Coin News

  Bitcoin mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain has launched a new mining pool, it’s second after Antpool, as a part of its block explorer BTC.com’s offering. The new mining pool is open-source will not charge any fees until 2017. Bitmain has, through its Bitcoin block explorer BTC.com, launched a new mining pool that will be open-sourced […]

The post Bitcoin Mining Giant Bitmain Launches Second Pool appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

A new report on vulnerabilities in the US power grid sheds stark light on our ability to deal with certain kinds of threats. A coronal mass ejection of an equivalent magnitude to the one that hit the Earth in 1859 would cripple our infrastructure today, with some areas losing power for up to two years

The deputy secretary of the SEC has pushed back the date to approve SolidX's request to list a bitcoin ETF on the New York Stock Exchange.

Through bitcoin technology, a new platform for secure financial transactions is born.

Open source. From Digital Asset to Bitmain, the two-word phrase is the blockchain rage.

Coders gathered this weekend at Thomson Reuters headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf for a two day HackETHon where numerous teams formed to code on the spot ideas, build a basic prototype and compete for the winning spot. For the first time in the digital currency space, one of the giant multinationals, Thomson Reuters, presented a […]

The post Blockchain Based Sports Game Wins Thomson Reuters HackETHon appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

This is a sponsored story. With Bitcoin establishing its presence in the online gaming market, Tonybet.com started accepting deposits in the digital currency. An all-around online gaming site has announced it has partnered up with the SpectroCoin e-wallet to become one of the first recognised and well-established gaming sites to accept Bitcoin. The site will allow its players […]

The post TONYBET LEADS THE GAMING MARKET BY ACCEPTING BITCOIN appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

The Roskomnador, Russia’s federal administrator of telecommunications and the internet has blocked access to prominent peer-to-peer bitcoin exchange platform LocalBitcoins. In a move that won’t come as a surprise to the cryptocurrency community, Russia’s telecom regulator has blocked access to popular over-the-counter and P2P bitcoin exchange platform LocalBitcoins. Roskomnadzor (Federal Service for Supervision in the […]

The post Russia Blocks Access to Bitcoin P2P Exchange LocalBitcoins appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

How can a voting platform that touts transparency also be secure? That’s the question posed by Jackie Burns Koven, a Research Assistant of Technology and Public Policy at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs in her published piece by Forbes.  It looked into how the solution to safeguard against vote rigging could be through the adoption of blockchain technology […]

The post Putting Blockchain to Test for Elections appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

Since the Bitfinex hack, bitcoin capital markets have shown resilience and pricing risk is more realistic, according to Gavin Smith, CEO of trading and financial services firm First Global Credit, who offered a positive assessment of the post-Bitfinex environment at the recent Capital Markets Blockchain Conference in London, reported Finance Magnates. Smith gave a summary on […]

The post Trading Firm CEO: Bitcoin Has Emerged Stronger From Bitfinex Hack appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

With Circle for iMessage, which is available Tuesday along with Apple's iOS 10, you can send, via text, dollars, euros, British pounds or Bitcoin to anyone anywhere in the world.

Bitcoin and mobile messaging have emerged as tools in addressing the global remittance market to lower the cost of transferring funds across national borders. This past spring, KakaoTalk, based in Seoul, South Korea, a chat app, purchased a 40% stake in Satoshi Citadel Industries (SCI), a Manila, Philippines bitcoin startup as reported by Quartz. KakaoTalk […]

The post Bitcoin & Mobile Messaging Startups Partner to Tap $500 Billion Remittance Market appeared first on CCN: Financial Bitcoin & Cryptocurrency News.

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Employees in New York that receive their salary on reloadable prepaid cards will gain new consumer protections next year, according to The New York Times.

The new guidelines prohibit a variety of card-related fees, including monthly maintenance, inactivity, and balance checking, and mandate that consumers can make unlimited, free withdrawals at at least one ATM within “reasonable travel distance” from home or work.  

The new guidelines could be beneficial as prepaid becomes more popular and fee structures spiral.

• BI Intelligence forecasts that prepaid volume hit $317 billion last year, up 44% from 2012, and will continue to grow. And last year, around $12 billion of wages flowed through prepaid cards. But as they become more popular, prepaid card companies are piling on the fees: In 2013, 68% of prepaid card users paid some sort of fee.
• They could also help prepaid card usage rise. Fees might deter consumers from using their cards regularly. But the “reasonable distance” clause and elimination of many fees might lower some of the barriers to frequent usage and push customers to be more engaged with their cards, which in turn could increase usage and contribute to volume growth, particularly as more consumers begin receiving wages on prepaid cards.

And they could serve as a preview of sorts for national regulations. The CFPB is finalizing regulations for prepaid cards nationwide. New York’s regulations, which are considered to be some of the strongest, according to The New York Times, could serve as a guideline for what firms might expect when these regulations are issued.

Prepaid cards are one small portion of the larger payments ecosystem, which includes card issuers, merchants, processors, gateways, and more.

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.

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