating that when this population does use cash, they’re unwilling to pay a premium for it. That could be leading to declines in non-bank ATM usage over time, which might be prompting banks and ATM operators to lower their fees in order to bring customers back.

A new court case could cause further declines going forward. The US Supreme Court recently announced plans to hear appeals from Visa, Mastercard, and major banks in a case accusing those parties of implementing ATM fee structures that prevent fee competition.

The plaintiffs in the suit believe that Visa, Mastercard, and major banks colluded to prevent ATM operators from passing on cost savings from non-Visa and Mastercard options to consumers in the form of lower fees, The Wall Street Journal. If the court decides against card networks, it’s possible there could be more fee variety or continued decline across the board.  

ATMs are just one piece of the broader payments ecosystem, which includes card networks, issuers, vendors, acquirers, processors, and more.

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.

Join the conversation about this story »

Ethereum Classic started off as what is perhaps best described as a protest movement, opposing a (perceived) bailout of Ethereum’s...

The post Ethereum Classic Community Navigates a Distinct Path to the Future appeared first on Bitcoin Magazine.

The state assemblyman behind efforts to regulate digital currency businesses in California is now hoping to revive his efforts.

A family of four have decided to test the limits of cryptocurrencies by dashing across America in their Bitcoin Bus, spending only cryptocurrency along the way. John Bush, Catherine Bleish, their two children, and their two dogs have endeavored to take on the challenge of traveling across the U.S. with the intention of educating and […]

The post The Blush Family’s Bitcoin Bus Tour: Dash Across America appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Lack of experts may dash Japan’s hopes of becoming a vibrant competitor in the blockchain technology sector at the world stage particularly for financial uses. Japan is the world’s second largest developed economy with an enviable record as one of the nations that have pioneered technological development. However, Japanese financial firms’ efforts to adopt blockchain technology […]

The post Japan May Be Left behind in Blockchain Race appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Digital currency lawyer Jacek Czarnecki argues recent regulatory proposals in the EU might benefit the blockchain industry despite criticisms.

A malware called Linux.Lady targets Redis servers that have been placed online without passwords and launches a cryptocurrency mining software, according to hackread.com. According to Dr. Web, a Russian software retailer, Linux.Lady uses Google’s Go programming language and targets Redis servers that lack passwords from systems administrators. Dr. Web claims the malware can collect information […]

The post Malware Turns Servers into Cryptocurrency Mining Engines appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Swiss capital has taken the stance of refusing to allow bitcoin payments, going against the creativities throughout the country. According to local news outlet, Finanz Und Wirtschaft, there are no plans to implement the digital currency into the city at present. The city council of Zurich believe that bitcoin won’t prevail and have refused […]

The post Zurich Rejects Initiatives in Switzerland by Refusing Bitcoin Payments appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Bitcoin Press Release: Lisk development team has introduced a new light-weight client that allows users to access their Lisk account on any device without synchronizing with the blockchain. August 18, 2016, Berlin, Germany – The decentralized blockchain application development platform Lisk has announced the launch of Lisk Nano. Lisk Nano is a lightweight, simple, and fully […]

The post Lisk Blockchain Applications Platform Announces the Launch of Lisk Nano appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

In light of the Bitfinex hack and other hacks, the bitcoin community faces the need to improve security and is considering various options, according to a Bloomberg article by Yuji Nakamura and Olga Kharif. The article suggests it may be time for some type of regulation. The Bitfinex attack demonstrates the fact that the industry […]

The post Bitfinex’s Lesson: Has the Time for Regulation Arrived? appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

 Rakuten has confirmed that it has acquired the assets of Bitnet, a bitcoin wallet startup it invested in, which will be used to create a ‘bitcoin lab’ for the Japanese retail giant. Read More

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

U.K.-based money transfer startup TransferWise, which focuses on providing consumers with more affordable remittance options, launched TransferWise for Business, likely as a part of a move to expand into B2B offerings.

The new platform will apply TransferWise’s low-fee consumer approach to international transfers in order to simplify the process for businesses, according to Finextra. The platform has reportedly already transferred £1 billion ($1.3 billion) in its development and testing stages.

The new platform could help bolster TransferWise’s business.

• Cross-border business transactions are complicated. Nearly half of small businesses send or receive international transfers at least twice a year, according to Finextra. But those transfers tend to be paper-heavy, and often involve complicated processes like letters of credit to verify the safety of transactions. And they’re often expensive. Twenty percent remain unaware of how banks charge for those transfers, which could mean that they’re paying high fees. TransferWise’s digital platform and low-fee structure could ease some of those pain points and provide the firm with new clients.
• It will also help TransferWise continue to compete with legacy firms. Western Union recently launched WU EDGE, a cross-border platform for small businesses that now supports 13 markets and 51 currencies. TransferWise’s similar product keeps it a formidable competitor to Western Union as digital-first firms disrupt the remittance space. 

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.

Join the conversation about this story »