Coin News

Bitcoin prices neared $630 on 8th September, rising more than 2% as a short squeeze propelled gains.

The Deputy Chairman of Russia’s central bank has poured cold water on the frenzied buzz surrounding blockchain, opining that the innovation is still years away from being adopted by the banking industry. Speaking at a banking conference that focused on Russian banks in the 21st century, today, Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Russia […]

The post Instant Blockchain Disruption a “Myth”, Says Russian Central Bank Official appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The FBI has changed its stance on ransomware extortionists saying people targeted should refuse to pay the bitcoin ransom despite a previous statement from the FBI encouraging victims to pay a ransom. At a recent Federal Trade Commission’s Fall Technology Series, supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Cyber Division, Will Bales, said that businesses or […]

The post FBI Now Says Don’t Pay Bitcoin to Ransomware Extortionists appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Can 5,000 square feet transform a bank? 

BNP Paribas clearly hopes so. It opened what it's calling an "innovation zone" Wednesday on the 30th floor of its midtown Manhattan US headquarters.

Banking is changing fast, with startups encroaching on the big companies' turf, and new technologies like blockchain, which is decentralized, threatening to take some control away from big banks. 

That's why competitors are acquiring startups and launching accelerators. BNP Paribas is hoping this lab will help it stay relevant. 

"The goal here is to foster all kinds of innovation and to reshape the entire work experience," said Bruno d'Illiers, COO of BNP Paribas North America. He sees it as a place where employees from different divisions can meet and brainstorm. 

"The lab is open to everybody," he said. 

BNP Paribas is a big player in international finance worldwide. However, its US presence is a growing, but relatively small part of its business. It has 188,000 employees worldwide, with 16,000 in North America. 

Its better-known competitors are racing to acquire or partner with hot fintech startups. JPMorgan teamed up with On Deck Capital, an online lender. UBS' wealth-management arm teamed up with SigFig, a so-called robo-advisor. Another automated investment company, FutureAdvisor, was acquired by BlackRock. 

And BNP has watched as other banks like Wells Fargo, Citi and UBS have established their own in-house fintech labs and innovation centers in recent years, complete with the kind of startup-style that's synonymous with Silicon Valley.

BNP's is no different. Its kitchen has free drinks and snacks. Its desks and chairs are made of recycled materials. It looks more Brooklyn than big bank.  

"I was inspired by how my own kids are working these days," said Cecile Vilaraseau-Remy, head of transformation and premises at BNP Paribas Americas.

There's a bright and airy feel. It's modern, if rather stark. 

The employees that do come up to the lab are likely to spend a lot of time thinking about blockchain, the technology behind Bitcoin. It's thought to be a more secure way to send and verify financial transactions, as it eliminates middlemen and ensures everyone involved has an indelible record of money coming and going. 

BNP Paribas is an investor in Digital Asset Holdings (DAH), the blockchain startup run by former JPMorgan CFO Blythe Masters. BNP's head of commodities and FX, Catherine Flax, sits on the board and is involved with the startup's efforts to implement blockchain technology to business processes. BNP is also one of forty banks that signed on to R3, the industry wide body trying to bring blockchain technology to finance.

To show it's serious, the launch of the innovation lab was combined with what it's calling "America’s Blockchain Bizhackathon," which brought together industry leaders in the blockchain community including the CMO of Digital Asset Holdings, the co-Founder of R3, fintech investors, and a blockchain strategist at Microsoft.

More than 200 employees attended the event and some will spend part of this week figuring out how BNP might benefit from implementing blockchain technology. Then the space will open up to all employees. 

Others using the space may work on big data, robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence, areas that have only recently started to infiltrate the staid world of banking. 

The company is also running what it calls an "Ideation Campaign," which asks employees to submit proposals to improve the bank's business processes. 

Innovation labs have a mixed track record. It can be hard to transplant a freewheeling creative spirit into companies with strong hierarchies and an entrenched culture, and some companies end up pulling the plug on the experiments. 

Its high ceilings and laptop-friendly wood tables may inspire BNP's employees come up with the ideas that help the company adapt and compete. Or it could just be a place for employees to get a free snack. 

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Kobe Bryant is starting a $100-million venture capital fund

Banco Santander’s securities investment affiliate has published a new report on bitcoin that predicts a significant impact on legacy finance.

Services giant Cognizant, a company known for its consulting and business process outsourcing services as well as being an information technology provider has joined the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Digital Commerce (CDC). The Chamber of Digital Commerce, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group and trade association that promotes digital currencies and blockchain technology while […]

The post Cognizant Joins D.C. Blockchain Advocacy Group appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Revelator, a cloud-based provider of sales and marketing intelligence for independent music businesses, has raised $2.5 million this week in its recent Series A funding round led by Exigent Capital. Revelator promises to efficiently track music rights and distribute royalties to rights owners. It issues copyright registrations as digital assets secured by multi-signature authentication and enforces multi-party terms […]

The post Blockchain Music Administrator Revelator Raises $2.5m appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Jeff Garzik, a core bitcoin developer who previously worked as Principal Software Engineer at RedHat before leaving to work full time on bitcoin development, stated in a public video that softforks are a rule by a “tiny, few technocratic elite.” The talk addressed the downsides of segwit “since only the upsides are promoted heavily,” by […]

The post Bitcoin Core Dev Jeff Garzik: Softforks Are a Rule by a Tiny Elite appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

New documents show bitcoin is being treated as a form of currency by Italy's tax top office.

Deloitte, one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms in the world has purchased and unveiled a bitcoin ATM in its building in Toronto. Deloitte now has a new bitcoin automatic teller machine (BTM) in its Toronto office. A tweet released by non-profit financial services organization The Social Wallet, revealed the first sighting of the Bitcoin […]

The post Accounting and Services Giant Deloitte Installs a Bitcoin ATM appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A U.K. food co-op is testing blockchain technology to verify that fish providers are not using slave labor, according to The Guardian. The seafood industry is notorious for human rights abuses and illegal fishing. Tesco, the U.K.’s largest supermarket, has stopped using a certain fish provider over the need to ensure it was using sustainable […]

The post Blockchain Technology to Help Fight Slavery in the Fishing Industry appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Viewers of Channel 4's "Made in Chelsea" will know 27-year-old Francis Boulle as a popular member of West London's rich and partying jet set.

But the reality TV star has spent the past three years mining for gold in Ghana – far away from SW3 – and has big plans for other projects, including a huge agricultural operation in the country.

Boulle sat down with Business Insider to discuss his extremely bullish view on the gold and silver market, the future of currencies and how his television profile has affected his ability to raise capital.

Below is a transcript of the interview, edited for clarity: 

Business Insider's Ben Moshinsky: Could you talk about your fascination with gold? What are you doing in that industry?

Francis Boulle: I really started to become interested in gold when I was at school studying for my economics A-level. I suppose it was then that I began to understand the place of gold in society, as a store of value and as this natural hedge against the government the sanctioned debasement of currencies – I was actually also studying the collapse of the Weimar republic at the time, so the inevitable consequences of governments trying to print their way out of debt was pretty very fresh in my mind.

I was actually also studying the collapse of the Weimar republic at the time, so the inevitable consequences of governments trying to print their way out of debt was pretty very fresh in my mind.

And I think when you learn more about the history of gold in international trade and its roots as this amazingly elegant solution to "the problem of the coincidence of needs" in the barter system you begin to understand how important gold really has been to mankind.

Gold is the original money, as it facilitated the indirect exchange of goods via this non-perishable, fungible, and homogeneous metal which doesn’t lose any value regardless of how many times you divide it.

All of these commodities were competing for the crown of being the most suitable thing to be considered money and gold was the clear winner.

After finishing my A-levels I went to Edinburgh University to study philosophy and economics in 2007, just as the sub-prime mortgage crisis hit and we saw the credit-based system collapse. This caused one of the biggest bull runs in gold and silver in my lifetime and I began to pay close attention.

I started to become a bit obsessed and began studying economic history in great depth and slowly got to grips with the mechanics and history of our banking and monetary systems. It was ultimately through this study that I began to truly understand the gravity of the systemic flaws in our current system and how vulnerable it really is to collapse – but I was also kind of amazed when I started to speak to people in the economic, political and financial spheres, how unaware most of them were about this.

BM: What is the most concerning thing about that?

FB: Just looking at fiat currencies for example and their significance in our current financial system. Fiat currencies - like the Dollar or Sterling - created by governments and central banks and are backed by absolutely nothing, they are ultimately worthless but are attributed a type of illusory value based on the blind faith in them by the masses and through government taxation.

But throughout history there have been thousands and thousands of these fiat currencies and all of them, every single one, has collapsed to absolute zero and became totally worthless. Not a single fiat currency has survived, and there is nothing special or uniquely different about the fiat currencies that we use today.

But what’s really poignant is that for the first time in history, the entire world is now using fiat currencies. When these types fiat currencies have collapsed throughout history, all the way back to collapse of the Roman Denarius which ultimately led to the fall of the Roman Empire, people have always reverted back to things that hold value, and ultimately they go back to using gold and silver as money.

I think there is a genuine probability that we will, in our lifetime, see some kind of global currency crisis on a truly unprecedented scale.

Unless governments start acknowledging this, which is doubtful, I think there is a genuine probability that we will, in our lifetime, see some kind of global currency crisis on a truly unprecedented scale. Unprecedented because the whole world is using fiat currency but also largely because we've never before seen this level of global public and private debt.

Before Nixon reneged on the Bretton Woods system in 1971, gold had acted as a kind of hand break on credit expansion in an economy, prohibiting wasteful governments from printing money to their hearts' content. Since the Nixon shock however, we have been living in a totally fiat world, and governments have been able to accumulate colossal levels of debt.

Just look at the USA for example, which I think is now the greatest debtor nation in the history of the world with a national debt of over $20 trillion dollars and the UK with national debt of £8.6 trillion at the end of last year. But also the private debt levels are arguably the biggest problem, if you look through history to major economic collapses, they are often preceded by a period of boom time that are often perceived to be some kind of economic miracle. But they are all characterised by soaring private debt levels relative to GDP, the Roaring Twenties for example or the Japanese Miracle in the 80s.

It’s almost like these soaring levels of private debt act as a drag on the economy tipping it in to crisis. I think the private debt to GDP ratio in the USA is around 150% now but it’s even higher in China at around 200%. When the US financial crisis hit in 2008 private debt to GDP ratio was at around 170%, so I think it’s very possible we will see a crisis in China in the near future.

But we are also in this situation where our banks are insolvent and are being bailed out by central banks, who are also insolvent, and then who is going to bail out the central banks? The Bank for International Settlements (BIS)? It can't really carry on like this – it has to come to a crunch point.

It’s a bit like a game of musical chairs, if you don’t protect yourself by holding some hard assets, you could end up sitting on the floor.

And once faith is lost again in fiat currencies, I think we will essentially see a major a transfer of value and purchasing power from those that are holding the collapsing currencies to those holding hard assets, be it gold or silver or other hard assets. It’s a bit like a game of musical chairs, if you don’t protect yourself by holding some hard assets, you could end up sitting on the floor.

But I think as much as something like this would cause significant global disorder, it should also be understood for the huge opportunity that it represents to those who educate and prepare themselves. If you have aligned yourself with it and your timing is right, you can absorb a lot of that value lost from the failing currencies and become very rich.

BM: But in that world, what's the point of being wealthy if the dollar becomes worthless?

FB: To be wealthy just means to own things of value, be it land, commodities, jewellery, antiques, classical art or indeed gold and silver. Currency is just a means of exchange. I’m not necessarily suggesting the dollar is suddenly going to become worthless next week. I think most likely things will come to a crunch point and the powers that be, the Bank for International Settlements for example, will meet in secret and we will all wake up one morning to gold having been repriced significantly higher, perhaps they will even begin to issue some type of new global reserve currency combining special drawing rights.

Maybe they will even involve gold somehow. It’s difficult to predict exactly how it will play out, but what I do think one can confidently predict is that in these types of scenarios gold and silver will positively benefit.

So I guess in light of all this and a number of other quite compelling reasons, I decided to align myself with what I saw as the significant upside potential in precious metals and sought to become an expert in the processes of gold exploration and extraction.

I went out to Ghana four years ago with the idea of packaging up some gold properties to begin to structure a West African gold play for an eventual IPO. I had options on three prospective ‘greenfield’ licences or licences with no geological work on them, put together a good team of advisors and exploration geologists and came back to London to do a bit of a road show presenting to various mining investors, but I found there was not much appetite at that time for these types of less-developed assets.

They were much more interested in production and more developed properties, so I ended up mothballing the exploration and focusing on extraction. We bought some excavators and built some processing plants and started large scale alluvial mining in Ghana.

So that’s what I have been doing for the past three years.

Obviously the gold price has taken a battering and this has led to me having to be very hands-on and having to run a very lean, efficient mining operation. Pretty much anyone can run a mining operation in a boom time, but when there's a downturn you really have to cut back and tighten the belts operationally and personally to survive.

The reality is that it has been a game of survival rather than victory for most miners these past few years and I very nearly lost my shirt several times.

The reality is that it has been a game of survival rather than victory for most miners these past few years and I very nearly lost my shirt several times. But I hope that, coming out of the tough downturn, having had to be extremely efficient and lean to survive, you can take those lessons forward when the price comes back and pass back that value to your shareholders.

In the long term, I’m obviously very bullish on gold and silver. I think there are some incredible opportunities in gold and silver going forward. If you look at the fundamentals, it’s a no brainer. But also looking at historic bull markets in gold and silver, from technical analytical perspective, these things go on for years and we're really just at the beginning. If you look at the 50 and 200 daily-moving-average (DMA) for example, which act as kind of supports in the bull market, we still haven’t broken below the 200 DMA and I think this is going to go on for years to come, I think the dips below the 50 DMA should be bought.

BM: Do you have an end price for gold?

FB: Well gold is currently priced in dollars. In theory if a dollar becomes worthless then continuing to price gold in dollars would be an exercise in futility, so I don’t think we will be pricing in dollars when that happens. I can’t give you an end price for gold in dollars, I think we need to think in terms of purchasing power. What will an ounce of gold buy you? What will be its real purchasing power? Who can say exactly but I think it has to be many multiples to its current purchasing power.

BM: In that scenario, there's still going to have to be something other than gold that's exchangeable as money...

FB: I think financial technology and innovation will present some viable solutions to these problems, be it bitcoin or some sort of blockchain ledger system involving gold perhaps.

BM: What other stuff are you looking at from a business angle?

FB: I've been focusing on gold but the recent downturn has led me to explore other sectors. One of the most exciting to me is the African agriculture sector. Africa has huge potential for agricultural development. It has the largest amount of unexploited arable land in the world, which is still incredibly cheap to acquire. I'm currently conducting a feasibility study for a 2,000 hectare agricultural project in Ghana, I’m very excited about how this is progressing.

I think in many cases especially with institutional investors, my media profile has been seen with some distaste.

I have also been working on some solar projects, in Ghana but also other parts of Africa. I think there is huge potential for African renewables particularly solar. So I suppose to speak in general terms I'm most focused on agriculture, gold and renewables.

I also think Bauxite has got some way to go up as well. There's shrinking supply and demand still seems to be quite buoyant from Chinese alumina producers. No-one really knows what's happening with oil. Eventually it will have to go up. I think we've had something like the lowest level of new discoveries in 70 years, something like a tenth of the average. So we will have a rally sooner or later but I think new opportunities in oil and gas will begin to reveal themselves in the next few years.

BM: What sort of investor appetite have you had for those projects?

FB: There is a huge amount of appetite from investors for agriculture in Africa but the feasibility studies and plans need to be bankable. But I think there is huge potential here and I am very excited about our project in particular. The potential for renewables in Africa is massive, but the current issue here is the integrity of the PPA’s (Power Purchase Agreements) and the ability of the off-takers/utility companies to pay you for the power produced.

There's a lot of money to be raised for good quality mining and gold properties. As we see gold continue to rally, we'll see more capital come into less developed assets and greenfield exploration, which has been nascent for some time now. But I think more likely in the short term we will see rollups or consolidation of distressed assets that the juniors have been unable to maintain in the downturn.

BM: How does your television profile help or hinder what you do in business?

FB: I think ultimately in business, maybe more particularly in mining, it doesn't really matter who you are as long as you deliver and create value for your shareholders. As long as you find that gold in the ground and you can perform, it's not going to be hard to find investors. But I think in many cases, especially with institutional investors, my media profile has been seen with some distaste. So I think the reality is this just makes it all the more important for me to prove myself and what I know.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Kobe Bryant is starting a $100-million venture capital fund

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

Russia had been in the process of drafting legislation to ban all bitcoin activities, including any operations using cryptocurrencies, since August 2014.  This was due to concerns regarding bitcoins' use in fraudulent transactions, and the Finance Ministry's intent to avoid undermining the central bank's role as Russia's sole currency issuer.

This week, however, Russia's deputy finance minister, Alexei Moiseev, announced that the Finance Ministry will not be imposing the legislation. Moiseev said that the Finance and Justice ministries want to consult experts more closely before making any final decisions. Had the bill gone through, anyone detected using bitcoin would have faced a jail term of up to seven years and significant fines. 

The decision suggests that the government now believes there may be beneficial uses for cryptocurrencies and associated technologies. We have already seen evidence of this — Russian banks including QIWI Group, Accenture, BINBANK, MDM Bank, Bank Otkritie, and Tinkoff Bank created a blockchain consortium to rival R3 in July. This consortium, unlike an earlier attempt, gained government support.

Blockchain technology, which is best known for powering Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, is gaining steam among finance firms because of its potential to streamline processes and increase efficiency. The technology could cut costs by up to $20 billion annually by 2022, according to Santander.

That's because blockchain, which operates as a distributed ledger, has the ability to allow multiple parties to transfer and store sensitive information in a space that’s secure, permanent, anonymous, and easily accessible. That could simplify paper-heavy, expensive, or logistically complicated financial systems, like remittances and cross-border transfer, shareholder management and ownership exchange, and securities trading, to name a few. And outside of finance, governments and the music industry are investigating the technology’s potential to simplify record-keeping.

As a result, venture capital firms and financial institutions alike are pouring investment into finding, developing, and testing blockchain use cases. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, have begun researching the technology in-house, or have helped fund startups with products rooted in blockchain. 

Jaime Toplin, research associate for BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on blockchain technology that explains how blockchain works, why it has the potential to provide a watershed moment for the financial industry, and the different ways it could be put into practice in the coming years.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• Spending on capital markets applications of blockchain is expected to grow at a 52% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) through 2019, according to Aite Group, to reach $400 million that year.
• Banks and major financial institutions are working both collaboratively and independently to develop blockchain tech. Over 50 major financial institutions are involved with collaborative blockchain startups, like R3 CEV or Chain. And many are investing in the technology on their own as well.
• Putting blockchain to use for real-world transactions is likely not that far off. If working groups' tests are successful, firms could be using it to transact real value as early as the end of this year and we could see widespread industry application within the next few years. 

In full, the report:

• Examines the funding increases that are pouring into blockchain
• Assesses why blockchain is becoming so popular and what factors are driving up increased research and development
• Explains in full how blockchain technology work and what assets make it valuable and vulnerable
• Identifies pain points in the financial industry and profiles how various firms are using blockchain to solve them
• Demonstrates the challenges to mainstream adoption and their potential solutions

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 blockchain technology.

Join the conversation about this story »

In your own virtual world, you’re running down a street, buying prostitutes, robbing people, killing cops. Through it all, you’ve got bitcoins at stake. This is the sort of game which could be forthcoming thanks to new technology like, Bitcoin, the digital currency designed in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto.  Grand Theft Auto, the open world […]

The post How Bitcoin Could Revolutionize Grand Theft Auto appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.